AGRIC.  DEPT, 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


THIRD 
AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 


UNDER  AUSPICES  OF 


AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 
AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 


Price  $1.00  postpaid 


DETROIT,  MICH. 

SEPTEMBER  29-OCTOBER  *,  1913 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


THIRD 
AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 


UNDER  AUSPICES  OF 


AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 
AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 


DETROIT,  MICH. 

SEPTEMBER  29-OCTOBER  4,  1913 


COPYRIGHT  1914 

BY 
AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 


COMP08EP  AND  PRINTED  AT  THH 

WAVERLY  PRESS 

BT  THB  WILLIAMS  &  WILKINB  COMPANY 

BALTIMORE,  U.  S.  A- 


Proceedings  of 

THIRD  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

UNDER  AUSPICES  OF 

AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 
AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 

OFFICERS 

L.  W.  PAGE,  President 
Director,  United  States  Office  of  Public  Roads 

J.  E.  PENNYBACKER,  Secretary 
Secretary,  American  Highway  Association 

LEE  MCCLUNG,  Treasurer 

Former  Treasurer  of  the  United  States 

CHARLES  P.  LIGHT,  Assistant  to  President 

Field  Secretary,  American  Highway  Association 

Executive  Committee 

GEO.  C.  DIEHL,  Chairman,  Good  Roads  Board,  American  Automobile  Assn. 
L.  W.  PAGE,  President  American  Highway  Association. 
W.  T.  BEATTY,  President,  National  Association  of  Road  Material  and  Machin- 
ery Manufacturers 


AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 

COLORADO  BUILDING, 
Washington,  D.  G. 

MB.  L.  W.  PAGE,  President,  Director,  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads 
MR.  W.  W.  FINLEY,  Vice-President,  President,  Southern  Railway  Co. 
MR.  J.  E.  PENNYB ACKER,  JR.,  Secretary 

MR.  LEE  McCLUNQ,  Treasurer,  Former  Treasurer  of  the  United  States 
MB.  CHARLES  P.  LIGHT,  Field  Secretary 

Board  of  Directors 

MB.  JAMES  S.  HARLAN,  Chairman,  Member  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
MB.  L.  W.  PAGE,  Director,  United  States  Office  of  Public  Roads 
MB.  JAMES  H.  MACDONALD,  former  State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Con- 
necticut 

MB.  W.  W.  FINLEY,  President,  Southern  Railway  Company 
MB.  L.  E.  JOHNSON,  President,  Norfolk  &  Western  Railway  Company 
MB.  LEE  McCLUNG,  Former  Treasurer  of  the  United  States 
MB.  ALPBED  NOBLE,  Past  President,  American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers 
MB.  B.  F.  YOAKUM,  Chairman,  Frisco  Lines 
MB.  ABCHIBALD  H.  HUSTON,  of  Columbus,  Ohio 
DB.  WALTEB  H.  PAGE,  Ambassador  to  Great  Britain 
MB.  W.  T.  BEATTY,  President,  National  Association  of  Road  Machinery  and 

Material  Manufacturers 

MB.  LEONABD  TUFTS,  President,  Capital  Highway  Association 
DB.  JOSEPH  HYDE  PRATT,  State  Geologist  of  North  Carolina 
MB.  A.  G.  BATCHELDEB,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee,  American  Automo- 
bile Association 

MB.  CLARENCE  A.  KENYON,  President,  Indiana  Good  Roads  Association 
MB.  JOHN  M.  GOODELL,  of  New  York 
MB.  GEORGE  C.  DIEHL,  Chairman,  Good  Roads  Board,  American  Automobile 

Association 

MB.  THOMAS  G.  NOBBIS,  President,  Arizona  Good  Roads  Association 
MB.  GEOBGE  W.  COOLEY,  State  Highway  Engineer,  of  Minnesota 
MB.  JESSE  TAYLOB,  Editor,  Better  Roads 
MB.  LEWIS  W.  PABKER,  President,  South  Carolina  Cotton  Manufacturers 

Association 

MR.  BRYAN  LATHROP,  Member  Lincoln  Park  Commission,  Chicago 
MR.  JOSEPH  W.  JONES,  of  New  York  City 

MR.  A.  G.  SPALDING,  Member,  San  Diego  Highway  Commission 
MR.  PHILLIP  A.  COLGROVE,  President,  Michigan  Good  Roads  Association 

Executive  Committee 

MR.  W.  W.  FINLEY,  Chairman  MR.  L.  W.  PAGE 

MB.  ALFRED  NOBLE  MR.  GEORGE  C.  DIEHL 

MR.  B.  F.  YOAKUM 


AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 

437  FIFTH  AVENUE, 
New  York  City 

MR.  JOHN  A.  WILSON,  President,  Franklin,  Pennsylvania 
MR.  H.  A.  BONNELL,  Treasurer,  East  Orange,  New  Jersey 
MR.  JOHN  N.  BROOKS,  Secretary,  Torrington,  Connecticut 
MR.  A.  G.  BATCHELDER,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee 
MR.  GEORGE  C.  DIEHL,  Chairman,  Good  Roads  Board 


CONTENTS 

Officers  and  Directors 4 

Address  of  Welcome 8 

Address  of  Hon.  Logan  Waller  Page 11 

Address  of  A.  G.  Batchelder 14 

Address  of  Col.  Wm.  Washington 17 

General  Session 22 

Address  of  Hon.  David  F.  Houston 22 

Address  of  Hon.  A.  W.  Campbell 28 

Lessons  Learned  at  the  Recent  International  Road  Congress  in  London 

and  Observations  on  French  and  English  Road  Systems 32 

Address  of  James  H.  MacDonald 43 

The  Missouri  Plan. 49 

Committee  on  Resolutions 53 

Federal  Legislation  Session 55 

Federal  Road  Legislation 56 

Address  of  Edward  H.  Butler 65 

Address  of  Hon.  Wm.  P.  Borland 71 

Address  of  Charles  T.  Terry 80 

Road  Legislation  and  Administration  Session 84 

The  Merit  System  in  Road  Management. 84 

A  Plan  for  Simplifying  Road  Legislation  in  the  States 91 

Address  of  Archibald  H.  Huston 94 

Address  of  Charles  T.  Terry 95 

Address  of  Clarence  A.  Kenyon. 97 

Construction  and  Maintenance  Session 102 

Unsurfaced  Roads 102 

Gravel  Roads,  Their  Construction,  Maintenance,  Cost  and  Special  Treat- 
ment   112 

The  Sand-Clay  Roads  Maintenance  in  North  and  South  Carolina 126 

The  Treatment  of  Wornout  and  Ravelled  Macadam  Surfaces 129 

Development  and  Maintenance  of  Highways  in  Allegheny  County,  Penn- 
sylvania   137 

Bituminous  Construction 143 

Waterway  Structures 151 

Brick  Road  Construction 157 

The  Selection  of  Materials  for  Macadam  Roads 170 

Address  of  Judge  Joseph  Asher 175 

Contract  Session 178 

Legal  Suggestions  Respecting  Road  Contracts 178 

Municipal  Contract  Law  as  Applied  to  Road  Construction 189 

The  Protection  and  Upkeep  of  Road  Equipment 194 

Finance  Session 199 

Financing  Road  Improvement 199 

Bond  Issues  for  Road  Improvement 202 

Highway  Accounting  with  Special  Reference  to  Maintenance 211 

Economics  Session 217 

Systematizing  the  Purchase  of  Road  Materials  and  Equipment 219 

The  Labor  Problem  in  Road  Construction 225 

Louisiana  Highways 228 

California's  $18,000,000  State  Highway  System 238 

Dirt  Roads  and  Politics 244 

Road  Users'  Session 249 

Address  of  C.  A.  Magrath 249 

Address  of  A.  W.  Campbell 250 


6  CONTENTS 

Address  of  John  N.  Carlisle 252 

National  Old  Trail  Roads 258 

The  Farmer  and  the  Road 263 

Address  of  Col.  Sidney  Suggs 269 

Address  of  Col.  Wm.  D.  Sohier 276 

Address  of  George  A.  Ricker 281 

National  Roads 285 

Resolutions  Adopted 293 

Michigan  Day 295 

Concrete  Roads 295 

American  Road  Congress 309 

Meeting  of  American  Highway  Association 310 


THIRD  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Held  Under  the  Auspices  of 

AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 

AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 

MICHIGAN  STATE  GOOD  ROADS  ASSOCIATION 

Detroit,  Michigan,  September  29,  1913. 
President  L.  W.  Page  in  the  Chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  Convention  will  please  come  to  order. 
The  Congress  will  open  with  an  invocation  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph 
A.  Vance,  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church. 

DR.  VANCE:  Let  us  unite  in  prayer.  Almighty  God,  our  Heav- 
enly Father,  we  invoke  Thy  divine  blessing  upon  this  gathering 
of  men  and  upon  all  the  deliberations  in  which  they  will  be  engaged, 
and  upon  all  the  issues  that  shall  flow  from  this  convention.  Give 
to  them,  we  pray  Thee,  great  fidelity  in  the  discharge  of  every  duty, 
a  broad  vision  of  the  purposes  of  the  Almighty,  a  great  desire  to 
make  this  earth  a  better  place  in  which  to  live  while  they  dwell 
upon  it,  and  a  great  joy  in  the  fellowship,  in  the  work  of  honest 
men.  Bless,  we  pray  Thee,  the  messages  that  shall  be  brought  to 
these  gatherings  from  day  to  day;  may  they  be  spoken  with  clear 
vision,  with  warm  heart,  with  an  aspiration  for  the  common  weal. 
Give  to  the  men  who  gather  here  and  sit  in  these  seats  from  day  to 
day,  a  great  desire  not  only  to  know  what  will  contribute  to  the 
welfare  of  humanity,  but  that  they  may  give  themselves  to  its  realiza- 
tion. We  bless  Thee  for  the  good  roads  movements  of  history.  We 
thank  Thee  for  every  man  that  has  tried  to  fill  up  a  low  place  and 
make  it  level  and  dig  down  a  rough  place  and  make  it  smooth  and 
tunnel  through  mountains  of  difficulty  and  fill  up  bogs  and  morasses, 
that  the  crooked  places  may  be  made  straight  and  the  rough  places 
smooth  and  a  highway  be  built  on  which  men  may  travel  with  ease 
and  comfort  and  reach  their  destination.  We  pray  Thee  that  this 
movement  may  sweep  over  our  nation  and  that  narrow-minded 
prejudices  give  way  as  it  advances;  that  the  close-fisted  man  who 
wastes  his  money  in  multitudes  because  he  is  not  willing  to  spend  it 
in  littles,  will  be  converted  and  see  a  better  way,  and  that  through 
it  all  we  may  not  only  move  commerce  and  economize  power  and  bring 
in  added  comfort  and  bring  the  producer  closer  to  his  market,  but 
we  pray  Thee  that,  above  all,  we  may  learn  to  build  honest  roads 
that  will  wear  for  centuries  and  put  in  honest  stuff,  and  put  into 


8  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

every  road  we  build  every  cent  of  money  that  the  people  have  given 
us  with  which  to  build  it.  Give  us  honesty  in  executing  our  trust, 
as  well  as  a  vision  of  the  great  possibilities  before  us.  Have  in  Thy 
loving  care,  we  pray  Thee,  our  families  from  whom  we  are  separated. 
Keep  our  wives  and  children  safe  from  harm  and  bring  us  safely 
together  again  in  Thy  good  time.  Pour  out  Thy  spirit,  we  pray 
Thee,  upon  all  who  are  moving  for  the  advancement  of  human  prog- 
ress and  hasten  the  time  when  that  Highway,  which  shall  be  called 
the  Way  of  Holiness,  shall  be  along  every  road  that  men  build  and 
nothing  unclean  shall  pass  over  it.  We  ask  this  for  the  glory  of  Thy 
Name,  forever  and  ever.  Amen. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  In  the  absence  of  the  mayor  of  Detroit,  I  have 
the  honor  to  introduce  Mr.  Charles  B.  Warren,  who  will  deliver  an 
address  of  welcome  from  the  business  men  of  Detroit. 

ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME 

BY  CHARLES  B.  WARREN 

It  affords  me,  in  behalf  of  the  business  and  professional  men  united 
in  the  Board  of  Commerce  of  this  city,  very  great  pleasure  to  bid 
welcome  to  this  third  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Road  Congress. 
Detroit  welcomes  the  opportunity  to  have  the  sessions  of  these  dele- 
gates held  in  our  city,  because  it  is  interested,  as,  of  course,  every 
group  of  sane  individuals  is  interested,  in  good  roads. 

The  problems  which  you  have  to  solve  are  really  problems  of  great 
national  importance.  The  organization,  I  take  it,  is  for  the  purpose 
of  preaching  the  gospel  of  good  roads  and  studying  the  economics 
of  road  building.  It  is  of  primary  importance,  at  this  period  in  the 
development  of  the  civilization  of  this  great  country,  that  the  roads 
as  highways  of  commerce  should  be  improved  and  improved  speedily 
and  in  a  lasting  and  economical  manner.  The  matters  you  have 
under  consideration  go  to  one  of  the  vital  problems  of  the  day,  be- 
cause the  burden  laid  upon  the  people  by  reason  of  the  increased  cost 
of  transportation  enters  into  the  present  high  cost  of  living.  When 
we  realize  that  in  the  older  countries,  where  the  construction  of  the 
highways  preceded  the  building  of  the  railroads;  when  we  realize, 
I  say,  that  in  the  older  countries  the  farmer  transports  a  load  for 
from  one-tenth  to  one-half  the  cost  that  the  farmer  pays  in  our  coun- 
try, we  realize  what  a  vast  burden  is  laid  upon  our  people  in  unneces- 
sary transportation  cost. 

When  this  country  was  new,  it  was  of  first  importance  that  the 
railroads  should  connect  up  the  various  sections  of  our  great  terri- 
tory. That  task  has,  in  a  measure,  been  completed,  and  it  is  now 
of  vital  interest  to  all  the  people  that  this  great  organization  should 
give  serious  consideration  to  the  building  of  adequate  highways,  and 
send  out  a  message  to  the  people  that  will  asisst  in  the  matter  of  the 
economic  building  of  good  roads. 


ADDRESS    OF   WELCOME  9 

But  Detroit  is  interested  in  your  deliberations  for  another  reason. 
Her  progress  and  development  is  now  largely  bound  up  in  the  pros- 
perity of  the  motor  car  industry,  and  these  two — good  highways  and 
good  motor  cars — move  along  side  by  side.  This  production  in  such 
great  numbers  of  individual  power  plants  which  can  be  used  by  one 
person  for  the  purpose  of  individual  transportation  and  the  transpor- 
tation of  the  individuals'  freight,  as  against  the  use  of  the  common 
system — that  is  railroad  or  vessel  transportation — is  a  matter  of 
world  importance. 

Detroit  welcomes  to  the  city  your  guests  of  honor,  who  will  be 
here  during  this  meeting,  and  especially  the  member  of  the  Presi- 
dent's official  family.  We  hope  that  through  these  meetings  and 
through  the  message  that  may  be  delivered  to  you  by  the  representa- 
tive of  the  administration,  that  some  method  may  be  found  by  which 
the  hand  of  the  federal  government  may  reach  out  and  assist  in  this 
great  project  of  good  roads. 

And  Detroit  is  interested  in  this  other  movement — in  the  Lincoln 
Memorial  Highway.  It  appeals  to  our  imagination,  this  idea  of  a 
connected,  improved  highway  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  bind- 
ing many  States  of  the  Union  closer  together.  It  appeals  to  our 
sense  of  patriotism  that  this  highway  should  be  known  as  the 
"Lincoln  Highway,"  for  the  spirit  and  the  blessed  memory  of  that 
man  binds  this  Country  together  as  the  spirit  and  memory  of  no 
other  American  who  ever  lived. 

In  behalf  of  the  city  and  in  behalf  of  the  business  and  professional 
interests  of  the  city  I  again  bid  you  welcome  and  trust  that  you  will 
enjoy  your  stay  with  us  as  much  as  we  will  enjoy  participating  in 
your  deliberations. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  have  a  letter  here,  which  I  will  read  to  the 
Congress. 

The  Chairman  then  read  a  letter  from  President  Wilson,  after 
which  Mr.  Diehl  read  letters  from  the  attorney-general  of  the  United 
States,  the  secretary  of  the  navy  and  the  secretary  of  the  treasury. 

[Copy] 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE, 
Washington. 

September  10,  1913. 
My  dear  Mr.  Page: 

May  I  not  convey,  through  you,  to  the  members  of  the  American  Road 
Congress,  which  is  to  assemble  in  Detroit,  my  sincere  regret  that  I  cannot  be 
present  and  express,  at  least,  the  very  deep  interest  which  I  feel  in  the  whole 
matter  of  adequate  road  building  in  the  United  States.    Every  man  who 
wishes  to  see  this  great  country  made  the  most  of  must  sympathize  with  the 
efforts  now  being  made  to  weave  its  parts  together  by  good  roads. 
Please  present  my  cordial  greetings  to  the  congress. 
Sincerely  yours, 

WOODROW  WILSON. 
Mr.  Logan  Waller  Page,  Pres., 
American  Road  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C. 


10  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

OFFICE  OF  THE  ATTORNEY  GENERAL, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

September  17,  1913. 
L.  W.  PAGE,  Esq., 

President,  Third  American  Road  Congress, 
Colorado  Building, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
My  dear  Sir: 

Permit  me  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  kind  invitation  of  September 
16th,  to  attend  and  take  part  in  the  sessions  of  the  American  Road  Congress, 
to  be  held  at  Detroit,  Michigan,  September  29th  to  October  4th,  and  to  thank 
you  for  the  same. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  anticipate  so  far  in  advance  my  official  engagements 
during  the  days  set  for  the  sessions  of  the  Congress.  It  will  give  me  pleasure 
to  attend  if  possible. 

I  accept  this  opportunity  to  say  that  I  am  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the 
desire  which  seems  general  among  our  people  to  secure  better  roads,  and  think 
that  the  welfare  of  the  nation  will  be  subserved  by  the  success  of  the  movement 
in  that  direction,  which  has  already  obtained  considerable  momentum,  pro- 
vided it  is  restricted  within  proper  lines. 

In  the  event  I  am  unable  to  be  present  in  person,  you  are  at  liberty  to  use 
my  expressions  of  endorsement  as  you  think  best. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.    C.   McREYNOLD, 

Attorney-General . 

THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  NAVY, 
WASHINGTON. 

September  23,  1913. 
My  dear  Sir: 

It  was  very  kind  of  you  to  invite  me  to  participate  in  the  Third  American 
Road  Congress  which  will  convene  at  Detroit  on  the  29th  instant.  As  one 
sincerely  interested  in  good  roads,  I  should  take  keen  delight  in  attending  this 
conference  and  I  wish  it  were  possible.  Unfortunately  conditions  are  such 
that  I  cannot  make  the  trip  and  I  pray  that  I  be  excused.  I  wish  to  add,  how- 
ever, assurances  of  my  best  wishes  for  the  further  success  of  the  great  work 
in  which  you  are  engaged. 

Cordially  yours, 

JOSEPHUS  DANIELS. 
L.  W.  Page,  Esq., 

President,  American  Road  Congress, 
Colorado  Building, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY, 
WASHINGTON. 

September  17,  1913. 
My  dear  Mr.  Page: 

I  have  your  favor  of  the  16th  instant,  inviting  me  to  attend  and  take  part 
in  the  sessions  of  the  American  Road  Congress  in  Detroit  on  September  29th, 
and  regret  very  much  that  on  account  of  the  pressure  of  official  business  I  am 
unable  to  be  present. 

With  kind  regards,  I  am, 

Sincerely  yours, 

W.  G.  McADOO, 
L.  W.  Page,  Esq., 

President,  American  Road  Congress, 
Colorado  Building, 
Washington,  D.  C. 


ADDKESS  OF  HON.  LOGAN  WALLER  PAGE  11 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  I  am  next  on  the  program,  but  am 
suffering  from  such  a  severe  cold  that  my  voice  will  not  permit  me 
to  make  the  remarks  I  desire  to  make,  so  Mr.  Colgrove,  president 
of  the  Michigan  State  Good  Roads  Association,  has  kindly  con- 
sented to  read  what  I  wanted  personally  to  say  to  you. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  LOGAN  WALLER  PAGE 

President  of  the  American  Road  Congress 

In  a  city  which,  not  content  with  paralleling  the  best  achievements 
of  American  genius  and  industry,  amazes  the  world  year  after  year 
by  surpassing  the  records  of  the  preceding  year,  the  American  Road 
Congress  has  chosen  to  hold  this  great  meeting,  which,  I  firmly  be- 
lieve, will  mark  an  epoch  in  the  movement  for  better  roads  throughout 
the  United  States  and  Canada.  The  welcome  which  the  city  of  De- 
troit and  the  State  of  Michigan  have  given  us  is  worthy  of  the  finest 
traditions  of  American  hospitality,  and  I  am  merely  voicing  the  senti- 
ment of  the  thousands  of  my  colleagues  who  have  come  from  every 
quarter  of  this  continent,  when  I  say,  "  We  are  glad  to  be  here. " 

A  mighty  wave  of  sentiment  for  better  roads  is  sweeping  over  the 
country,  and  already  the  American  people  have  entered  upon  a  road- 
building  era  which  has  no  parallel  in  all  history — not  even  the  splendid 
era  when  Rome  knit  together,  with  massive  military  roads,  the  far- 
flung  outposts  of  her  empire,  nor  the  century  of  constructive  work  be- 
gun by  Napoleon,  which  has  given  to  France  the  most  superb  system 
of  highways  in  the  world.  Last  year  more  than  two  hundred  million 
dollars  went  into  the  building  of  roads,  and,  in  a  small  measure,  to 
their  maintenance.  Eight  years  ago  the  total  expenditure  was  only 
about  eighty  millions  of  dollars,  so  that  we  have  more  than  doubled 
our  outlay  for  roads  in  this  brief  period.  Not  alone  in  money  is  this 
great  movement  measured,  but  in  progressive  and  effective  state 
legislation  for  road  betterment.  Nearly  all  the  States  have  estab- 
lished departments  of  highways,  have  provided  for  State  participation 
in  the  building  and  care  of  the  highways,  and  have,  in  some  cases, 
undertaken  comprehensive  educational  and  investigative  work,  which 
must  result  in  improved  methods  and  better  management.  More 
important,  more  far-reaching,  more  vital  in  its  effect  upon  the  nation, 
as  a  whole,  than  other  developments  in  this  great  onward  movement, 
is  the  fact  that  we  stand  today  upon  the  threshold  of  a  policy  of  federal 
aid  to  road  improvement. 

For  more  than  a  century  our  ablest  statesmen  have  differed  among 
themselves  on  the  question  of  Federal  participation  in  the  improve- 
ment of  the  public  roads.  The  era  of  national  road  building  begun  in 
the  early  days  of  the  republic  and  ending  about  1840,  was  due  to  con- 
ditions which  were  not  analagous  to  those  which  exist  today.  The 
western  country  was  filling  up  with  American  pioneers,  while  the 
great  range  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains  formed  a  barrier  which  seri- 


12  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

ously  interfered  with  traffic  and  communication  between  the  east 
and  west.  The  old  plan  of  local  assessment  for  the  building  of  roads 
could  not  meet  this  condition,  as  the  great  expanse  of  country  through 
which  the  roads  must  pass  was  unbroken  wilderness.  Only  a  power- 
ful agency,  such  as  the  national  government,  was  able  to  undertake 
and  carry  through  the  project,  and  thus  resulted  the  first  national 
road,  generally  known  as  the  "Old  Cumberland  Road. " 

Today,  conditions  exist  which,  although  totally  dissimilar  to  those 
I  have  just  mentioned,  are  a  justification  for  extraordinary  measures 
in  providing  adequate  highway  facilities.  The  rapid  introduction  of 
the  automobile  into  every  section  of  the  country  has  revolutionized 
traffic  conditions.  Villages  and  towns  and  cities  that  were  remote 
from  each  other  twenty  years  ago,  are  now,  so  to  speak,  on  visiting 
terms.  The  automobile  has  brought  people  close  together.  The 
electric  railway  lines  have  spread  a  fringe  of  suburban  dwellers  over  a 
radius  of  many  miles  about  our  great  cities.  The  concentration  of 
population  in  manufacturing  and  traffic  centers  has  made  necessary 
the  transportation  of  huge  quantities  of  food  from  the  producer  to  the 
consumer,  and  the  transportation  of  immense  quantities  of  manu- 
factured products  back  to  the  farm  dweller  from  the  city  factories. 
The  vacation-loving  American  has  made  possible  the  opening  up  of 
summer  and  winter  resorts,  and  has  -made  accessible  the  splendid 
scenery  of  our  continent. 

The  cumulative  result  of  all  these  individual  forces  has  been  the 
weaving  of  a  web  of  interdependence,  which  reaches  every  city  and 
every  town  and  every  farmhouse.  We  no  longer  live  for  ourselves, 
but  for  each  other.  The  country  road  a  thousand  miles  away  from 
New  York  City  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  life  of  New  York  City.  In 
other  words,  the  public  highway  is  no  longer  a  mere  local  utility.  It 
is  a  national  asset,  a  national  liability,  a  national  responsibility,  and 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  come  to  a  realization  of  this 
fact  to  such  an  extent  that  the  day  of  federal  aid  to  road  construction 
is  at  hand.  It  is  the  duty  of  every  patriotic  American  citizen  to  look 
upon  this  question  seriously  and  unselfishly  and  to  aid  Congress  in 
the  fullest  measure,  to  the  end  that  an  equitable  and  practical  law 
may  be  enacted.  There  is  opportunity  for  the  parceling  out  of  federal 
appropriations  for  political  ends,  such  as  would  grow  into  a  scandal  and 
disgrace  to  the  nation  and  be  an  impediment  to  the  road  movement, 
which  would  set  it  back  for  a  century.  There  is  opportunity  to  turn 
this  great  movement  into  political  channels,  which  would  make  the 
aid  of  the  government  a  farce  and  seriously  endanger  the  institutions  of 
our  government.  Think  carefully  before  you  give  your  support  to  any 
measure  which  is  branded  with  the  stigma  of  political  expendiency. 

It  seems  that  carefully-prepared  statistics  show  an  outstanding 
bonded  indebtedness  of  townships,  counties  and  States  for  road  im- 
provement amounting  to  something  over  four  hundred  million  dollars. 
I  have  heard  expressions  of  alarm  at  the  magnitude  of  our  expendi- 
tures. I  do  not  consider  that  the  amount  of  money  we  are  spending 


ADDRESS   OF   HON.    LOGAN   WALLER   PAGE  13 

for  roads  is  in  the  slightest  degree  a  cause  for  worry.  Our  chief  con- 
cern should  be  to  properly  safeguard  the  expenditure  and  see  that  we 
get  results  commensurate  with  the  outlay  and  that  the  utility  which  is 
thus  created  is  so  cared  for  that  it  loses  none  of  its  value  to  the  com- 
munity, the  county,  the  State,  or  the  Nation.  I  am  informed  that 
last  year  the  people  of  the  United  States  spent  three  hundred  and  six- 
teen million  dollars  to  see  moving  pictures.  The  moving-picture  in- 
dustry is  a  new  one.  The  inclination  for  this  form  of  diversion  is, 
therefore,  a  recent  acquirement,  so  that  we  have  the  spectacle  of  the 
American  people  suddenly  spending  for  the  gratification  of  a  whim  an 
amount  very  little  less  than  our  total  indebtedness  for  good  roads 
throughout  the  entire  country — an  amount  sixty  per  cent  greater 
than  the  annual  outlay  throughout  the  entire  land  for  road  improve- 
ment and  maintenance.  If  the  people  of  the  United  States  can  spend 
this  great  sum  of  money  without  affecting  in  the  slighest  degree  their 
prosperity  or  comfort,  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  even  five  hundred  million 
dollars  a  year  as  a  burden  too  great  to  be  borne. 

In  my  judgment,  we  cannot  too  strongly  condemn  the  haphazard 
issuance  of  long-term  bonds  for  the  building  of  roads  for  which  no 
adequate  maintenance  provision  is  made,  or  for  the  building  of  roads 
which  are  located  without  reference  to  the  needs  of  the  locality  or  of 
the  State,  and  which  may  begin  nowhere  and  end  nowhere,  or  for  the 
building  of  types  of  roads,  the  cost  of  which  is  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  requirements  of  the  community,  either  from  the  extreme  of  expen- 
siveness  or  the  extreme  of  cheapness,  or  the  building  of  roads  on  a 
large  scale  without  adequate  administrative  organization,  without 
proper  safeguarding  of  revenues. 

Every  bond  issue  should  be  based  upon  the  most  thorough  investi- 
gation of  the  needs  of  traffic,  the  financial,  the  State,  or  local  unit,  and 
the  types  of  road  and  the  conduct  of  the  work  should  be  based  upon 
the  soundest  engineering  principles  and  practice.  Above  all,  there 
should  be  clear-cut,  effective  legislation,  adequate  appropriation,  and 
efficient  organization  to  insure  the  most  nearly  perfect  maintenance 
of  the  roads  built  with  the  proceeds  of  a  bond  issue.  The  bonds 
should  not  outlive  the  road.  It  is  almost  criminal  to  issue  fifty-year 
bonds  for  a  road  that  is  worn  out  in  five  years. 

There  are  thousands  of  antiquated,  conflicting,  and  wholly  super- 
fluous laws  on  the  statute  books  of  the  various  States  bearing  upon  the 
public  roads.  It  has  long  been  a  practice  of  new  members  of  State 
legislatures  to  introduce  road  bills  when  they  could  think  of  nothing 
else  upon  which  to  expend  their  activity.  The  time  has  come  when 
there  should  be  a  concerted  movement  throughout  the  whole  country 
to  eliminate  from  our  statute  books  this  mass  of  useless  legislation 
and  start  anew  with  clean-cut,  concise  and  effective  legislation. 

Finally,  I  wish  to  express  the  hope  that  the  American  Road  Con- 
gress may  become  more  and  more  an  annual  clearing-house,  where 
the  best  thought  and  practice  of  good  roads  people  throughout  the 
United  States  and  Canada  may  be  exchanged,  and  started  on  an 


14  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

endless  chain — so  to  speak — so  that  we  may  all  benefit  by  the  prog- 
ress that  each  is  making,  and  by  avoiding  the  duplication  of  effort, 
so  that  the  costly  mistakes  which  have  marked  our  course  in  road 
matters  for  over  a  century  may  not  be  made  again  and  again.  I 
believe  this  annual  congress  is  of  great  benefit  to  the  engineers,  con- 
tractors, legislators,  manufacturers,  and  finally,  the  taxpayers,  and  I 
look  forward  to  the  day  when  it  will  be  so  well  established,  so  firm 
in  the  regard  of  the  people,  as  to  be  one  of  our  national  institutions. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  speaker  on  our  program  is  Mr.  Enos, 
president  of  the  American  Automobile  Association,  but  he  has  been 
detained  and  will  not  be  able  to  get  here  until  tomorrow,  so  I  shall 
ask  Mr.  A.  G.  Batchelder,  chairman  of  the  Executive  Board  of  the 
American  Automobile  Association,  to  give  us  a  talk. 

ADDRESS  BY  A.  G.  BATGHELDER 

Chairman  Executive  Board  of  American  Automobile  Association 

This  abrupt  injection  of  me  into  these  proceedings  reminds  me 
somewhat  of  the  story  of  an  Irishman  by  the  name  of  O'Brien.  It 
seems  that  O'Brien,  as  a  contractor,  had  prospered  exceedingly, 
and  in  due  course  of  time  he  moved  from  a  ward  down  on  the  river 
front  up  into  the  avenue  of  the  town,  and  thought  that  he  was  going 
to  comfortably  settle  down.  But  his  two  daughters  had  several 
years  in  a  boarding  school,  and  when  they  came  back  they  flatly 
refused  to  let  O'Brien  continue  to  smoke  his  pipe  in  the  parlor  as 
he  had  done  in  the  little  house  down  by  the  river.  So  he  was  rele- 
gated to  the  rear  steps.  Finally  one  day  O'Brien  died,  and  he  was 
laid  out  in  the  parlor.  Mrs.  Murphy  came  up  from  the  river  dis- 
trict, and  standing  beside  the  remains  of  O'Brien  tearfully  com- 
mented: "O'Brien,  you  beat  them  at  last;  you  got  into  the  parlor." 
Now,  Mr.  Enos  is  not  dead;  he  simply  could  not  be  here  to-day.  I 
am  one  that  the  A.  A.  A.  sends  into  the  country  to  talk  roads. 
Many  of  you  who  are  here  present  have  had  to  listen  to  me  out  in  the 
West  and  in  North  Carolina  and  in  other  States,  and  so  I  am  going 
to  be  very  brief  this  morning. 

We  autpmobilists,  once  upon  a  time,  used  to  half  apologize  for 
our  participation  in  this  road  question  until  finally  we  awakened  to 
the  fact  that  we  were  the  men  who  were  using  the  roads  more  than 
anyone  else.  Of  course  it  was  charged  that  we  were  wearing  out  the 
roads,  which,  at  that  time,  was  undoubtedly  true.  So  we  said  that 
if  we  use  the  road  more  than  anyone  else  and  if  we  wear  out  the  roads, 
it  is  up  to  us  to  get  into  this  road  movement  good  and  hard  with  our 
work  and  energy;  and,  furthermore,  as  long  as  we  are  paying  a  road 
tax  to  use  the  roads,  we  might  as  well  wade  in  and  swim  in  the  open 
and  struggle  along  with  the  rest  of  the  people.  We  have  also  hugged 
the  delusion,  that  ultimately,  most  road  users  were  going  to  be  of 


ADDRESS   BY   A.    G.    BATCHELDER  15 

the  motor  driven  variety,  simply  because  it  was  a  matter  of  economics; 
in  other  words,  if  you  could  in  any  way  save  time  or  save  in  the  cost 
of  transportation,  why  wouldn't  it  be  simply  a  matter  of  cause  and 
effect  that  the  people  would,  in  many  instances  and  wherever  they 
could,  become  users  of  motor-driven  vehicles.  So  we  find  ourselves 
today  mixed  up  in  this  movement  more  and  more,  and  we  do  not 
apologize  like  we  used  to  do.  All  we  can  say  is  that  we  are  trying 
to  do  our  share  of  the  work,  and  because  we  do  our  share  of  the  work 
we  want  you  to  know  this,  that  we  are  not  interested  in  the  making 
or  selling  of  any  particular  automobiles;  we  simply  say  that  a  motor- 
driven  vehicle  is  an  economical  vehicle  today  and  we  believe  most  of 
you  are  going  to  use  them. 

Not  long  since,  I  was  out  in  the  West,  and  during  the  course  of  a 
meeting  there  came  up  the  question  of  a  State  highway  commission. 
One  man  got  up  and  said:  "I  object  to  this  idea  of  a  State  highway 
commission;  do  you  know  that  means  that  some  State  officer  can 
come  into  our  county  and  tell  us  what  kind  of  a  road  we  should 
put  down  and  how  we  shall  maintain  it?  I  consider  that  an  in- 
vasion of  county  rights."  Now,  someone  did  happen  to  think  to 
ask  him  what  his  occupation  was,  and  he  rather  reluctantly  said 
that  he  was  a  county  commissioner.  Do  not  misunderstand  me.  I 
believe  there  are  many  mighty  good  county  commissioners  who  have 
done  a  vast  amount  of  work,  and  we  are  going  to  have  many  more. 

I  think  that  the  average  man  is  willing  that  the  State  shall  relieve 
the  counties  of  roads  that  are  really  interstate  in  their  use,  and  we 
simply  advance  another  point  when  we  say  that  the  States  themselves 
are  going  to  look  to  the  general  government  for  a  certain  amount  of 
cooperation  and  support  in  those  roads  that  go  from  State  to  State. 

I  do  not  know  why  many  of  us,  interested  in  this  road  question, 
should  talk  to  others  equally  interested  and  attempt  to  convince 
them,  when  it  is  not  any  longer  necessary.  You  may  recollect  the 
story  of  the  parson  who  when  he  was  baptising  a  rather  belated  and 
elderly  convert  in  the  river  was  interrupted  by  a  man  from  the  shore 
exclaiming:  "Excuse  me,  parson;  I  don't  mean  to  interfere  with  your 
business,  but  that  old  sinner,  if  you  will  stake  him  in  the  river  over 
night,  it  will  be  a  much  better  job."  I  don't  believe  that  any  of  you 
have  to  have  forced  upon  you  the  good  roads  talk,  as  far  as  the  gen- 
eral proposition  is  concerned.  Later,  we  will  hear  a  great  deal  from 
men  who  are  expert  in  the  construction  of  roads,  men  who  are  inter- 
ested in  matters  of  finance  and  other  phases  of  the  subject.  Hence 
it  would  be  unfair  for  me  to  give  you  any  of  that  talk  now.  This 
convention  is  going  to  be  the  most  successful  we  have  ever  had  in 
the  country.  Mr.  Page  said:  "This  is  a  kind  of  a  clearing  house," 
and  it  is  going  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  situation  better  than  anything 
else  that  has  heretofore  existed,  and  when  we  can  get  the  represen- 
tatives of  our  national  government  to  participate  with  us  on  this 
occasion,  there  cannot  be  any  other  than  a  mighty  good  result. 
Thank  you. 


16  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

The  Chairman  called  upon  Judge  J.  M.  Lowe,  President  of  the 
National  Old  Trails  Association,  for  a  few  remarks. 

Judge  Lowe  then  gave  a  complete  history  of  the  Old  Trails  Asso- 
ciation. He  stated  that  the  Old  Trails  Association  was  organized 
for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  the  whole  mighty  movement  toward  a 
magnificent  general  system  of  national  highways.  He  called  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  as  early  as  1802  it  became  a  serious  question 
whether  the  government,  which  had  just  been  organized,  should 
subsist  or  not;  that  the  Aaron  Burr  conspiracy  which  sought  to  build 
up  a  mighty  empire  in  the  great  southwest,  was  threatening  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union;  that  at  such  a  crisis  the  prolific  brain  of 
Albert  Gallatin  conceived  the  idea  of  building  a  great  national  high- 
way which  would  cement  the  States  of  the  west  with  the  States  of  the 
east  and  thus  preserve  the  American  union.  The  matter  was  re- 
ferred to  a  committee  of  Congress,  upon  whose  recommendation  the 
bill  was  passed.  In  1802  the  first  State  to  be  admitted  to  the  Union 
was  the  State  of  Ohio  and  it  was  written  into  the  contract  of  union 
between  Ohio  and  the  other  States  that  5  per  cent — one-twentieth  of 
the  public  lands  situated  in  the  State  of  Ohio  should  be  appropriated 
for  the  building  of  a  road  to  and  through  that  State.  The  other 
States,  in  forming  a  Union,  had  retained  their  public  land  and  dis- 
posed of  them  as  they  saw  fit,  appropriating  the  proceeds  to  their 
own  use.  No  such  right  was  accorded  to  the  State  of  Ohio  and  for 
thirteen  years  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  situated  in  Ohio  were 
appropriated  to  building  of  roads  through  the  States  of  Maryland, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia,  and  stopping  at  the  western  line  of  Vir- 
ginia; thus  a  road,  pronounced  by  Mr.  Clay  to  be  superior  to  the  great 
Appian  Way  was  built  over  which  the  mails  were  carried  and  over 
which  carriages  could  be  driven  at  the  rate  of  80  miles  a  day.  Indiana 
was  then  admitted  into  the  Union  with  precisely  the  same  provision 
in  its  contract;  Wisconsin  was  admitted  with  an  amendment  appro- 
priating each  alternate  section  in  the  State  of  Illinois  for  the  building 
of  public  highways.  Missouri  came  into  the  Union  and  the  same 
compact  was  made  with  her.  The  result  was  that  the  old  road  was 
carried  through  the  State  of  Ohio  and  some  splendid  work  done  there; 
a  trace  of  it  was  made  through  Indiana,  and  it  was  not  much  better 
than  a  trace,  and  not  even  a  trace  all  the  way  through  Illinois,  but 
at  Vandalia,  the  then  capital,  the  last  work  accomplished  on  this 
old  road  was  done  on  an  old  culvert  just  outside  of  Vandalia,  and  there 
it  stopped  150  miles  or  200  miles  from  the  eastern  line  of  Missouri. 
The  work  in  the  east  went  on  until  1837. 

Judge  Lowe,  in  a  very  forceful  manner,  viewing  the  matter  from  a 
constitutional  standpoint,  drew  attention  to  the  parallel  question 
of  appropriating  enormous  tracts  of  land,  larger  than  the  entire  area 
of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  railroad  to  the 
western  coast,  and  also  the  appropriation  of  $400,000,000  for  the 
building  of  the  Panama  Canal,  the  latter  he  characterized  as  "a 
magnificent  enterprise,  a  splendid,  great  public  work,  and  I  am  glad 
we  did  it." 


ADDRESS   BY   COLONEL  WASHINGTON  17 

He  then  made  a  stirring  plea  for  the  building  of  great  national 
highways  by  the  federal  government.  He  said,  however,  that  he 
was  not  absolutely  committed  to  this  plan  and  might  be  converted 
to  the  plan  providing  that  the  State,  county  and  township,  should 
contribute  an  equal  amount,  dollar  for  dollar,  with  the  government. 
His  reason  for  opposing  the  latter  plan  was  the  idea  of  retaxing  the 
people  before  they  would  be  permitted  to  have  the  benefit  of  the 
money  that  they  had  already  been  taxed  for,  contending  that  they 
should  be  appropriated  at  first  hand  by  the  federal  government  for 
the  best  interests  of  the  people,  the  more  important  of  which  he 
believed  to  be  the  building  of  good  roads. 

Judge  Lowe  further  said,  "I  cannot  for  the  life  of  me  conceive  of 
any  great  difference  in  taking  the  money  to  build  roads  out  of  the 
national  treasury,  or  out  of  the  State  treasury,  or  out  of  the  county 
treasury,  except  that  Uncle  Sam's  pocket  is  the  deepest  and  biggest 
and  the  government  has  power  of  taxation  that  the  States  and  coun- 
ties have  not.  He  can  replete  his  pocketbook  very  readily,  the  State 
cannot,  neither  can  the  county.  Now  that's  the  biggest  pocketbook 
and  this  is  our  money,  all  the  time,  and  I  am  in  favor  of  building  roads 

out  of  it If  anything  is  written  in  the  Book  of  Fate 

more  clearly  than  any  other  it  is  that  this  government  has  now 
reached  a  point  where  it  is  going  to  take  a  hand  and  a  large  hand  in 
building  a  system  of  national  highways.  It  is  sure  to  win,  and  in 
my  judgment,  to  win  during  the  life  time  of  the  next  Congress,  not 
next  year,  not  the  year  after,  not  after  we  old  gray-haired  fellows  have 
gotten  off  the  stage  forever,  but  it  is  going  to  happen  in  my  lifetime 
and  in  yours,  and  we  will  ride  in  our  splendid  automobiles,  and  will 
travel  around  all  over  this  country  over  a  splendid  system  of  national 
highways." 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Col.  Wm.  de  H. 
Washington. 

ADDRESS  BY  COL.  WM.  de  H.  WASHINGTON 

Member  of  the  Board  of  Consulting  Engineers  of  the  State  of  New  York 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  I  was  about  to  say  "Ladies  and 
Gentlemen,"  but  if  I  were  in  Kentucky  I  would  consider  that  latter 
expression  was  entirely  unnecessary,  for  I  understand  that  in  Ken- 
tucky gentlemen  always  embrace  the  ladies.  So  I  will  only  say 
"gentlemen"  and  leave  it  to  the  gentlemen  to  embrace  the  ladies. 

I  come  before  you  totally  unprepared.  It  takes  me  fully  two 
weeks  to  properly  consider  and  get  together  a  real  impromptu  ad- 
dress, therefore  you  will  have  to  take  just  what  comes  to  me  as  I 
think  upon  my  feet. 

I  have  not  been  assigned  any  topic  or  text,  so  shall  have  to  make  up 
my  text  as  I  go  along.  In  this  state  of  unpreparedness,  I  feel  very 
much  like  the  organist  in  Leadville  in  the  early  days  of  that  camp, 
who  used  to  play  the  organ  in  the  gallery. 


18  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

The  miners  would  sometimes  get  a  little  too  much  tarantula 
aboard,  and  they'd  come  to  church  on  Sunday,  more  out  of  curiosity 
than  otherwise,  and  would  have  a  little  playful  pistol  practice  at 
the  organist.  Finally  he  had  a  placard  painted  which  hung  over  the 
dash  board  of  the  organ  top — with  this  legend  upon  it:  "Don't  shoot 
at  the  organist;  he  is  doing  the  best  he  can."  If  you  will  permit  me, 
under  these  conditions,  I  will  endeavor  to  say  a  word  or  two  to  you. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  think  that  where  we  sit  at  this  moment, 
a  little  more  than  a  century  ago  was  but  a  mere  trading-post  in  the 
far  west.  There  was  not  a  road  or  highway  within  500  miles  of  this 
city. 

Our  whole  western  territory  at  that  time  was  inhabited  largely  by 
red  men  and  wild  animals,  and  our  progress  has  all  been  since  then, 
in  fact,  I  have  a  map  of  the  roads  of  the  nation  a  century  and  a  half 
ago  and  practically  all  the  then  interior  highways  are  marked  as 
warpaths  or  trails. 

In  the  days  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  was  the  first  postmaster 
of  the  United  States,  he  visited  every  postoffice  in  the  United  States 
and  it  was  not  a  very  difficult  job,  for  at  that  time  they  numbered 
twenty-seven. 

We  had  thirteen  States  and  that  was  a  little  more  than  two  to  a 
State.  Massachusetts  had  eight,  which  was  a  good  deal  more  than 
her  share,  and  I  believe  North  Carolina  had  only  one;  so  you  can 
understand  that  our  development  of  roads  has  been  quite  remark- 
able, after  all,  because  we  had  absolutely  none  when  other  nations 
were  very  well  provided. 

It  has  been  said  that  a  man  is  only  so  old  or  so  young  as  his  arteries. 
It  is  equally  true,  that  a  nation  is  also  only  so  old,  so  young,  or  so 
prosperous,  as  its  arteries.  Our  roads,  after  all,  are  the  arteries  of 
the  nation  and  the  means  by  which  and  over  which  its  commerce 
flows. 

We  have  got  to  modernize  and  improve  and  make  young  our 
national  arteries,  because  many  of  them  have  fallen  into  a  very  sad 
condition  and  are  very  old  and  decrepit  from  the  standpoint  of 
efficiency. 

Time  was  when  the  value  of  land  depended  upon  the  distance  from 
the  railroad  or  the  market  or  the  means  of  water  traffic,  such  as  our 
rivers  and  our  great  lakes,  in  the  earlier  days. 

These  splendid  machines,  the  automobiles,  that  are  made  in 
this  City  by  the  Straits  have  made  the  farm  that  formerly  was 
15  or  20  miles  from  a  railroad  of  an  almost  nominal  value,  have 
brought  it  relatively  within  3  or  4  miles  or  possibly  within  2  miles 
of  the  station,  so  far  as  time  and  expense  are  concerned. 

If  you  give  the  man  or  fanner  a  good  road  to  do  his  work  and  to 
get  his  crops  over  you  have  done  him  the  greatest  service. 

I  am  not  going  to  give  you  a  dissertation  upon  good  roads  and 
their  necessity,  but  I  am  going  to  say  just  a  word  to  you,  perhaps, 
that  will  be  a  little  more  pertinent  than  interesting. 


ADDRESS   BY   COLONEL  WASHINGTON  19 

I  have  just  come  from  another  road  congress,  the  Third  Interna- 
tional Road  Congress,  held  two  months  ago  in  London,  and  it  was 
a  most  remarkable  gathering.  Thirty-nine  nations  were  represented 
by  between  2500  and  3000  delegates. 

It  was  a  gathering  that,  from  the  standpoint  of  language  I  think 
would  almost  put  the  famed  story  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  to  shame. 
All  its  proceedings  were  conducted  in  three  languages,  but  there 
were  gathered  together  at  that  time  the  enthusiasts  and  road  builders 
of  the  principal  nations  of  the  world. 

I  want  to  say  in  this  distinguished  presence  that  it  is  a  disgrace 
to  our  nation  that  the  United  States  was  one  and  the  only  nation  that 
was  not  officially  represented,  because  we  have  passed  a  law  in  Con- 
gress that  the  President  of  the  United  States  cannot  appoint  a  dele- 
gate to  any  international  congress  without  a  special  act  of  Congress, 
I  was  almost  ashamed  to  be  there  as  an  American  and  find  delegates 
from  Siam  and  from  the  Strait  Settlements,  from  Jamaica,  Asia 
Minor,  South  American  countries,  and  I  think  there  was  one  there 
from  Baluchistan.  Certainly  the  Persian  delegate  was  there  and 
delegates  from  Turkey,  but  the  United  States  was  not  officially 
represented. 

I  trust  that  this  Congress  will  make  its  voice  heard  and  have  a  bill 
passed  that  will  allow  us  to  be  represented  at  the  next  Congress. 
After  I  got  through,  I  took  a  trip  through  some  of  the  prominent 
countries  of  Europe,  and  you  may  like  to  hear  some  of  the  things  I 
found  there  in  the  way  of  road  building  in  comparison  with  our  own 
progress  in  the  same  direction. 

We  must  remember  that  England  and  many  parts  of  Europe 
had  roads  when  American  was  not  known  to  the  white  man. 

The  roads  of  England  go  back  beyond  the  Christian  Era  and  the 
Romans  were  pretty  good  road  builders,  because  they  built  their 
roads  sometimes  as  much  as  3  feet  thick  and  put  on  plenty  of  metal 
and  didn't  wear  them  out  and  couldn't  wear  them  out;  so  in  the 
foreign  countries  they  have  the  advantage  of  us  of  having  had  good 
roads  many  centuries  and  having  only  to  add  to  them. 

In  England  I  found  them  building  twelves  miles  and  a  half  of  new 
road,  called  the  Fossway,  which  was  the  transformance  of  an  old 
Roman  road  into  a  modern  one,  and  they  told  me  that  was  the 
longest  mileage  of  new  road  that  had  been  built  in  this  century. 

So  you  understand  their  problem  is  largely  one  of  improving  and 
maintaining  roads,  but  in  maintaining  roads  they  give  us  cards  and 
spades  and  put  us  to  shame,  because,  in  going  almost  everywhere  in 
England,  over  230,000  miles  of  good  roads,  I  hardly  saw  a  mudhole 
or  a  dirt  road  in  all  England. 

With  their  little  concentrated  island  about  the  size  of  New  England, 
they  have  about  50  per  cent  more  good  roads  than  we  have  in  all 
this  great  United  States. 

As  the  richest  nation  in  the  world,  we  should  be  the  leader  in  this 
road  problem  instead  of  the  follower. 


20  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

The  great  State  of  New  York,  from  which  I  come,  and  whose 
highway  board  I  am  connected  with  as  consulting  engineer,  is  the 
leader  in  the  world  today  in  road  expenditures.  It  has  appropriated 
$100,000,000  for  new  roads,  some  $75,000,000  of  which  are  still 
unexpended. 

This  is  a  greater  sum  than  any  nation  in  the  world  has  appro- 
priated for  new  roads. 

Should  it  not  be  that  our  great  State  of  New  York  should  take  the 
position  of  leadership  that  our  nation  and  our  Congress  is  read}7  to 
follow. 

In  the  matter  of  organization  of  their  roads  abroad  and  of  their 
personnel,  I  think  they  are  far  ahead  of  us.  I  found  every  man  an 
enthusiast  whom  I  met,  and  not  a  man  who  is  drawing  his  salary 
alone,  not  a  man  who  is  looking  for  the  loaves  and  fishes  alone  that 
come  out  of  his  position,  but  he  was  honestly,  earnestly  enthusiastic 
about  what  he  was  doing  and  accomplishing  and  felt  that  he  was 
almost  doing  a  holy  work. 

I  met  one  man  who  was  the  engineer  and  Highway  Engineer  of  one 
of  the  counties  in  England;  he  was  the  fourth  of  his  family  who  had 
held  that  office.  It  had  been  held  before  him  by  his  father,  his 
grandfather  and  his  great  grandfather. 

That  man  was  as  proud  of  his  position  as  a  Road  Engineer  and  the 
office  he  held,  as  any  man  could  be  proud  of  being  President  of  the 
United  States. 

In  France,  their  great  department  of  roads  and  bridges  is  probably 
the  best  organized  of  that  of  any  nation  in  the  world  and  in  Ger- 
many they  are  almost  equally  well  organized.  It  has  a  splendid 
department. 

In  the  same  direction,  the  roads  of  Switzerland,  which  is  a  very 
poor  country,  and  where,  in  some  cases,  the  roads  are  only  6  feet 
wide,  that  is,  the  third  class  or  communal  roads,  everyone  of 
them  is  metaled  or  macadamized,  and  everyone  of  them  is  good  to 
travel  over.  We  must  bring  ourselves  to  this  same  situation.  We 
have  got  the  ranking  member  of  the  road  committee  of  Congress 
with  us  and  a  very  prominent  member  of  the  appropriations  commit- 
tee, and  we  have  also  a  member  of  the  cabinet. 

I  think  we  should  lay  our  plans  before  them,  urge  good  roads  upon 
them  heartily  and  earnestly  and  see  if  we  cannot  get  a  great  national 
as  well  as  nationwide  disturbance  and  excitement  upon  this  subject 
and  we  will  have  real  progress  upon  this  great  road  problem  and 
prosperity  will  follow. 

Mr.  Diehl  in  the  chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  There  are  no  other  speakers  on  the  program  for 
this  morning  and  I  thought,  unless  there  is  some  objection,  or  other 
gentlemen  here  wish  to  address  you,  that  an  early  adjournment 
might  be  taken,  in  order  that  you  may  be  here  promptly  at  2.30  this 


ADDRESS   BY   COLONEL   WASHINGTON  21 

afternoon.  The  first  address  of  the  afternoon  is  by  the  secretary  of 
agriculture,  who  is  the  direct  representative  here  of  the  national 
administration.  He  is  here  at  the  invitation  of  the  officers  of  this 
Congress,  who  called  upon  the  President  of  the  United  States 
about  a  month  ago.  It  is  urged  that  every  delegate  be  here  promptly 
at  2.30,  so  that  the  representative  of  the  government  can  see  our 
interest  in  this  movement  and  that  he  can  be  enthusiastically  and 
earnestly  welcomed. 


GENERAL  SESSION 

UNDER  AUSPICES  OF  AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 
Monday,  September  29,  2.30  p.m. 

President  Page  in  the  Chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  Congress  will  please  come  to  order.  It  is 
my  very  great  pleasure  and  privilege  to  introduce  to  you  the  Secre- 
tary of  Agriculture,  Hon.  David  F.  Houston. 

ADDRESS  BY  HON.  DAVID  F.  HOUSTON 

United  States  Secretary  of  Agriculture 

I  am  greatly  pleased  to  be  received  in  such  generous  and  friendly 
fashion  by  this  sturdy  band  of  highwaymen.  I  feel  no  alarm  what- 
ever either  for  my  possessions  or  life.  Obviously,  times  have 
changed  and  we  have  changed  with  them.  You  differ  radically 
from  those  who  used  to  operate  along  the  highways,  at  least,  in 
attitude,  but  if  I  may  judge  from  some  expressions  that  I  heard 
this  morning,  there  is  a  suggestion  of  resemblance  as  to  the  holdup, 
with  no  little  balance  to  the  credit  of  your  predecessors  in  the  matter 
of  the  modesty  of  expectations.  I  am  not  here  to  attempt  to  con- 
vince you  of  the  need  for  good  roads.  I  might  easily  consume  the 
time  allotted  to  me  in  discussing  the  relation  of  good  roads  to  rural 
life,  to  the  increase  of  production  of  farm  products,  their  easy  and 
economical  distribution,  the  betterment  of  the  physical  conditions 
of  life  in  the  country  and  its  social  and  intellectual  attractiveness. 
There  is  no  manner  of  doubt  that  the  rural  life  problem,  so-called, 
is  one  of  the  most  pressing  and  important  that  engages  the  attention 
of  thoughtful  men. 

I  am  not  here  to  try  to  convince  you  of  the  necessity  for  good  roads 
or  of  their  economic  and  social  advantages.  This  would  be  ridicu- 
lous excess,  and  I  shall  assume  that  you  are  already  thorough  converts 
to  this  idea  and  that  your  mission  in  life  is  to  bring  the  people  generally 
to  your  way  of  thinking.  I  am  here  to  encourage  you  in  your  efforts 
so  far  as  my  presence  and  few  words  may  serve  as  encouragement,  and 
to  further  evidence  the  interest  of  the  department  of  agriculture,  and 
therefore  of  the  federal  government,  in  this  important  undertaking. 

You  know,  of  course,  that  the  department  of  agriculture  has  been 
directly  concerned  in  good  roads  for  many  years,  and  since  1893  has 
been  actively  engaged  in  investigative  and  educational  good  roads 
work.  The  first  appropriation  made  for  this  purpose  was  the  exceed- 

22 


ADDRESS  BY  DAVID  F.  HOUSTON  23 

ingly  modest  one  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  the  bill  directing  the  secre- 
tary of  agriculture  to  investigate  systems  of  road  management  through- 
out the  United  States.  This  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  office 
of  road  inquiry,  whose  scope  and  field  of  usefulness  has  been  broad- 
ened until  the  department  has  a  somewhat  comprehensive  organiza- 
tion known  as  the  office  of  public  roads.  Without  much  question  the 
importance  of  this  organization  will  be  further  recognized  and  its  activ- 
ities extended.  It  maintains  laboratories  for  testing  and  research 
work,  issues  numerous  publications  of  an  educational  character,  and 
maintains  a  corps  of  the  best  highway  engineers  and  road  experts 
obtainable.  It  has  actively  aided  states  and  communities  with  sug- 
gestions or  advice,  and  has  made  demonstrations  of  its  methods  as 
opportunity  has  presented.  It  has  aimed  to  be,  in  a  sense,  the  last 
and  best  word  in  the  nation  on  matters  of  road  construction  and  road 
administration.  Its  function  has  been  primarily  educational,  and  as 
such  it  has  been  recognized  to  be  of  great  value. 

Recently  Congress  took  a  step  of  great  importance  and  significance. 
Under  conditions  specified,  it  made  an  appropriation  of  half  a  million 
dollars  "to  be  expended  by  the  secretary  of  agriculture  in  cooperation 
with  the  postmaster-general  in  improving  the  condition  of  roads,  to  be 
selected  by  them,  over  which  rural  delivery  is  or  may  hereafter  be 
established, "  and  provided  that  such  improvements  should  be  made 
under  the  supervision  of  the  secretary  of  agriculture.  It  made  this 
appropriation  contingent  on  the  appropriation  by  the  state  or  the 
local  subdivision  thereof  in  which  such  improvement  was  to  be  made  of 
double  the  amount  of  money  for  such  improvement.  As  the  regular 
appropriation  for  the  office  of  public  roads  is  approximately  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  department  of  agri- 
culture has  been  charged  with  the  supervision  of  an  expenditure  for 
roads  of  about  one  and  three-quarter  million  dollars. 

So  much  for  the  interest  and  activity  of  the  department  of  agricul- 
ture. Even  more  striking,  of  course,  has  been  the  interest  aroused  in 
the  several  States  of  the  Union  and  very  marked  has  been  the  develop- 
ment. Ten  years  ago  only  a  handful  of  States  had  any  expert  central 
machinery  to  encourage  good  roads  and  to  supervise  their  construction 
and  these  were  confined  to  the  New  England  and  Eastern  Middle 
States.  Today  twenty-four  States  have  reasonably  efficient  highway 
commissions,  and  thirty-three  have  central  agencies  of  more  or  less 
importance.  Ten  years  ago  the  appropriation  by  states  for  good 
roads  slightly  exceeded  two  million  dollars.  In  1912,  the  appropria- 
tion was  over  forty-three  millions,  which  was  over  40  per  cent  of  the 
total  estimated  expenditure  by  the  States  up  to  December  31,  1911. 
It  is  estimated  that  aside  from  these  federal  and  State  appropriations 
there  was  expended  locally  in  1912  over  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
million  dollars,  and  quite  significantly  it  is  also  estimated  that  from 
20  to  40  per  cent  of  this  local  expenditure  was,  relatively  speaking 
wasted. 


24  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

Progress  in  the  last  decade  is  gratifying.  It  is  not  singular  that 
this  activity  should  not  have  been  witnessed  in  the  preceding  decades. 
Up  to  a  comparatively  short  time  ago,  the  people  of  this  nation  were 
pioneering  the  continent.  They  were  primarily  concerned  in  harness- 
ing the  natural  forces,  in  establishing  the  Union,  and  in  insuring  that 
it  should  not  "perish  from  the  earth. "  The  history  of  a  new  nation 
epitomizes  that  of  the  race.  At  first  men  must  concern  themselves 
with  the  great  problems  of  existence.  Government  activities  are 
restricted  to  the  establishment  and  preservation  of  order.  Develop- 
mental and  cultural  activities  are  the  last  to  receive  attention  in  a 
large  way.  Until  population  reaches  a  fair  degree  of  density,  individ- 
ualism dominates  thought  and  action,  and  only  as  population  and 
production  increase  does  the  sense  of  community  of  interest  rise  and 
does  individualism  wane.  Theories  of  government  arising  out  of 
these  conditions  pervade  legislation  and  administration.  The  notion 
that  government  is  a  necessary  evil  obtains,  and  that  that  government 
which  governs  least,  governs  best. 

We  have  passed  out  of  this  stage.  The  notion  that  the  government 
is  essentially  cooperation  is  fastening  itself  in  the  public  mind,  and  the 
conviction  grows  that  things  of  vast  economic  and  social  importance 
can  be  done  through  community  agencies  with  great  saving  of  waste 
and  with  adequate  efficiency.  One  gratifying  thing  today  is  that 
people  are  demanding  that  their  various  governmental  agencies  devote 
themselves  to  the  vital,  essential,  economic,  and  social  problems,  and 
when  this  idea  prevails  with  some  universality  throughout  the  na- 
tions, there  will  be  some  guarantee  for  the  diversion  of  the  resources 
of  the  people  from  the  destroying  and  wasteful  expenditure  for  war  to 
the  constructive  and  helpful  expenditure  for  the  development  of  so- 
ciety. The  concrete  evidence  presented  by  expenditures  for  roads, 
especially  by  the  State  or  local  communities,  furnishes  encouragement 
for  those  who  desire  to  see  these  communities  preserved  as  vital  parts 
of  our  governmental  arrangements. 

No  one  questions  that  the  States  and  the  localities  should  largely 
contribute  to  the  support  of  roads,  and  I  take  it  in  view  of  the  state  of 
mind  of  the  public,  as  expressed  through  its  unofficial  as  well  as  its 
official  channels,  and  through  concrete  legislation,  that  discussion  of  the 
wisdom  of  federal  encouragement  and  aid  would  be  merely  academic. 
The  main  questions  for  consideration  are  questions  of  the  extent  and 
character  of  such  aid,  and  of  methods  and  machinery— federal,  State, 
or  local.  Let  us  briefly  as  may  be,  call  to  mind  certain  of  the  con- 
trolling considerations. 

The  suggestion  of  great  national  transcontinental  roads  appeals  to 
my  imagination,  as  does  the  suggestion  of  interstate  roads  connecting 
capitals  or  cities  of  commercial  importance  to  my  logical  faculty  and 
to  the  sense  of  pleasure  that  I  experience  in  riding  about  the  country 
in  my  friends'  automobiles.  But  that  the  essential  thing  to  be  done 
is  the  providing  of  good  roads  which  shall  get  products  from  the  com- 
munity farms  to  the  nearest  station  and  make  rural  life  more  profit- 


ADDRESS   BY   DAVID    F.   HOUSTON  25 

able,  comfortable,  and  pleasurable,  I  entertain  no  sort  of  doubt;  and 
it  is  obvious  that  the  representatives  of  the  people  in  Congress  are 
like  minded.  For  in  making  their  appropriation,  they  stipulated  that 
it  should  be  used  in  improving  the  condition  of  post  roads  with  a  view 
to  the  economy  and  efficiency  of  postal  delivery  and  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  farm  products  to  the  market.  Such  roads  are  equally  essen- 
tial to  the  establishment  and  operation  of  decent  elementary  and  sec- 
ondary schools  for  the  benefit  of  the  country  boys  and  girls.  I  do  not 
eliminate  other  things  for  consideration,  and  I  do  not  underestimate 
the  rights  and  pleasures  of  the  automobilists  and  the  service  they  have 
rendered  in  the  propaganda  for  road  building. 

There  are  complex  problems  to  be  solved  in  many  States  before 
the  most  efficient  expenditure  of  money  by  States  and  communities 
for  roads  can  be  secured,  and  there  are  many  more  to  be  worked  out 
before  one  can  rationally  expect  the  federal  government  largely  to 
participate.  Who  shall  say  how  aid  should  be  appportioned  so  that 
the  States  may  receive  equitable  treatment?  Shall  it  be  apportioned 
equally  among  the  States  on  the  basis  of  total  population,  farm  popu- 
lation, area,  taxable  valuation,  road  mileage,  or  all  these;  and  should 
federal  money  be  expended  exclusively  through  its  own  agencies  for  a 
certain  system?  What  roads  are  to  be  improved?  There  are  ap- 
proximately two  and  a  quarter  million  miles  of  publicly-owned  roads 
in  the  nation.  Half  of  this  mileage  is  utilized  for  post  roads  and  less 
than  10  per  cent  of  the  total  can  be  classed  as  improved  in  any  large 
sense.  Shall  we  undertake  to  apply  aid  to  all  the  roads,  or  shall  we 
consider  this  task  too  gigantic?  Shall  we  apply  it  to  the  rural  routes 
or  shall  we  regard  this  as  equally  beyond  reason?  Or  shall  we  single 
out  certain  directions  in  which  central  roads  shall  run,  and  if  so,  how? 
Is  it  not  clear  that  this  opens  up  a  field  where  petty  politics,  commu- 
nity interest,  and  individual  selfishness  may  run  riot?  Assuming  that 
we  have  settled  this,  for  what  purpose  shall  the  aid  be  granted,  and  in 
what  proportion?  Shall  it  be  exclusivly  for  construction,  exclusively 
for  maintenance,  or  for  both?  Shall  it  be  to  pay  the  entire  cost  of 
either  or  both  of  these  items,  or  shall  it  be  dependent  on  the  equal  or 
larger  contribution  by  the  States  and  communities?  Shall  the  aid 
come  through  votes  of  money  out  of  the  treasury  or  from  the  sale  of 
bonds? 

That  the  suggestion  of  federal  aid  to  road  building  raises  grave  ques- 
tions and  involves  possible  dangers,  no  thoughtful  citizen  doubts. 
There  are  proposals  before  the  public  mind  which  would  bankrupt  the 
federal  treasury  and  suggest  possible  abuses  before  which  those  of  the 
worst  pork-barrel  bills  of  the  past  would  pale  into  insignificance.  No 
proposal  which  does  not  carry  with  it  the  assurance  of  safeguarding 
the  treasury  in  this  direction  seems  to  me  to  stand  the  ghost  of  a 
chance  of  favorable  consideration.  It  is  not  alone  the  fear  that  there 
would  be  no  stopping  place.  There  is  the  question  of  precedent. 
This  is  not  the  only  proposal  before  the  American  Congress  involving 
the  suggestion  of  huge  appropriations.  There  are  others  which  to 


26  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

their  advocates  are  just  as  important  and  are  being  just  as  insistently 
urged;  and  many  of  the  veteran  Congressmen  have  naturally  con- 
tracted the  habit  of  balking  automatically  at  such  proposals. 

It  would  be  especially  pernicious  if  such  aid  should  result  in  stifling 
the  spirit  of  local  self-help.  In  this  field,  as  in  others,  the  States  have 
recently  made  great  headway,  and  any  action  taken  should  unques- 
tionably result  in  the  fostering  of  this  spirit  and  in  the  efficient  direc- 
tion of  the  activities  to  which  it  may  lead. 

Another  difficulty  to  be  avoided  is  the  over-centralization  of  activ- 
ity in  these  intimate  internal  matters  and  the  building  up  of  a  great 
and  powerful  bureau  in  Washington,  with  an  ever-increasing  control 
over  the  highways  of  the  country.  The  dictates  of  prudence  and  ex- 
perience are  that  so  far  as  possible,  such  agencies  as  may  be  required 
should  be  efficiently  developed  in  the  several  States  and  that  the 
federal  agencies  should  work  in  a  spirit  of  complete  and  helpful  co- 
operation and  assistance. 

The  first  practical  essentials  in  the  planning  of  road  legislation 
would  seem  to  be  to  recognize  the  States  as  the  smallest  unit  with 
which  the  federal  government  might  deal.  This  would  give  relief  in 
a  measure  from  the  insistent  demand  that  would  come  from  every 
township  and  every  district  in  the  Union  for  its  share  of  State  or  fed- 
eral assistance,  without  reference  to  the  merits  of  the  case  or  the  prac- 
ticability of  the  undertaking.  As  has  been  stated,  many  of  the 
States  now  have  efficient  State  highway  departments,  and  thus  afford 
organized  agencies  with  which  the  federal  office  could  deal.  It  would 
seem  that  the  basic  feature  would  be  such  cooperation  between  the 
States  and  the  federal  government  as  would  leave  with  the  States 
the  initiative  in  the  selection  of  roads  to  receive  aid,  and  as  much  of 
the  immediate  construction  and  maintenance  as  would  be  practicable. 
In  the  case  of  roads  on  which  federal  money  is  to  be  expended,  it 
would  seem  essential  and  wise  that  the  federal  agency  should  have 
the  requisite  power  of  the  approval  of  the  selection,  supervision  of  the 
construction  and  maintenance,  and  the  right  of  inspection,  for  the 
plain  and  simple,  ordinary  purpose  of  seeing  that  the  federal  money  is 
applied  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  voted  and  is  efficiently 
expended. 

It  is  reasonably  clear  that  for  every  reason  there  must  be  some  auto- 
matic check  upon  the  demands  to  be  made  upon  Congress,  and  that 
this  should  be  afforded  through  the  requirement  that  the  States  and 
the  localities  should  contribute  an  amount  both  for  construction  and 
maintenance  at  least  equal  to  and  possibly  double  that  contributed 
by  the  federal  government;  and  that,  in  the  apportionment  of  any 
possible  federal  funds,  a  number  of  basic  factors,  such  as  population 
area,  wealth,  or  minimum  cost  of  construction,  should  control,  I  have 
not  the  least  doubt. 

There  may  be  those  who  "will  view  with  alarm"  any  suggestion 
that  the  federal  government  cooperate  with  the  States  financially  in 
road  building,  and  more  especially  that  it  exercise  an  adequate  meas- 


ADDRESS  BY  DAVID  F.  HOUSTON  27 

ure  of  control  and  supervision  even  over  the  expenditure  of  its  own 
funds.  The  cry  of  centralization — that  the  federal  government  aims 
unduly  to  extend  its  powers,  may  again  be  raised.  Yet,  in  a  field  of 
common  interest  and  of  inseparable  activities,  what  could  be  more 
natural  than  cooperation  and  mutual  assistance?  Why  should  the 
two  jurisdictions  serving  the  same  people  forever  stand  apart  and 
view  each  other  with  suspicion  and  distrust  while  nothing  is  done  or 
much  is  wasted?  And  is  it  not  worthy  of  note  that  the  alarm  never 
seizes  such  people  at  the  stage  of  the  discussion  in  which  it  would  be  of 
most  value?  They  are  not  in  the  least  timid  in  their  approaches  to 
the  federal  treasury,  and  their  courage  fails  them  only  when  it  is 
suggested  that  the  federal  government  has  a  right  to  see  that  the 
money  of  the  people  of  the  nation  is  wisely  and  efficiently  expended. 
If  they  are  to  take  counsel  of  their  alarms,  let  them  do  so  before  they 
determine  to  assault  the  treasury. 

In  short,  as  a  practical  program,  I  believe  that  this  matter  is  one  in 
which  haste  can  best  be  slowly  made.  The  people  will  sanction  a 
reasonable  expenditure  of  their  money — and  it  is  their  money  and 
theirs  only,  whether  it  be  expended  through  the  federal  government  or 
the  State — when  they  are  convinced  that  it  is  applied  to  a  wise  pur- 
pose and  will  yield  the  results  anticipated.  And  I  am  impressed  by 
the  wisdom  of  the  action  of  Congress,  in  the  midst  of  so  much  clamor, 
in  constituting  a  committee  "to  make  inquiry  into  the  subject  of 
federal  aid  in  the  construction  of  post  roads,  in  providing  an  appro- 
priation of  a  half-million  dollars  to  be  expended  cooperatively  with 
the  States  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  two,  and  in  requiring  the  secre- 
tary of  agricutlure  and  the  postmaster-general  to  report  to  Congress 
the  results  of  such  expenditure  "together  with  such  recommendations 
as  shall  seem  wise  for  providing  a  general  plan  of  national  aid  for  the 
improvement  of  postal  roads  in  cooperation  with  the  States  and  coun- 
ties, and  to  bring  about  as  nearly  as  possible  such  cooperation  among 
the  various  States  as  will  ensure  uniform  and  equitable  interstate 
highway  regulations."  This  indicates  a  wholesome  desire  to  know 
the  facts  as  well  as  generous  interest.  Too  short  a  time  has  elapsed 
to  judge  of  the  value  of  this  undertaking,  but  that  it  is  in  the  right 
direction,  few  will  question.  That  it  might  be  extended  with  ample 
funds  if  aid  is  to  be  furnished,  most  thoughtful  men  would  concede; 
and  the  plan  has  the  peculiar  value  of  being  susceptible  of  indefinite 
extension  in  case  the  results  should  be  found  to  justify  it. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  have  the  great  pleasure  of  having  with 
us  as  our  next  speaker  the  deputy  minister  of  railways  and  canals 
in  Canada.  As  the  secretary  of  agriculture  mentioned  a  few  hours 
ago  at  luncheon,  there  was  a  man  in  southern  Texas  who  had  done 
more  to  drive  desperadoes  off  the  border  than  any  other  man.  He 
came  to  New  York  once  and  went  to  a  banquet.  Someone  said  to 
him,  "Why,  how  did  you  manage  in  chasing  these  desperadoes  when 
you  got  them  near  the  line?  How  were  you  able  to  tell  which  side  of 


28  AMERICAN  BOAD    CONGRESS 

the  line  they  were  on?"  He  said,  "There  ain't  no  line  when  I  am 
after  a  desperado."  Now,  we  have  a  distinguished  gentleman  coming 
from  our  good  neighbor,  Canada,  the  Hon.  A.  W.  Campbell.  It  is 
my  pleasure  to  introduce  him. 

ADDRESS  BY  HON.  A.  W.  CAMPBELL 

Deputy  Minister  of  Railways  and  Canals  in  Canada 

I  am  sure  that  we  appreciated  very  much  the  kind  invitation  which 
was  extended  by  your  department  of  roads  to  the  government  of 
the  Dominion  of  Canada,  to  send  a  representative  here  to  meet 
with  you  on  the  occasion  of  this,  your  Good  Roads  Congress.  I 
was  very  glad  indeed  to  have  been  appointed  to  carry  the  greet- 
ings of  that  government  to  this  Road  Congress  and  to  say  that 
we  are  working  along  the  same  lines  that  you  are  working  today, 
with  the  object  of  trying  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  roads 
throughout  the  Dominion.  Now,  you  might  ask  why  I,  as  deputy 
minister  of  railways  and  canals,  should  be  interested  in  this 
question  of  wagon  roads  and  what  knowledge  I  should  have  of 
this  great  economic  measure  and  upon  what  authority  I  can 
speak  to  you  on  the  subject.  I  look  upon  our  system  of  trans- 
portation on  this  continent  as  being  made  up  of  wagon  roads, 
railroads  and  water  roads  or  the  highways  of  the  sea.  These 
three  branches  form  our  great  transportation  problem,  our  great 
transportation  system,  and  no  system  of  transportation  in  any 
country  is  complete  without  it  comprises  these  three  elements, 
and  of  these  three  elements  I  consider  that  that  branch  known 
as  the  common  wagon  road  is  the  most  important.  In  studying 
this  question  I  find  that  it  is  one  which  requires  the  very  closest 
possible  attention  and  involves  the  lifework  of  any  individual  who 
expects  to  become  an  expert  and  who,  as  such,  can  speak  with  au- 
thority, and  in  that  very  comprehensive  address  which  has  just  been 
delivered  by  your  honorable  secretary  of  agriculture,  you  can  easily 
see  that  he  has  grasped  the  whole  situation,  has  summed  it  up  in 
that  brief  and  concise  manner  and  has  struck  the  word  of  warn- 
ing which  must  be  taken  to  heart  and  considered  by  everybody, 
whether  he  has  to  do  with  the  actual  construction  and  mainte- 
nance of  roads  or  not.  I  am  a  civil  engineer  by  profession  and 
for  fourteen  years  I  devoted  my  time  as  a  road  commissioner 
in  the  Province  of  Ontario,  to  this  question  of  road  improvement 
or  this  movement  for  better  roads.  Since  that  time  I  have  been 
devoting  my  attention  to  the  other  branch  of  transportation,  known 
as  the  railway  and  waterway,  but  still  I  consider  that  my  studies 
have  been  along  the  same  line  and  that  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  I  have  planned  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  connection  with 
this  great  problem,  I  am  still  a  student  of  it,  and  your  worthy  presi- 
dent, who  is  looked  upon  as  being  the  greatest  authority  in  road  mak- 


ADDRESS    BY    A.    W.    CAMPBELL  29 

ing  today  on  the  continent  of  America,  will  tell  you  that  while  he 
has  practically  spent  a  lifetime  in  the  study  of  this  question,  yet 
there  are  phases  of  it  which  are  new  to  him  and  which  he  still  is 
studying  and  trying  to  get  more  light  upon.  The  ramifications 
of  the  transportation  system  are  so  great,  that  any  plan  which 
must  be  laid  down  in  order  to  meet  the  requirements  of  road  im- 
provement in  the  different  sections  of  the  country  is  so  extensive  or  so 
comprehensive  that  it  does  require  the  study  of  a  genius  and  an  ex- 
pert from  every  class  of  the  community  to  sit  down  as  one  commit- 
tee and  thresh  this  thing  out,  and  still  we  will  be  lacking  in  some 
respects  all  of  the  knowledge  that  is  required  to  solve  properly,  capably 
and  efficiently,  this  great  question.  Now,  sir,  I  am  still  a  stu- 
dent, and,  like  the  desperado  mentioned  in  the  incident  related 
by  your  president,  whenever  a  good  roads  congress  is  convened  in  the 
United  States,  it  seems  but  natural  that  if  we  in  Canada  receive  an 
invitation,  that  we  should  attend,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  it  may 
be  held  in  another  country.  I  come  across  here  from  Ottawa  to 
Detroit  without  thinking  that  I  am  crossing  a  boundary  line,  and  I 
come  in  here  to  discuss  this  question  and  to  absorb  some  of  the 
information  which  you  are  retailing,  with  the  greatest  possible  ease 
and  comfort,  just  the  same  as  I  would  go  into  one  of  our  own  munic- 
ipalities and  hear  the  matter  discussed  there.  I  am  not  forgetful 
of  many  pleasant  occasions  on  which  I  have  met  in  conference  the 
people  of  the  United  States  on  this  problem  and  I  certainly  feel 
deeply  thankful  for  many  of  the  profitable  suggestions  which  I  have 
received  at  these  meetings  and  carried  home  to  be  given  effect  to 
in  our  own  country  for  the  benefit  of  our  people,  and  if  at  any  time 
I  should  happen  to  drop  some  suggestion  that  might  be  of  benefit 
to  you,  I  will  only  feel  that  we  are  paying  some  small  percentage 
of  what  we  have  received  by  way  of  valuable  information  from 
your  people  and  from  your  very  capable  department  of  roads  at 
Washington.  Now,  sir,  why  should  I  say  that  the  question  of 
common  roads  is  as  important  as  that  of  railroads?  Simply 
because  the  common  road  is  the  feeder  of  the  railroad  and  the  rail- 
road is  the  feeder  of  the  steamboat  line.  Close  up  the  wagon 
roads  of  this  country  and  the  railroads  would  die  of  starvation. 
Your  great  ocean  freighters  would  rot  at  their  moorings,  yet  before 
the  era  of  railroads  great  civilizations  prospered.  They  had,  however, 
good  wagon  roads.  That  is  why  I  attach  so  much  importance  to  the 
wagon  road  end  of  the  transportation  system  and  that  is  why  I  say 
that  the  very  best  brains  and  minds  of  the  people  of  this  country 
can  afford  to  apply  themselves  to  a  study  and  consideration  of  this 
question.  The  very  figures  which  were  mentioned  by  the  honorable 
secretary  today  show  you  the  enormity  of  the  problem  and  show  you 
some  of  the  difficult  phases  of  this  question,  when  we  come  to  con- 
sider that  great  problem  of  national  or  state  aid.  If  we  would 
undertake  such  a  plan  as  he  pointed  out,  what  roads  are  to  be  im- 
proved? How  are  we  to  base  the  assessment?  Is  it  on  population 


30  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

or  assessed  value  or  on  area,  with  the  minimum  or  the  maximum 
applied?  He  has  sized  up  the  situation  in  a  nutshell  there  and  that 
is  one  of  the  difficult  problems  that  we  are  confronted  with  today. 
How  is  the  tax  to  be  levied?  What  roads  are  to  be  improved  and 
upon  what  basis  is  this  levy  to  be  made.  This  question,  however, 
you  will  discuss  and  this  is  a  question  which  you  will  solve,  because 
it  is  true  that  wherever  you  find  that  there  is  a  necessity  for  im- 
provement or  where  a  great  national  work  should  be  carried  out, 
it  is  surprising  how  quickly  you,  on  this  side  of  the  line,  determine 
the  ways  and  the  methods,  and  it  is  surprising  how  enthusiastic 
you  are  in  seeing  that  it  is  carried  as  quickly  as  possible  to  a  final 
result.  We  are  watching  you  closely  in  this  connection.  We  are 
going  to  try  to  follow  some  of  the  suggestions  that  will  be  made  at 
this  meeting  today,  because  we  require  suggestions  in  this  connec- 
tion, but  we  are  anxious,  you  are  anxious,  that  if  federal  aid  or  State- 
aid  for  road  improvement  is  to  be  adopted  in  our  country,  that  the 
plans  will  be  thoroughly  considered  and  properly  matured  before  any 
money  is  expended,  to  secure  that  a  dollar's  worth  of  results  will 
be  produced  with  every  dollar  that  is  expended.  It  is  an  un- 
fortunate thing  today,  but  it  is  one  which  must  be  admitted  by 
every  citizen  who  gives  the  question  the  slightest  thought,  that 
in  our  country  as  in  your  country,  on  the  roads  generally,  I  am 
speaking  now,  millions  of  days  of  labor  and  millions  of  dollars  of 
the  people's  money  is  being  wasted  and  practically  buried  in  the 
mud.  The  result  is  useless  and  it  would  be  better  for  us  to  have 
conserved  our  labor  and  have  saved  our  money  than  to  have  under- 
taken a  great  percentage  of  the  expenditures  we  have  made.  Un- 
fortunately, now,  in  connection  with  the  ordinary  roads,  we  are  not 
giving  them  the  thought  and  consideration  which  we  should.  Many 
of  us  here  today  are  disposed  to  consider  the  great  question  of  na- 
tional roads  or  expensive  roads,  and  it  would  appear  as  if  we  can 
afford  to  devote  our  time  to  a  consideration  of  these,  because  they  in- 
volve large  outlays  and  the  expenditure  of  thousands  of  dollars  per 
mile,  but  that  to  give  attention  to  the  ordinary  road  would  be 
so  commonplace  that  it  is  useless  for  us  to  think  about  it.  The 
ordinary  roadmaster  or  pathmaster  in  the  parish  may  look  after 
the  common  road,  but  as  soon  as  it  is  determined  to  spend  mil- 
lions upon  the  through  roads,  then  we,  as  engineers,  are  prepared 
to  take  a  hand  in  that  connection.  I  think  it  would  be  well  for  us 
to  consider  carefully  and  well  how  should  the  ordinary  road  be  im- 
proved, then  how  should  the  next  class  of  more  importance  be 
improved,  and  then  how  should  the  interstate  or  intertown  road  be 
constructed  in  the  most  capable  and  efficient  manner  so  as  to  provide 
the  least  resistance  to  the  traffic  passing  over  it?  Now,  in  any  of 
these  connections  it  is  advisable  that  we  should  carefully  plan  the 
work.  That  building  of  the  lateral  road,  the  artery  leading  back 
into  the  farm  yard  with  a  few  hundred  dollars  per  mile,  requires  care- 
ful planning,  careful  supervision  and  careful  attention,  and  if  we  are 


ADDRESS   BY   A.    W.    CAMPBELL  31 

to  consider  the  question  carefully  we  will  determine  that  these 
lateral  roads  are  deserving  of  just  about  as  much  consideration  as  the 
more  important  roads.  When  it  comes  to  the  more  important  road, 
it  appears  as  if  we  can  find  plenty  of  experts  who  will  spend  their 
time  in  planning  and  supervising  these,  but  let  me  say  in  that  con- 
nection that  whatever  expenditure  is  to  be  undertaken,  before  we 
commence  that  expenditure  we  should  see  to  it  that  provision  is 
made  for  a  proper  system  of  maintenance  by  which  these  roads  will 
be  cared  for  and  this  investment  will  be  protected,  and  the  work 
which  the  people  are  taxed  for,  especially  of  the  more  expensive 
character,  should  be  looked  after  in  that  systematic  way  that  the 
maintenance  will  be  reduced  to  a  matter  of  repair  by  never  allowing 
the  road  to  get  out  of  repair.  The  stitch  in  time  in  this  connection 
is  worth  millions  to  us  and  no  suggestion  of  the  expert  today  can 
be  more  important  than  that  we  watch  the  road  carefully  and  see 
when  it  commences  to  unravel  or  when  a  rut  appears  on  the  surface 
or  when  the  slightest  little  repair  is  required;  have  it  attended  to. 
That  is  the  time  to  make  the  repair,  not  after  the  road  has  become 
impassable  and  requires  an  expensive  outlay  to  bring  it  back  to 
condition.  Now,  in  many  of  your  States,  as  with  us,  carried  on 
by  this  agitation,  we  find  that  a  good  deal  of  temporary  work  has 
been  done;  the  ordinary,  waterbound  macadam  road  has  been  con- 
structed, and  in  our  desire  to  improve  a  great  mileage  to  satisfy  the 
people,  at  least  for  the  present,  we  have  gone  on  spending  large  sums 
of  money,  only  to  find  that  these  roads  have  not  been  built  sufficiently 
permanent  to  withstand  the  heavy  and  rapid  traffic  which  they  are 
subjected  to  at  the  present  time.  The  automobile  of  today,  with  its 
very  heavy  load,  requires  a  very  strong  road  to  support  that  load, 
and  with  its  rapid  movement,  requires  that  this  surfacing  should 
be  bound  together  in  a  manner  that  will  not  unravel  or  be  shifted 
by  the  speed  of  these  heavy,  fast-moving  machines.  Even  the  change 
in  the  class  of  traffic  has  brought  us  face  to  face  with  the  study  of 
almost  a  new  problem  in  connection  with  roadmaking  and  in  my  time 
this  phase  of  it  certainly  is  one  of  the  most  difficult.  How  we  should 
construct — I  heard  a  man  one  time  say  that  he  could  make  a  road 
with  6  inches  of  material,  good,  hard,  tough  broken  stone,  that  was 
just  as  serviceable  as  16  inches  of  material,  because  it  was  argued 
that  it  was  the  earth  foundation  that  carried  the  load  and  that  the 
broken  stone  was  simply  placed  there  to  form  a  crust  or  a  surface 
to  withstand  the  wear  and  to  shed  the  water,  but  that  the  foundation 
carried  the  load.  The  experience  of  the  older  countries  in  road  build- 
ing for  centuries  has  demonstrated  that  that  road  must  be  of  sufficient 
strength  to  carry  the  load  and  that  the  strength  of  the  road  must 
be  in  keeping  with  the  maximum  load  that  passes  over  it,  not  the  mean, 
not  the  minimum,  but  the  maximum,  and  that  at  the  most  try  ng 
season  of  the  year.  In  the  older  days,  these  roads  were  built  from 
18  inches  to  3  feet  in  thickness  and  built  of  large  stones  laid  in  the 
bottom,  following  with  a  smaller  grade,  until  it  is  surfaced  with  the 


32  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

finest  material;  that  binds  the  whole  together,  but  the  large  stones, 
up  to  2J/2  inches  in  diameter,  must  be  brought  as  nearly  as  possible 
to  the  surface;  then  the  surface  must  be  bound  with  the  finer  material 
and  this  should  be  cemented  together  by  the  use  of  either  some  form 
of  bitumen  asphalt  or  cement.  Which  of  these  is  the  better  for  the 
much  traveled  roads,  for  ordinary  work,  for  the  primary  road,  is  a 
question  I  want  to  hear  discussed.  It  is  not  yet  settled  and  it 
will,  I  think,  take  even  more  meetings  than  this  to  settle  it  to  the 
satisfaction  of  all,  but  it  is  a  very  important  question  in  connection 
with  your  deliberations  here,  and  it  is  one  of  the  questions  that  I  am 
chiefly  interested  in  and  I  would  be  very  glad  indeed  to  have  it 
discussed  and  to  hear  it  discussed  before  I  go  away.  I  am  delighted 
to  be  here,  to  have  this  opportunity  of  hearing  Secretary  Houston 
sum  up  this  whole  problem.  I  am  sure  that  I  carry  greetings  across 
the  border  with  me  to  the  Canadian  people  and  the  Canadian  gov- 
ernment. We  are  working  along  the  very  same  lines,  the  lines 
for  improving  or  making  better  the  condition  of  the  common  high- 
ways throughout  the  country.  These  lines,  no  doubt,  will  be 
classified  among  parish  and  county,  intercounty  to  state  roads, 
interstate  roads  to  national  roads  and  national  roads  that  will 
end  way  across  this  border,  joining  together  the  two  sections  of  the 
great  American  continent,  and  let  us  hope  and  wish  that  these  roads 
may  be  used  for  the  peace  and  good  will  of  all  those  who  wish  to  freely 
travel  on  them. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  It  is  our  pleasure  to  have  with  us  a  man  who, 
at  a  road  congress,  needs  no  introduction;  Colonel  Sohier,  chairman 
of  the  Massachusetts  highway  commission. 

LESSONS  LEARNED  AT  THE  RECENT  INTERNATIONAL 

ROAD  CONGRESS  IN  LONDON  AND  OBSERVATIONS 

OF  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  ROAD  SYSTEMS 

BY  COL.  WILLIAM  D.  SOHIER 
Chairman  Massachusetts  Highway  Commission 

The  Third  International  Road  Congress  was  held  in  London  the 
week  of  June  23-28.  Some  twenty-five  hundred  delegates  attended, 
representing  countries  all  over  the  world.  The  leading  road  engineers 
of  the  world  were  present,  and  the  papers,  which  were  printed  before- 
hand, were  most  interesting.  I,  and  I  am  sure  every  American  dele- 
gate who  attended,  felt  amply  repaid  for  the  trip  by  having  the  oppor- 
tunity to  meet  so  many  distinguished  engineers  representing  so  many 
countries.  Personally,  I  learned  more  by  meeting  and  talking  to  these 
engineers  than  I  did  at  the  sessions  of  the  Congress  itself,  where  there 
was  not  time  for  full  discussion  because  the  subjects  covered  too  broad 
a  scope  to  make  discussion  of  details  possible. 


LESSONS  LEARNED  AT  INTERNATIONAL  ROAD  CONGRESS     33 

I  am  sure  I  am  speaking  for  the  American  delegates  when  I  say  that 
I  feel  it  was  a  shame  that  the  United  States  should  not  be  officially 
represented  and  should  not  be  a  member  of  this  International  Road 
Association. 

The  United  States  has  not  joined  as  a  nation  and  was,  therefore,  not 
represented  by  delegates  representing  the  nation.  This  was  mortify- 
ing to  all  of  us,  and  I  believe  it  was  bad  for  the  country  itself. 

All  the  European  countries  and  England  not  only  belong,  but  were 
represented  by  large  numbers  of  their  leading  engineers,  men  who 
would  rank  with  any  of  our  engineers  in  this  country.  It  would  seem 
to  them  as  if  the  United  States  was  not  a  nation,  but  merely  an  aggre- 
gation of  States,  to  find  that  she  was  not  represented  and  had  not 
joined. 

I  personally  represented  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and  many  of 
the  other  delegates  represented  other  States.  The  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts joined  the  Congress  as  a  State;  and,  out  of  courtesy,  not  as 
of  right,  our  delegates  were  recognized.  It  should  be  a  right  and  not 
a  courtesy. 

By  having  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  other  States  represented 
in  this  way,  by  courtesy  of  the  convention,  merely  puts  us  on  the  same 
footing  as  Siam  or  Borneo.  It  was  very  mortifying,  and  I  believe, 
very  poor  policy  for  this  country.  I  hope  that  all  members  of  this 
Congress,  representing  all  the  States  in  the  Union,  will  join  with  me  in 
my  endeavor  to  see  to  it  that  this  is  rectified  before  the  next  Interna- 
tional Road  Congress. 

RESOLUTIONS  ADOPTED 

We  could  well  study  the  resolutions  adopted  by  this  and  the  former 
International  Road  Congresses.  Naturally  these  resolutions  are  very 
conservative,  because  they  have  to  represent  the  diverse  views  of 
various  countries  where  conditions  and  road  systems  are  totally  differ- 
ent. Therefore,  the  resolutions  should  be  carefully  studied,  and 
followed  almost  everywhere.  In  some  places  it  would  be  well  to  go 
further  in  the  same  direction.  I  will  only  mention  a  few  of  the  reso- 
lutions adopted. 

PLANNING   OF  NEW   STREETS  AND   ROADS 

1.  On  general  principles  it  was  decided  that  new  main  roads  on 
through  routes  should  be  constructed  by  passing  outside  rather  than 
through  the  small  villages.     This  would  make  the  road  safer  and 
would  be  much  less  expensive  than  a  wholesale  tearing  down  of  build- 
ings, which  would  be  necessary  to  get  sufficient  width  in  the  villages. 

2.  Grades  should  be  as  easy  as  possible,  especially  where  there  was 
much  heavy  traffic. 

3.  Curves  where  there  was  fast  traffic  should  provide  the  best 
possible  view  and  the  longest  possible  radius.     When  a  short  radius 
was  inevitable  there  should  be  marks  showing  the  danger. 


34  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

4.  Street  railway  tracks,  if  they  could  not  be  placed  in  a  specially 
reserved  place,  should  be  in  the  center  of  the  road,  and  space  should 
be  provided  on  either  side  for  two  tracks  for  vehicles. 

5.  In  laying  out  new  main  traffic  roads  sufficient  space  should  be 
allowed  for  what  may  ultimately  be  required,  like  street  railway  tracks 
room  for  fast  and  slow  traffic,  etc. 

6.  The  planning  for  these  main  roads  of  communication  should  be 
undertaken  at  once,  and  it  was  important  that  central  State  authority 
should  take  interest  in  the  matter  and  be  given,  to  some  extent,  the 
supervision  and  authority. 

There  were  so  many  other  resolutions  adopted  that  I  cannot  men- 
tion them  in  this  paper,  but  they  will  amply  repay  study,  covering  as 
they  do  "Types  of  Surfacing  to  be  Adopted  on  Bridges,  Viaducts, 
etc.;"  "Construction  of  Macadamized  Roads  and  Bituminous 
Macadam  Roads,"  with  full  particulars  as  to  the  way  of  building, 
materials  to  be  used,  and  how  to  use  them;  resolutions  as  to  wood 
paving,  methods  of  lighting  highways  and  vehicles;  and  conclusions 
regarding  various  causes  of  wear  and  deterioration  of  roadways  noted 
since  the  1908  International  Road  Congress. 

I  might  note  in  this  connection  that  the  resolutions  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  high-speed,  light  motor  vehicles  rapidly  destroy  water- 
bound  macadam  roads,  but  did  not  cause  serious  or  exceptional  wear 
or  damage  where  the  roads  had  been  properly  treated  with  some 
bituminous  material,  except  on  curves.  Also,  that  it  was  most  im- 
portant with  heavy  traffic  that  the  width  of  tires,  the  diameter  of  the 
wheels  and  loads  to  be  carried  should  be  regulated. 

A  resolution  was  passed  relating  to  the  regulation  of  fast  and  slow 
traffic  to  the  effect  that  some  authority  should  be  established  to  regu- 
late and  direct  this  traffic  at  all  congested  points,  and  that  the  regula- 
tion should  define  the  rights,  duties,  and  responsibilities  of  each  kind 
of  traffic,  including  not  only  vehicle  traffic,  but  pedestrians. 

A  resolution  was  adopted  that  the  unit  of  highway  administration 
must  always  be  sufficiently  large  and  should  command  sufficient 
money  so  that  a  competent  staff  of  engineers  could  be  employed.  This 
question  is  of  great  importance  in  this  country;  in  fact,  of  more  im- 
portance it  seems  to  me  than  any  other,  because  I  believe  that  in 
many  places  the  public  money  spent  on  roads  is  largely  wasted  from 
the  lack  of  proper  engineering  advice  and  adequate  supervision. 

I  would  call  special  attention  to  one  particular  resolution,  as  it 
seems  to  me  most  important  at  this  time  in  this  country  where  so 
many  States  are  borrowing  money,  and  even  the  national  government 
has  considered  entering  into  the  work  of  road  improvement.  This 
resolution  is  to  the  effect  that  borrowing  money  for  new  main  road 
construction  is  only  consistent  with  sound  financial  principles  pro- 
vided the  loan  period,  in  the  case  of  loans  for  renewals  is  kept  well 
within  the  life  of  the  surface  coatings,  and  of  course  provided  also 
that  the  loan  period  is  kept  well  within  the  life  of  the  road,  or  enough 
of  it  is  paid  during  that  period  to  cover  the  deterioration  of  the  road 
surface. 


LESSONS  LEARNED  AT  INTERNATIONAL  ROAD  CONGRESS     35 
ROADS  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND 

I  spent  about  ten  days  in  learning  all  that  I  was  able  to  about  the 
roads  in  France,  and  the  same  in  England,  in  addition  to  special  trips 
which  I  made  to  see  particular  pieces  of  roads,  particular  pavements, 
etc.,  in  and  around  Paris,  London  and  Liverpool. 

I  examined  something  over  one  thousand  miles  in  France  and  the 
same  number  of  miles  in  England.  While  I  recognize  fully  that  this 
did  not  give  me  sufficient  opportunity  to  really  be  familiar  with  road 
systems  in  France  and  England,  and  therefore  my  observations  are 
not  conclusive,  I  feel  it  may  be  worth  while  to  present  a  few  of  them 
which  were  interesting  to  me  and  may,  therefore,  be  interesting  to 
other  road  builders. 

THE   COST  OP  A   ROAD   SYSTEM 

We  must  not  expect  too  much  in  this  country,  where  we  have  some 
two  million  miles  of  public  roads.  We  must  recognize  the  money 
which  will  be  required  and  the  time  which  must  elapse  before  we  can 
even  think  of  attaining  the  position  that  France  and  England  now  hold 
in  regard  to  roads.  Their  roads  have  been  built  for  years,  and  to  a 
large  extent  they  have  been  built  of  macadam  for  years. 

In  France  practically  all  the  roads  are  already  built  and  very 
few  new  ones  will  have  to  be  built.  Their  whole  problem  is  one  of 
maintenance. 

It  would  be  well  for  us  to  consider  the  magnitude  of  the  problem. 

France  has  about  twenty-five  times  the  area  of  Massachusetts,  and 
has  about  twelve  times  its  population.  Practically  all  over  the  coun- 
try its  roads  are  laid  out  on  a  uniform  width,  and  are  of  almost  uni- 
form construction  of  some  form  of  macadam.  All  road  work  is  done 
under  the  supervision  of  the  government  engineers. 

France  has  about  24,000  miles  of  national  routes  and  8,000  miles  of 
departmental  routes.  It  has  over  107,000  miles  of  what  might  be 
called  country  roads,  47,000  miles  of  roads  that  interest  several  com- 
munities and  184,000  miles  of  country  roads.  Their  total  road  mile- 
age is  371,700  miles,  and  it  cost  $1,663,000,000  to  build  it. 

We  must  remember  that  their  roads  were  built  years  ago  when 
land  was  cheap  and  when  their  labor  was  much  cheaper  than  now,  and 
that  their  labor  cost  today  is  not  more  than  half  the  labor  cost  in  most 
parts  of  this  country. 

Even  with  their  low  cost  of  labor  their  national  roads  cost  some- 
thing over  $12,000  a  mile;  departmental  roads  $7,700,  a  mile;  county 
roads,  $6200  a  mile,  and  their  local  roads  about  $2500  a  mile,  or  an 
average  cost  of  nearly  $4500  a  mile. 

But  most  important  of  all  is  the  fact  that  the  annual  maintenance  of 
these  roads  costs  nearly  $45,500,000  a  year,  of  which  $6,500,000  is 
provided  by  the  national  government  and  $39,000,000  by  the  eighty- 
six  departments.  The  amount  furnished  by  the  departments  is  prac- 
tically $1  per  year  for  each  inhabitant,  man,  woman,  and  child. 


36  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

To  secure  any  such  road  system  in  our  little  State  of  Massachu- 
setts, with  her  23,000  miles  of  road,  means  years  of  work  and  over 
$100,000,000  in  money.  At  the  smallest  calculation  she  would  have 
to  spend  $5,000,000  a  year  for  the  next  twenty  years  to  build  her 
trunk  lines  and  secondary  roads  alone. 

I  think  we  can,  however,  all  profit  a  great  deal  by  studying  the 
French  road  system.  The  most  important  lesson  of  all  that  they 
teach  us,  it  seems  to  me,  is  that  we  should  secure  proper  locations  for 
our  highways,  sufficient  width  for  all  future  use  (their  main  highways 
are  60  feet  in  width),  and  wherever  possible  we  should  secure  that 
width  in  our  location. 

The  macadam  on  the  national  routes  is  24  feet  in  width,  on  the 
departmental  roads  18  feet,  and  on  most  of  the  other  roads  about  15 
feet.  There  is  a  grass  shoulder  on  each  side,  about  15  feet  in  width. 

Of  course  I  have  not  time  to  give  more  than  a  few  general  observa- 
tions. 

The  first  and  most  important  is  that  they  are  spending  over  $45,- 
000,000  a  year  for  maintenance  on  371,000  miles  of  road.  This  is 
about  $125  a  mile  a  year;  and  we  must  remember  that  all  of  their 
roads  have  been  built  for  years  and  are  practically  today  all  water- 
bound  macadam  roads,  where  they  have  not  already  put  in  some  more 
permanent  form  of  construction. 

I  see  by  the  papers  that  their  minister  of  public  works  is  now  recom- 
mending that  $50,000,000  additional  be  provided  to  be  used  during 
the  next  ten  or  twelve  years  for  some  bituminous  binder  on  some 
6000  miles  of  national  roads.  I  may  say  in  passing,  it  is  greatly 
needed. 

France  has  undoubtedly  the  best  road  system  in  the  world  so  far  as 
location,  layout,  foundation,  drainage,  etc.,  are  concerned;  but  where 
there  is  much  motor  vehicle  travel — and  that  is  near  the  cities — 
their  macadam  roads  are  going  to  pieces,  and  just  as  fast  I  think  as 
our  waterbound  macadam  roads  have  in  this  country  since  the  advent 
of  the  motor  vehicles.  Wherever  the  motor  traffic  is  heavy,  near  the 
cities,  I  found  the  macadam  roads  extremely  rough  and  going  into 
pot  holes  as  they  are  here;  but  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  this  observa- 
tion would  not  cover  many  miles  of  road  in  all  out  of  their  371,000 
miles,  because,  especially  near  Paris,  they  are  already  using  tar  or 
some  bituminous  binder,  either  in  construction  or  as  a  surface  coat. 

One  noticeable  thing  in  both  England  and  France  was  that  except 
near  the  cities  one  did  not  meet  even  10  per  cent  of  the  number  of 
motor  vehicles  that  one  usually  encounters  here,  at  any  rate  in  the 
eastern  States.  This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  their  waterbound 
macadam  roads  have  stayed  in  such  good  condition. 

Traveling  as  I  did  on  the  main  routes  in  Touraine  through  the 
chateau  district,  Brittany  and  Normandy,  which  are  very  popular,  I 
think  I  often  did  not  meet  more  than  ten  or  twelve  motor  cars  in  100 
miles,  and  there  were  very  few  teams  except  near  the  villages. 


LESSONS   LEARNED   AT   INTERNATIONAL   ROAD   CONGRESS  37 

As  we  all  know  in  France  they  have  a  patrol  system.  You  still  see 
the  piles  of  stone  on  the  roadside  ready  to  be  broken  up  and  put  on  the 
road,  but  in  the  whole  1000  miles  which  I  went  over,  on  perhaps  only 
four  places — less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  each — did  I  see  any  dry 
stone  put  upon  the  road  to  fill  the  holes,  and  in  these  instances  it  was 
scattered  over  the  road  by  the  motor  vehicles  as  it  is  in  this  country. 

They  have  found  it  necessary  there  to  use  some  binder  in  their 
patches,  and  in  both  France  and  England  on  their  main  roads  I  found 
they  were  using  tar.  They  were  painting  the  bottom  and  painting 
the  stone  with  tar,  and  covering  with  sand,  or  filling  in  with  stone 
that  was  already  coated. 

It  was  evident  to  me  that  in  neither  France  nor  England  can  they 
maintain  waterbound  macadam  roads  where  they  have  more  than 
fifty  automobiles  a  day,  and  keep  them  in  reasonably  good  condition, 
without  the  use  of  some  bituminous  material. 

Every  road  that  I  saw  in  France  had  a  ditch  on  each  side  to  carry 
the  drainage.  This  ditch  was  usually  placed  beyond  the  15-foot 
grass  shoulder,  and  had  waterways  connecting  into  it. 

On  almost  all  of  the  main  roads  where  there  was  a  grade  of  3  per 
cent  or  more,  they  had  a  shoulder  on  the  side  of  the  macadam  and  a 
paved  gutter  about  4  feet  in  width.  This  was  made  of  larger  blocks  of 
stone  than  ordinary  paving  stone. 

One  very  noticeable  thing,  and  one  that  we  could  well  copy,  was 
that  the  gutter  was  laid  out  on  almost  the  same  crown  as  the  road,  so 
one  could  travel  on  it  without  any  inconvenience. 

The  crown  of  the  roads  there  was  flatter  than  ours,  not  more  than 
\  inch  in  the  foot;  often  less. 

I  saw  many  places  in  the  villages  and  in  the  parks  near  Paris  where 
the  gutters  were  across  the  road.  These  gutters  were  constructed  so 
wide,  and  so  shallow,  that  at  any  reasonable  rate  of  speed  (say  15  miles 
an  hour)  an  automobile  would  go  over  them  without  having  anyone 
inconvenienced,  even  in  the  back  seat. 

ENGLAND 

I  must  pass  on  to  English  roads. 

In  England  they  have  a  different  road  system  than  that  of  France. 
The  county  boards  and  county  engineers  have  charge  of  the  main 
roads  outside  villages,  though  the  central  government  is  now  helping 
to  improve  main  roads,  and  has  a  competent  board  of  engineers  to 
advise  on  the  kind  of  improvement  to  be  made. 

The  central  government  has  some  $5,000,000  a  year  with  which  it  is 
helping  its  counties  to  make  improvements.  This,  by  the  way,  is 
secured  from  a  tax  of  6  cents  a  gallon  on  gasoline,  and  from  the  motor 
vehicle  fees,  which  are  extremely  large;  for  instance,  a  40  h.p.  Packard 
would  be  taxed  about  $110  a  year  in  England,  and  other  cars  in 
proportion. 


38  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

I  should  judge  that  England  had  on  its  main  roads  much  more 
motor  traffic  than  there  is  in  France;  although  even  in  England,  so  far 
as  I  went,  there  was  very  much  less  motor  traffic  out  in  the  country 
than  there  is  in  this  country,  though  there  is  a  tremendous  motor 
travel  near  the  cities,  particularly  in  London. 

What  is  particularly  noticeable  in  connection  with  the  English 
traffic  is  the  tremendous  number  of  traction  engines  and  trailers, 
which  one  meets  everywhere,  hauling  8  to  10  tons,  on  iron  tires. 

I  understand  from  their  engineers  that  this  kind  of  traffic  will 
rapidly  cut  through  and  destroy  any  macadam  road  which  is  less  than 

5  inches  in  depth.     So  far  as  I  could  learn,  they  are  now  building 
most  of  their  heavily  traveled  main  roads  of  at  least  9  inches  of  mac- 
adam, the  top  3  inches  of  which  is  made  of  bituminous  macadam  or  a 
tarred  slag. 

In  and  around  London  they  have  tremendous  numbers  of  motor 
'busses,  which  travel  in  rubber  tires,  and  often  go  10  to  25  miles  out  in 
the  country,  with  a  five  minute  service.  They  are  practically  like  our 

6  ton  trucks. 

The  road  surfaces  there  are  remarkably  good,  and  they  have  now 
about  40,000  miles  of  road  where  the  surface  has  been  coated  with 
tar.  On  the  whole,  I  should  say  that  their  road  surfaces  on  main 
roads  were  much  better  than  those  in  France  because  they  have  used 
much  more  tar  and  bituminous  macadam.  In  England  and  in  France 
they  are  covering  all  their  tarred  surfaces  with  sand,  gravel  or  pea 
stone  and  dust. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  English  layouts  are  inconceivably  bad. 
Their  roads,  even  on  the  main  lines  of  travel,  are  extremely  narrow, 
and  the  corners  very  blind.  Often  there  is  not  room  to  pass  the  trac- 
tion engine  that  one  so  frequently  meets. 

I  hardly  expect  to  be  believed,  but  I  went  over  very  many  miles  of 
road  where  the  road  ran  between  banks,  or  between  walls,  where  there 
was  absolutely  not  room  to  pass  sometimes  for  from  an  eighth  to  a 
quarter  of  a  mile,  and  then  one  could  only  pass  at  a  turnout.  I 
measured  several  such  roads  where  the  distance  between  banks  on  the 
road  was  only  nine  to  eleven  feet. 

The  surfaces,  however,  were  almost  uniformly  good  except  near  the 
cities  where  the  motor  travel  was  heavy;  and  here  again  the  water- 
bound  macadam  road  was  full  of  holes  and  rapidly  going  to  pieces 
when  it  had  not  been  treated  with  tar.  It  is  only  fair  to  say,  however, 
that  most  of  them  were  treated  with  tar.  Right  near  Hyde  Park  in 
London  I  saw  as  rough  a  piece  of  macadam  road  as  one  could  find 
anywhere  in  this  country  near  any  of  our  cities. 

One  of  the  most  noticeable  things  about  the  English  roads,  as  with 
the  French,  was  that  the  whole  width  of  road  surface  was  made  suita- 
ble for  travel  from  shoulder  to  shoulder.  This,  of  course,  was  neces- 
sary in  England  where  the  roads  are  so  narrow. 

The  most  severe  criticism  on  the  English  roads  today  would  be  that 
they  have  not  sufficient  width,  have  very  bad  corners,  and  in  many 


LESSONS   LEARNED   AT  INTERNATIONAL  ROAD   CONGRESS  39 

places  not  only  no  sufficient  provision  for  drainage,  but  practically 
almost  no  provision  whatever. 

Many  times  it  looked  as  if  the  road  was  going  to  carry  the  water 
from  the  surrounding  country,  and  would  be  something  more  like  a 
drainage  canal  than  a  road,  in  a  heavy  downpour. 

They  have,  however,  realized  the  importance  of  the  drainage  prob- 
lem and  are  rapidly  making  great  improvements. 

MAINTENANCE 

We  can  learn  a  great  deal  from  the  English  in  the  matter  of  main- 
tenance. With  a  total  of  over  150,000  miles  of  road  in  England  and 
Wales,  they  classify  as  main  roads  27,800  miles.  The  average  cost  of 
maintenance  of  these  27,800  miles  of  road  is  $475  a  mile  a  year.  We 
should  remember  this  in  this  country. 

Ninety-five  thousand  miles  of  road  in  England  are  maintained  by 
the  local  authorities;  they  are  called  rural  roads.  Even  on  these 
roads  the  average  amount  spent  for  maintenance  per  mile  a  year  is 
$115. 

Remember  that  their  labor  costs  much  less  than  in  this  country. 

On  2173  miles  of  road  maintained  by  the  London  authorities  (not 
including  the  London  County  Council),  the  average  cost  of  main- 
tenance is  $1675  a  mile  a  year,  or  that  was  the  cost  some  years  ago;  I 
am  informed  it  has  substantially  increased  since  that  time. 

No  wonder  they  can  keep  good  surfaces. 

The  engineer  in  the  County  of  Lancashire,  Mr.  Schofield,  told  me 
that  he  had  something  over  600  miles  of  road  to  maintain,  and  that 
this  year  he  had  an  average  of  $1500  a  mile  for  maintenance.  Of 
course,  we  must  remember  that  "maintenance"  means  not  only  ordi- 
nary maintenance,  but  includes  resurfacing  and  even  reconstruction. 

Mr.  Schofield  told  me  that  many  of  his  roads  had  an  average  of 
from  50  to  75  traction  engines,  hauling  trailers,  going  over  the  road 
every  day.  He  said  they  had  absolutely  destroyed  the  6  inch  water- 
bound  macadam  road,  and  that  he  was  reconstructing  his  roads  with 
what  we  would  call  a  telford  base  and  9  inches  of  macadam,  with  the 
top  3  inches  made  of  bituminous  macadam.  To  build  a  road  of  this 
character  in  Massachusetts  would  cost  from  $20,000  to  $25,000  a  mile 
for  a  road  18  feet  in  width. 

In  the  towns  that  I  went  through  in  his  county  he  was  building 
granite  block  pavement  grouted  with  cement  laid  on  a  6-inch  concrete 
base. 

OTHER   LESSONS 

I  can  only  give  a  very  few  observations  of  the  other  things  that  I 
saw. 

In  England  and  France  I  saw  many  places  where  resurfacing  was 
going  on.  They  were  uniformly  resurfacing  with  what  they  called  a 
granite,  either  Belgian  or  Welsh;  what  we  should  really  call  a  trap. 


40  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

What  impressed  me  particularly  was  that  if  they  resurfaced  at  all 
they  used  what  we  call  a  No.  1  stone,  at  least  a  2f-  or  3-inch  stone, 
and  only  about  10  per  cent  of  the  finer  stone.  This  was  true  wherever 
they  were  resurfacing. 

In  France  where  I  saw  them  resurfacing  they  were  generally  using 
stone  alone,  but  in  England  they  were  putting  on  slag,  coated  with 
tar,  of  this  large  size,  or  a  3-inch  stone  coated  with  tar. 

Their  method  was  to  lay  this  stone,  what  they  call  one  stone  deep, 
roll  it  slightly,  and  then  roll  in  10  per  cent  of  No.  2  and  some  chips 
coated  with  tar. 

I  saw  several  of  these  roads,  which  carried  very  heavy  traffic,  that 
were  in  very  good  condition  indeed,  although  three  or  four  years  old. 

In  Liverpool  I  saw  one  tar  macadam  road  built  by  the  socalled 
"Brodie  method, "  which  is  to  grout  the  ,top  3  inches  No.  1  stone,  when 
it  is  rolled,  with  a  mixture  of  equal  volume  tar  and  sand.  The  sand 
is  heated  to  the  temperature  of  the  tar,  the  mixture  kept  agitated 
and  poured  evenly  into  the  stone  until  it  flushes  to  the  surface,  and 
then  10  per  cent  of  No.  2,  or  finer  stone,  rolled  in.  This  road  was 
eleven  years  old,  and  still  in  very  good  order,  whereas  a  waterbound 
macadam  road,  just  beyond,  carrying  the  same  traffic,  had  been  resur- 
faced three  times  in  eleven  years,  and  today  is  rougher  than  the  tar 
macadam. 

ROADS  NEVER   CLOSED 

I  was  informed  that  they  never  close  the  road  in  England  or  France 
for  resurfacing.  Personally,  I  must  have  gone  over  at  least  one  hun- 
dred places  where  the  roads  were  being  resurfaced,  and  invariably— 
whether  it  was  waterbound  macadam,  tarred  macadam  or  tarred 
slag — they  were  repairing  one-half  of  the  road  only  and  left  one-half 
over  which  one  could  pass  reasonably  comfortably. 

In  some  instances  where  they  were  laying  tar  macadam  they  held 
the  middle  of  the  road  with  timber.  Near  London  they  had  a  police- 
man at  each  end  of  the  section  where  the  work  was  in  progress,  and 
vehicles  went  through  in  single  file.  This  particular  road  had  so  much 
heavy  travel  that  each  of  the  four  times  I  went  over  it  I  should  think 
there  were  at  least  twenty  vehicles,  two  or  three  of  which  were  motor 
'busses,  that  had  to  wait  until  the  other  line  got  through. 

The  method  by  which  they  did  this  in  the  country,  however,  was  to 
spread  their  stone  or  tarred  stone,  or  slag  of  large  size,  over  half  the 
road,  and  roll  it  lightly,  then  put  on  the  finer  material  and  roll  that, 
then  spread  the  other  half. 

Four  or  five  places  where  I  inquired  I  found  that  they  did  very  short 
stretches  at  a  time,  and  at  night  finished  up  with  a  square  end. 

At  no  place  in  either  England  or  France  could  I  discern  any  line  in 
the  middle  of  the  road  where  the  joining  came. 

In  England  the  crown  was  only  1  inch  in  a  yard  and  the  surface  al- 
most invariably  went  from  bank  to  bank,  wall  to  wall,  or  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  so  that  one  would  travel  over  the  entire  width  of  the  road. 


LESSONS  LEARNED  AT  INTERNATIONAL  ROAD  CONGRESS     41 

In  England,  as  in  France,  the  patches  they  were  putting  onto  their 
macadam  roads  were  made  of  tar  on  all  main  roads.  They  did  not 
try  to  patch  with  stone  alone. 

There  is  still  another  observation  I  would  like  to  record,  and  that  is 
that  the  tars  in  England  seemed  very  much  more  lasting  and  elastic 
and  more  sticky  than  ours. 

I  only  saw  possibly  one  mile  of  road  in  all  where  the  tar  surface 
seemed  to  be  picking  up;  in  other  words,  where  the  stone  showed  below 
it,  and  in  that  instance  it  would  undoubtedly  be  patched  at  once  and 
before  a  pot  hole  came.  With  that  one  exception,  their  tar  surfaces 
were  practically  perfect.  There  were  no  pot  holes,  and  when  one  dug 
into  the  tar  it  always  seemed  alive,  sticky  and  soft. 

In  the  past  I  heard  several  things  that  I  think  are  not  so  now. 
One  was,  that  they  coated  their  roads  with  tar  in  England  and  France 
and  did  not  cover  the  tar  with  sand  or  dust.  This  I  think  is  not  true; 
first,  because  I  saw  the  sand  cover  used  everywhere,  or  else  a  covering 
of  pea  stone  and  dust.  On  every  road  I  examined  or  passed  over  a 
covering  had  been  used.  Also  I  inquired  of  the  engineers  of  the  Eng- 
lish road  board,  and  they  told  me  there  was  only  one  county  left  in 
England  and  one  engineer  now  who  thought  he  could  put  on  tar  with- 
out using  a  cover.  All  the  others  said  they  had  to  use  the  cover  to 
prevent  damage  to  clothes  and  vehicles,  and  most  of  them  believed  it 
added  to  the  life  of  the  road. 

Another  thing :  On  only  a  very  few  miles  of  road  was  there  any  of 
that  mosaic  effect  that  we  had  been  told  about.  The  engineers  tell 
me  that  that  effect  came  the  first  year  when  they  had  used  only  say 
one-sixth  of  a  gallon  of  tar  per  square  yard,  and  where  it  had  worn 
off  on  the  tops  of  the  stones,  but  when  they  received  a  second  appli- 
cation, with  sand  covering,  it  made  a  blanket  coat  just  such  as  we 
have  in  this  country. 

Most  important  of  all,  the  English  roads  are  constantly  maintained. 
Remember  the  money  available  and  necessary  on  the  main  county 
roads;  two  counties  with  $1500  a  mile  a  year. 

In  Massachusetts  we  find  we  can  maintain  our  oil  and  tar  surfaces 
most  economically  by  having  a  team  and  two  or  three  men  constantly 
patching  from  6  to  8,  or  even  10  miles  of  road.  If  this  work  is  well 
done  we  never  have  any  holes. 

Another  important  consideration  was  that  in  both  England  and 
France  all  road  work  is  in  charge  of  competent,  trained  engineers,  who 
not  only  have  technical  training,  but  many  years  of  practical  exper- 
ience. They  stay  in  office  as  long  as  they  are  competent  and  efficient ; 
it  is  not  a  matter  of  politics.  They  have  entire  charge  of  road  building 
and  road  repairs,  and  employ  efficient  foremen  and  workmen.  These 
facts  largely  account  for  the  results  obtained. 

STREETS   WHEN   BUILT  ARE   NOT   OFTEN   DUG   UP 

Another  most  valuable  lesson,  that  most  of  our  cities,  especially, 
could  learn  from  the  practice  in  most  of  the  cities  abroad,  and  that  is  to 
leave  your  street  surfaces  alone  after  they  are  built. 


42  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

When  this  is  impossible,  and  the  street  has  to  be  dug  up,  the  street 
department  re-lays  the  pavement  or  surface,  and  collects  the  expense 
of  putting  the  surface  into  good  condition  again  and  maintaining  it 
for  a  reasonable  period  of  time. 

Water  pipes,  local  sewers,  gas,  electric  conduits,  etc.,  should  be  so 
located  that  they  can  be  connected  with  the  buildings  without  dis- 
turbing an  expensive  street  pavement. 

If  this  cannot  be  done,  then  the  authorities  in  charge  of  the  streets 
should,  as  I  said  before,  do  all  necessary  work  to  put  the  street  surface 
into  good  condition  and  the  cost  should  be  borne  by  the  company  or 
department  which  required  the  digging. 

Thousands,  and  perhaps  millions,  of  dollars  are  wasted  yearly  in 
this  country  in  building  roads  and  streets  only  to  have  them  dug  up 
and  made  nearly  impassible  in  a  year  or  two. 

It  is  no  unusual  sight  in  my  State  to  see  a  street  dug  up  twice  or 
three  times  in  one  year,  and  it  is  hardly  ever  properly  repaired.  In 
consequence,  paved  streets  that  would  have  remained  in  good  con- 
dition twenty  to  forty  years,  have  to  be  reconstructed  in  five  or 
ten  years  at  enormous  cost.  In  the  meantime  they  are  in  wretched 
condition. 

The  time  has  come,  in  my  opinion,  when  no  one  should  be  allowed 
to  dig  up  our  roads  and  streets  anywhere,  no  matter  how  influential 
the  corporation  or  individual  may  be,  without  their  having  to  pay  to 
the  department  in  charge  of  the  road,  enough  money  to  put  the  street 
back  into  its  former  condition,  and  keep  it  there. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  would  be  for  the  street  department  to  collect 
a  uniform  amount  for  each  square  yard  of  street  surface  disturbed,  the 
amount  to  be  collected  differing  with  the  cost  of  repairing  and  main- 
taining the  trench  on  the  different  classes  of  pavement  or  surfaces. 

CONCLUSION 

In  conclusion,  I  would  not  discourage  any  "good  road"  movement 
in  this  country,  but  we  must  go  at  it  in  a  proper  and  scientific  manner 
and  know  what  our  problem  is  before  we  tackle  it,  then  proceed  in  a 
businesslike  manner  to  build  our  roads. 

We  must  realize  the  enormous  amounts  of  money  involved,  and  we 
must  also  realize  the  tremendous  amount  of  money  that  is  required 
to  keep  the  roads  in  good  condition  after  they  are  built. 

In  my  opinion  we  have  engineers  who  can  do  as  good  work  in  this 
country  as  anyone  has  done  abroad.  We  can  build  equally  as  good 
roads. 

We  may  even  learn  to  build  them  better,  but  we  must  realize  that  it 
requires  education,  skill,  intelligence,  and  experience,  and  that  con- 
stant maintenance  is  absolutely  essential. 

Maintenance  begins  the  day  the  road  is  built,  and  continues  as  long 
as  it  is  used,  and  the  money  for  maintenance  must  be  provided  as  well 
as  the  money  for  construction,  or  we  shall  find  that  the  bonds  issued  to 


ADDRESS   BY  JAMES  H.   MAcDONALD  43 

construct  our  roads  still  remain  to  be  paid  while  the  roads  have  passed 
away  in  dust  long  before. 

The  money  cannot  be  provided  nor  the  roads  built  at  once.  If  we 
are  to  secure  good  roads  we  must  all  join  hands,  the  town,  the  city,  the 
county,  the  State,  and  possibly  the  Nation  also,  but  it  must  be  upon 
a  carefully  prepared  plan  made  by  competent  engineers,  after  a  full 
study  of  the  whole  problem.  Only  by  cooperation  can  our  country 
secure  any  comprehensive  highway  development  within  the  next 
twenty-five  years. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  At  the  present  time  there  is  great  difficulty  in 
securing  highway  engineers,  but  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago  there  were 
even  fewer,  and  the  majority  of  the  engineers  now  have  accumulated 
a  great  part  of  their  knowledge  under  the  tutorship  of  the  next  speaker, 
who,  for  many  years,  built  highways  in  the  State  of  Connecticut,  who 
is  recognized  as  a  highway  builder  of  note,  who  is  recognized  as  a 
good  roads  advocate,  who  is  second  to  none  in  enthusiasm  and 
energy,  who  is  going  through  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  today, 
campaigning  for  the  $50,000,000  appropriation,  a  man  who  organized 
the  Road  Builders'  Association,  and  a  man  whom  good  roads  en- 
thusiasts all  over  the  country  delight  to  honor.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
introduce  the  dean  of  the  highway  engineering  fraternity,  Mr.  James 
H.  MacDonald,  of  Connecticut. 

ADDRESS  BY  JAMES  H.  MacDONALD 

Former  State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Connecticut. 

I  remember  when  I  was  quite  a  small  boy,  and  that  was  more  than 
twenty-seven  years  ago,  my  father,  who  was  very  religiously  inclined, 
took  me  to  class  meeting  with  him,  and  he  specially  enjoined  on  me 
that  at  the  next  class  meeting  I  should  have  to  stand  up  and  speak  to 
the  brethren  and  sisters.  Not  knowing  as  much  as  I  do  now  about 
public  speaking  and  what  an  effort  it  is  at  all  times  to  do  so,  I  con- 
sented. I  remember  that  during  the  week  I  prepared  myself  for 
the  little  occasion  and  when  the  eventful  day  came  ard  the  hour 
and  the  meeting,  I  got  up  and  said,  "Brethren  and  Sisters,"  and 
then  I  forgot  all  about  what  I  had  so  carefully  arranged,  and  a  dear 
old  sister  in  the  back  of  the  room  started  that  old,  familiar  Methodist 
hymn,  "Tongue  cannot  express  the  sweet  comfort  and  peace  of  a  soul 
in  its  earliest  love,"  and  I  wanted  to  hug  that  dear  old  lady  just  at 
that  moment.  I  had  arranged  in  my  mind  some  little  thoughts  on  the 
subject-matter  that  had  been  assigned  me,  but  after  hearing  the 
very  eloquent  remarks  of  the  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me  and 
the  intelligent  interlarding  by  the  very  eloquent  chairman,  I  find 
myself  just  about  in  the  same  position  as  at  that  little  prayer  meeting. 

Truly  history  repeats  itself,  and  then,  to  crown  all,  I  have  had  to 
sit  and  listen  through  these  two  sessions  and  then  at  another  meet- 


44  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

ing,  to  all  about  great  Babylon,  what  someone  else  has  built.  I  have 
no  patience  with  all  this  talking  about  the  fact  that  cows  in  Con- 
naught  have  long  horns;  unless  you've  been  to  Connaught  you  don't 
know  whether  they  have  or  not.  Now,  this  talk  about  the  roads  on 
the  other  side  is  not  borne  out  in  point  of  fact  by  all  the  conditions 
that  surround  the  question.  I  have  been  across  the  continent, 
I  have  been  in  twenty-two  States  and  I  have  been  abroad  and  I 
want  to  tell  you  that  American  engineers  have  nothing  to  learn, 
either  in  regard  to  new  construction  or  care  and  maintenance  of 
roads.  The  chief  difference  between  the  two  countries  is  simply 
this:  we  are  building  new  roads  and  they  are  keeping  in  repair  the 
roads  they  have  already  constructed.  I  have  been  over  many  miles 
of  roads  in  New  England  and  other  parts  of  the  country  and  found 
them  in  just  as  fine  a  condition,  in  some  instances  a  finer  condition, 
than  those  I  saw  abroad.  So  that  I  get  out  of  patience  when  people 
are  continually  harping  about  those  things  that  they  know  prac- 
tically nothing  about.  Within  fifteen  miles  of  Paris,  it  is  with 
difficulty  that  you  can  sit  in  your  automobile.  The  great  trouble 
with  our  people  is  that  we  are  prone  to  take  the  suggestions  about 
things  that  someone  else  has  seen  as  law  and  gospel  and  compare 
before  investigating  conditions.  I  venture  to  say  that  had  things 
been  reversed  and  the  people  in  the  old  world  been  transferred  to 
where  we  are  on  this  continent,  they  would  not  make  the  showing 
that  we  do  here  in  this  great  and  glorious  country  of  ours. 

It  is  not  so  many  years  ago — and,  Mr.  Chairman,  you  will  par- 
don this  little  digression,  because  I  can't  help  it,  that's  the  Scotch 
in  me — since  the  little  Mayflower  landed  on  our  shores  and  had 
her  sides  washed  by  the  waters  of  Plymouth  Bay — not  three  hun- 
dred years  ago — and  what  did  they  find?  An  unbroken  wilder- 
ness, rocks  and  hills  and  the  habitation  of  no  man,  and  in  that 
short  period  of  time  we  have  taken  that  wilderness  and  made  it 
to  blossom  as  the  rose  and  to  become  the  granary  of  the  world. 
We  have  made  those  old  rocks  and  hills  to  give  us  greater  treas- 
ures than  was  ever  possessed  by  the  Queen  of  Sheba.  What  we 
have  done  along  other  lines  that  go  to  make  a  successful  and  pro- 
gressive country,  we  will  do  in  regard  to  this  good  roads  matter. 
We  have  just  taken  it  up,  that's  all. 

I  am  at  a  loss  at  this  late  hour  and  with  the  length  of  the  ses- 
sion in  extending  this  last  remark.  When  Brother  Terry  was 
talking  about  the  whale  story,  I  was  thinking  of  the  old  lady  who  was 
quite  a  crank  on  interior  decorations  and  carried  it  to  excess,  and  one 
day  became  a  little  faint.  She  reached  into  the  cupboard  to  get  a 
little  wine  to  rejuvenate  her  and  by  mistake  she  got  a  bottle  of  red 
ink  and  never  discovered  her  error  until  she  had  gotten  outside  of  the 
red  ink.  Immediately  they  sent  for  the  doctor,  but  when  the  doctor 
came  and  relieved  her  by  removing  the  cause  of  her  illness,  being 
a  dry  joker,  he  remarked,  "Madam,  this  interior  decoration  has 
gone  too  far."  Now,  I  come  from  the  little  State  of  Connecticut 


ADDRESS   BY   JAMES   H.    MxcDONALD  45 

and  my  subject  matter  suggests  that  I  be  a  little  careful  how  far  I  go 
with  my  little  talk  here  today. 

Ten  years  ago  I  was  in  this  little  zone  that  this  meeting  is  held 
in — the  sun  parlor  of  the  Wayne  Hotel.  There  the  American 
Road  Builders'  Association  was  practically  given  birth.  From 
that  Road  Builders'  Association,  the  nucleus  of  which  was  five 
men,  interested  in  the  wheel,  it  was  the  bicycle  at  that  time,  have 
grown  many  associations,  and  I  have  attended  the  meetings  and 
deliberations  of  nearly  all  of  them,  but  I  have  never  attended  a 
meeting  where  the  interest  was  greater  and  where  the  intelligence 
in  regard  to  that  which  is  necessary  to  be  done  was  more  manifest 
than  at  this  meeting.  Nor  have  I  ever  been  able  to  see  in  all  of  the 
deliberations  of  these  contentions,  gentlemen  like  yourselves  who 
have  sat  through  several  hours,  with  deep  interest  to  learn  still  more 
what  there  is  to  be  learned. 

I  come  from  the  little  State  where  they  say  that  Washington 
and  Lafayette  sojourned  for  a  short  time  when  we  needed  their 
assistance.  In  my  travels  through  the  State,  which  embraced 
every  town  in  it,  I  have  been  pointed  out  numerous  rooms  that 
George  Washington  slept  in  and  I  have  had  indicated  to  me  many 
trees  that  Lafayette  sat  under  and  ate  his  dinner,  and  after  hav- 
ing had  so  many  rooms  pointed  out  that  Washington  slept  in  and 
also  so  many  trees  under  which  Lafayette  ate  his  dinner,  until 
I  come  to  the  reasonable  conclusion,  that  George  Washington  and 
General  Lafayette  must  have  spent  all  of  their  time  sleeping  and 
eating,  and  I  wonder  how  they  had  any  time  to  do  any  fighting. 

The  little  State  that  I  represent  commenced  with  small  begin- 
nings. An  annual  State  appropriation  of  $75,000  was  all  that 
we  had.  To  give  you  an  idea  of  how  the  interest  has  grown,  just 
before  I  resigned  my  office  by  the  will  of  the  governor,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  I  had  made  a  mistake  in  the  caption  of  my  ticket,  which 
mistake  I  believe  I  should  repeat  if  I  had  to  do  it  over  again,  I  let  a 
contract  for  $400,000,  the  largest  contract  ever  let  to  any  contractor 
in  one  contract  in  this  country.  The  State  of  Connecticut  is  very 
far  from  being  a  wealthy  State,  and  when  the  last  speaker  was 
enumerating  the  States,  there  rose  in  my  heart  a  feeling  of  great  joy 
and  pride  to  think  that  I  had  been  able  to  serve  my  people  in  that 
community  for  nearly  eighteen  consecutive  years.  I  am  very 
glad  to  know  that  the  people  of  my  State  occupy  such  a  proud  place 
as  they  do.  For  twelve  long  years  there  never  was  enough  money 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  highway  commissioner  to  do  one  mile  of 
even  a  water  bound  macadam  in  any  one  town.  It  was  the  duty  of 
the  commissioner  and  he  gladly  accepted  the  privilege  of  going 
out  amongst  his  people  and  getting  acquainted  with  them.  I  can 
remember  very  well  one  year  of  having  only  $500  to  spend  in  each 
one  of  thirty-two  little  towns  and  making  a  survey  with  a  lock 
level,  and  sitting  down  on  the  side  of  the  road,  computing  the 
yardage,  and  letting  the  contract  direct  to  the  officials  of  the 


46  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

town.  I  also  remember  that  this  small  beginning  in  these  thirty- 
two  towns  resulted  in  the  little  towns  themselves  asking  for  an 
appropriation  of  $9000  at  the  next  opportunity.  It  is  a  delightful 
narrative  for  me  to  relate. 

Not  all  of  you  gentlemen  here  of  the  forty-one  States  represented, 
come  from  the  great  States  of  New  York  or  Pennsylvania  or  the 
States  with  a  large  levy  to  draw  from.  There  are  many  States 
that  have  as  yet  hardly  entered  upon  or  made  a  beginning  in  State 
aid,  and  perhaps  from  some  of  the  little  things  that  I  may  relate 
in  regard  to  my  State,  there  may  be  some  thought  suggested  that 
you  may  take  away  with  you  by  way  of  encouragement,  and  if 
there  is  anything  I  hope  you  will  feel  perfectly  free  to  appropriate 
it  and  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  have  you  do  so. 

State-aid  for  highway  improvement  came  up  through  introduc- 
tion of  the  State  Board  Trade.  After  the  passage  of  the  law  the 
little  towns  of  the  State  had  access  given  them  to  participate,  not 
in  accordance  with  their  mileage  of  roads,  not  in  accordance  with 
their  area,  but  in  accordance  with  their  grand  levy, — the  wealth 
of  the  town — as  the  unit  of  measure.  Almost  from  the  com- 
mencement of  State-aid  our  towns  began  to  appreciate  the  fact 
that  their  roads  were  not  entirely  local  but  general  in  their  use 
and  a  public  possession  and  therefore  should  be  paid  from  the  pub- 
lic purse.  We  saw  right  away  that  a  wise  move  had  been  made 
on  the  part  of  the  State  in  coming  in  to  assist  these  little  towns 
in  the  construction  of  these  roads  that  were  to  be  used  more  gen- 
erally than  heretofore,  for  an  improved  highway  always  invites 
travel.  Therefore  the  appropriation  was  made  on  the  basis  of  the 
grand  levy  which  is  the  total  valuation  of  the  town.  The  towns 
came  in  and  accepted  it.  We  have  been  in  the  road  movement  some 
nine  consecutive  sessions,  our  sessions  being  held  biennially.  As 
Brother  Terry  says,  you  may  amend  your  national  law  without  limit; 
we  amended  our  road  law  nine  consecutive  times  and  I  presume  they 
will  continue  to  amend  the  law  every  two  years  to  meet  new  condi- 
tions while  it  remains  on  the  statute  books  of  the  State.  All  the 
grand  levy  of  the  entire  State  does  not  suggest  that  we  took  up 
any  extravagant  form  of  construction;  only  $9,000,000  with  a  mil- 
lion people,  with  a  total  area  of  5004  square  miles  and  15,000  miles 
of  roads,  the  largest  mileage  of  roads  of  any  State  in  the  Union, 
per  area. 

Today  the  department  has  $6,500,000  to  expend  in  that  little 
State,  $3,000,000  of  this  amount  covers  an  unexpended  balance  I 
turned  over  to  my  successor,  when  I  resigned  my  office  as  highway 
commissioner  and  a  new  appropriation  of  $3,500,000  for  the  use  of  the 
present  commissioner.  I  don't  make  the  remark  with  conceit, 
but  I  do  make  the  statement  as  something  worthy  of  emulation  that 
that  is  the  largest  amount  of  money  being  expended  by  any  State 
in  the  Union  on  the  basis  of  population,  $6.50  per  capita.  Now, 
how  was  that  brought  about?  By  considering  the  condition  by  which 


ADDRESS   BY   JAMES   H.    MxcDONALD  47 

each  town  in  the  State  was  surrounded  and  not  importing  one  dollar's 
worth  of  material  if  the  material  to  be  found  in  that  town  would 
take  care  of  the  road  question  and  build  a  road  that  would  be  com- 
petent to  sustain  the  travel  that  the  road  had  to  bear,  and  that  is 
the  best  definition  I  know  of  for  a  good  road.  If  it  was  a  graded 
road  it  was  put  down  as  a  sub-soil  job.  If  it  was  a  gravel  road 
it  was  laid  in  courses  with  a  good  foundation.  If  it  was  a  macadam 
road,  the  material  was  carefully  selected,  not  only  in  reference  to  its 
quality,  but  also  in  regard  to  the  method  of  construction  employed 
and  the  dimensions  of  the  stone  used.  If  it  was  a  question  of  drain- 
age, all  the  necessary  drainage  was  put  in.  The  proposition  is  simple, 
get  the  water  out  of  the  road,  off  from  the  road  and  away  from  it — 
out,  off  and  away.  A  well  built  house  must  have  a  tight  roof  and  a 
dry  cellar,  so  with  a  road,  it  must  have  a  water  proof  top  and  a  good 
foundation.  That's  the  whole  science  of  drainage  in  my  judgment. 

A  system  of  fourteen  trunk  lines  was  early  laid  out  through 
the  State,  that  drained  a  population  of  852,000  of  a  total  popula- 
tion of  a  million  people,  and  went  in  and  out  of  132  towns  out  of 
a  total  of  168  towns.  No  one  knows  better  than  Brother  Terry, 
who  has  been  right  in  the  forefront  of  this  great  movement,  who 
has  fought  many  obstacles  successfully  and  always  with  great 
courage,  that  the  strongest  argument  that  has  been  raised  against 
national  aid  for  our  highways  is  the  one  that  he  used  when  he  says, 
"Every  man  wants  to  have  that  road  built  in  front  of  his  own  house," 
and  the  nearer  you  get  to  that  the  nearer  you  will  get  to  having  a 
unanimous  vote.  But  some  people  fail  to  appreciate  this  fact  that 
most  of  the  money  used  in  this  country  in  the  past  for  the  improve- 
ment of  our  highway  system  in  any  State  has  always  been  where  the 
most  voters  reside,  and  the  isolated  farmer — the  man  on  the  outskirt 
of  the  borough  or  town — who  has  been  paying  his  taxes  year  in  and 
year  out  uncomplainingly,  got  scant  treatment.  It  remained  for 
State-aid  to  come  in  and  make  these  connected  roads,  and  in  giving 
to  the  isolated  farmer  access  to  a  splendid  road  as  some  return 
for  the  taxes  he  has  been  paying.  You  are  assisting  the  town  every 
time  you  build  a  trunk  line  system,  because  the  town's  money, 
formerly  spent  on  these  roads  where  the  most  people  reside  and 
which  are  generally  the  trunk  line  roads,  can  be  used  on  roads  not 
trunk  lines.  Thus  the  entire  movement  both  from  a  State  and 
Federal  standpoint  will  be  benefited  by  an  intelligent  system  of 
trunk  lines. 

Now  we  come  down  to  another  question  that  you  have  not  met 
here.  On  the  other  side  I  traveled  for  days  and  did  not  begin  to 
see  the  number  of  automobiles  that  I  find  with  us  in  the  East.  Why, 
during  a  whole  day's  travel  outside  of  the  environs  of  the  large 
places  I  rarely  ever  met  an  automobile.  Sixty-five  per  cent  of 
the  travel  on  our  roads  are  the  automobile  and  35  per  cent  the  horse 
drawn  vehicles.  Now,  that  question  of  traffic  is  never  alluded  to 
very  much  here.  They  regulate  their  traffic  and  protect  it;  they  also 


48  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

build  the  wheel  scientifically.  Where  have  you  ever  seen  a  wheel 
here  whose  diameter  was  7  feet,  with  a  tire  8  inches  in  width,  in  this 
country  and  in  common  use,  and  where  the  horses  are  hitched 
tandem  and  where  everything  that  way  is  done  scientifically?  It 
is  as  much  as  a  man's  political  or  official  life  is  worth  today  to 
force  this  question  of  wide  or  narrow  tires  here  in  our  country. 
In  my  State  we  have  placed  on  the  statute  books  a  wide  tire  law 
but  its  application  has  been  extended  from  year  to  year  thus  giv- 
ing the  farmer  a  chance  when  he  purchases  a  new  wagon  to  be 
within  the  law.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  such  a  law  is  a  farce 
and  the  old  wagon  is  patched  up  and  no  new  wagon  purchased. 
You  have  got  to  have  all  those  things  done  and  it  means  time, 
money  and  patience.  Another  thing  that  we  have  had  to  contend 
with  is  the  splendid  development  of  the  automobile.  It  has  been 
a  development.  No  commissioner  ever  anticipated  what  would  be 
required  of  him  in  the  rapid  development  of  automobile  traffic. 
I  delivered  an  address  in  Boston  ten  or  twelve  years  ago  and  the 
topic  was,  "The  Country  Road  and  the  City  Street,"  and  I  know 
that  I  never  alluded,  even  in  passing,  to  the  question  of  the  auto- 
mobile. I  devoted  the  whole  of  my  thought  to  the  destructive 
force  on  those  roads  of  the  hoof  and  the  wheel,  and  how  the  mech- 
anician and  how  the  chemist  was  busy  and  busy  as  they  could  be,  to 
see  whereby  he  could  shoe  that  horse  and  that  wheel  to  destroy  the 
road.  I  stood  a  short  time  ago  on  the  roof  of  one  of  the  largest 
buildings  in  Hartford  looking  down  on  our  main  highway,  and  the 
street  was  full  of  automobiles.  It  is  only  a  few  years  ago  when 
I  looked  over  the  record,  225,000  automobiles,  I  thought  that 
was  a  goodly  number,  but  what  do  I  find  now?  That  is  all  changed. 
It's  a  million  five  hundred  and  some  odd  thousand,  that's  the  record 
of  automobiles,  not  to  say  anything  about  the  motor  trucks.  You 
don't  hear  very  much  about  the  destructive  force  of  the  motor 
truck.  We  commissioners,  who  are  a  little  unfortunate  in  not  having 
the  contractor  live  up  to  the  specifications,  are  inclined  some- 
times, I  am  a  little  afraid,  to  lay  the  blame  on  the  automobile. 
But  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  a  large  part  of  the  trouble  is  faulty 
construction. 

Now  we  have  a  new  element  coming  in,  we  have  motor  trucks 
and  traction  engines.  Now  we  have  to  begin  and  reconstruct  and 
on  these  great  through  lines  we  have  to  provide  a  construction 
to  combat  this  tremendous  traffic.  No  man  was  more  devoted 
to  the  water-bound  macadam  road  than  the  speaker,  and  I  am  still 
of  the  same  mind,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  I  have  utilized  the 
old  macadam  roads  by  putting  on  a  bituminous  surface  over  the 
old  macadam  roads  that  have  been  down  many  of  them  for  seven- 
teen or  eighteen  years,  thus  restoring  them  to  a  smooth  water- 
proof surface.  Because  you  know  if  you  get  a  good,  smooth  surface 
you  are  not  going  to  offer  any  resistance,  and  when  you  don't  offer 
any  resistance  you  remove  friction  and  when  friction  is  removed 


THE  MISSOURI   PLAN  49 

you  minimize  wear.  I  am  not  going  to  say  what  particular  plan 
I  adopted,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  1  read  a  story  once  that  is 
very  appropriate  here,  in  which  a  gentleman  visited  with  an  old 
son  of  Erin  where  he  saw  a  deal  board  set  up  on  two  bricks  and 
in  the  center  of  the  deal  board  was  half  a  brick  and  a  faded  flower 
and  the  gentleman's  curiosity  was  aroused,  and  he  asked,  "What 
is  it  that  you  have  got  there,  what  is  that  for?"  "Well,"  he  says, 
"that  is  what  sent  me  to  the  hospital  and  I  remained  there  for  three 
months  and  the  faded  flower  on  the  brick  is  the  flower  from  the 
grave  of  the  man  that  threw  it."  So  that  I  am  not  going  to  say  any- 
thing about  what  particular  material  was  used  in  the  assembling 
of  the  stone,  because  that  would  be  very  unfair,  but  come  over  into 
our  State  and  investigate  for  yourselves.  But  the  evolution  of 
our  work  has  been  to  educate  the  people  to  do  that  which  our  in- 
telligence and  experience  suggests  is  right  and  to  spend  their  money 
economically  and  honestly  and  see  that  the  work  is  done  well,  and 
also  that  the  upkeep  of  that  road  is  sufficient  to  keep  it  in  good  con- 
dition for  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year. 

I  had  intended  to  extend  my  talk  but  the  hour  is  late  so  I  shall 
close.  I  thank  you,  gentlemen. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  It  is  my  pleasure  to  introduce  as  our  next 
speaker,  the  Hon.  Frank  W.  Buffum,  State  highway  commissioner 
of  Missouri,  who  will  give  us  a  talk  on  "The  Missouri  Plan." 

THE  MISSOURI  PLAN 

BY  HON.  FRANK  W.  BUFFUM 

State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Missouri 

When  I  was  called  here  to  speak,  they  failed  to  state  what  my 
subject  would  be.  I  telegraphed  and  asked  what  it  would  be, 
because  a  Missourian  is  liable  to  speak  on  16  to  1  if  he  isn't  noti- 
fied— that  is,  sixteen  miles  of  good  roads  to  one  of  bad.  But  when 
I  came  here  this  morning  I  hunted  around  and  found  a  program 
and  found  that  my  subject  was  to  be,  "The  Missouri  Plan,"  or  system 
or  something  of  that  kind,  and  so,  without  preparing  any  speech 
for  your  special  benefit,  I  will  give  you,  as  far  as  possible,  the  plans 
and  methods  and  what  the  highway  department  of  Missouri  has  been 
trying  to  do  in  the  last  year,  or  portion  of  the  year.  Missouri  has 
had  some  counties  with  some  very  fine  roads,  and  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  counties  with  a  very  large  mileage  of  very  poor  roads.  It 
has  been  brought  about,  not  so  much  by  the  desire  of  the  people 
not  to  have  good  roads,  as  the  fact  that  our  laws  were  very  de- 
ficient as  to  the  spending  of  the  money,  the  raising  of  taxes,  and  the 
otherwise  handling  of  the  funds  of  the  State.  My  predecessor, 
Mr.  Curtis  Hill,  a  very  fine  gentleman,  started  in  under  the  board  of 
agriculture.  At  the  end  of  his  term,  Governor  Major,  feeling  that 


50  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

the  highway  department  should  be  a  department  of  its  own,  had  a 
bill  put  through  the  legislature,  establishing  the  highway  depart- 
ment, of  which  I  had  the  honor  to  be  the  first  Highway  Commissioner 
in  the  State.  It  was  not  my  pleasure  to  become  the  highway 
commissioner  of  this  State,  but  one  morning  I  found  a  letter  on  my 
desk,  asking  me  if  I  would  take  the  place.  My  business  interests 
were  such  that  I  delayed  two  days  before  I  answered  it,  but  at  last, 
at  the  solicitation  of  some  of  my  local  friends,  I  took  the  place  and 
am  trying  to  do  the  best  I  can  to  upbuild  the  State  of  Missouri. 
Our  governor  is  one  of  the  greatest  road  enthusiasts  in  the  United 
States.  He  is  the  one  who  organized  the  two  Good  Road  Days  in  the 
State,  which  have  gone  all  over  the  United  States,  and  the  cor- 
respondence that  comes  to  my  office,  asking  for  some  information 
in  regard  to  this,  would  surprise  anyone.  The  results  we  have 
obtained  from  the  work  of  those  two  days  surprised  us.  At  first 
it  was  taken  to  be  a  joke  by  some  portions  of  the  State,  but  when 
we  got  through  and  when  we  had  shown  that  with  proper  organization 
of  our  department,  with  the  assistance  of  the  governor,  and  with 
the  assistance  of  the  press,  we  got  out  in  our  State,  it  is  estimated, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  200,000  people  working  on  the  roads  of  the 
State,  it  is  estimated  that  we  spent  $300,000  on  those  roads  either  in 
labor  or  subscriptions  on  those  days,  and  if  that  is  the  case,  we 
certainly  have  spent  $1,000,000  since,  because  they  are  going  right 
ahead  with  this  work;  they  never  stopped  after  the  two  days  was 
over;  they  saw  what  they  could  do,  and  we  are  getting  results  from 
those  two  days;  they  will  be  made  Good  Road  Days  legal  days  by 
law  at  the  next  session  of  the  legislature,  and  I  hope,  in  courtesy 
to  our  governor,  that  the  different  States  will  make  the  same  two  days 
throughout  the  United  States  Good  Road  Days,  because  you 
will  get  results  that  will  certainly  repay  you  a  hundredfold  for  your 
trouble.  In  regard  to  the  road  law  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  I  would 
say  this  to  you,  that  we  have  what  is  known  as  the  local  district, 
generally  known  as  the  8  mile  district,  being  generally  8  miles  square, 
but  not  necessarily  so,  and  included  in  this  district  must  be  an  incor- 
porated city  or  town  and  this  plan  is  carried  on  to  a  great  extent 
ar6und  the  larger  cities,  and,  in  fact,  around  some  of  the  smaller 
towns.  It  works  with  very  good  results,  and  also,  they  can  raise 
bonds  in  that  district,  if  they  desire.  A  very  large  number  of  them 
don't  raise  bonds;  I  have  warned  them  to  be  careful  of  the  bond  issue, 
reading  as  I  do,  in  many  papers,  of  the  troubles  that  come  later 
in  other  States,  or,  if  they  raise  their  bonds  and  get  their  money,  to 
be  sure  it  is  not  wasted  by  being  spent  all  at  once  through  some 
enthusiast  who  comes  in,  gets  the  money,  spends  it  possibly  honestly 
but  injudiciously  and  is  off  again,  and  you  have  nothing  to  show  in 
return  in  the  way  of  results  or  for  the  future  maintenance  of  your 
roads  or  replenishing  of  your  road  system;  but  the  bonds  have  to  be 
paid. 


THE   MISSOURI   PLAN  51 

But  the  greatest  law  ever  put  on  the  statute  books  of  any  State 
is  what  is  known  as  our  county  seat  to  county  seat  drag  law.  The 
law  itself  does  not  show  anything  very  great  in  it;  it  simply  gives 
$15  a  mile  a  year  for  the  dragging  of  roads  between  county  seats 
over  routes  to  be  selected  by  county  commissions  and  approved  by 
State  highway  commissioner.  That  is  not  where  the  good  results 
come  in  from  the  law,  however.  It  brought  a  very  large  number  of 
miles  into  our  road  system,  in  the  neighborhood  of  12,000  miles 
or  equivalent  to  about  one-half  the  way  round  the  earth,  if  I  re- 
member my  geography  right.  That  being  the  case,  we  have  an 
immense  amount  of  mileage.  Now,  when  I  took  this  office,  I  made 
up  my  mind  that  if  I  was  going  to  have  roads  I  was  going  to  have 
them  and  there  wasn't  going  to  be  any  half-way  business  or  foolish- 
ness about  it.  I  was  going  to  try  to  run  it  like  you  run  a  business, 
get  my  overhead  expenses  down,  find  out  where  the  leaks  were,  find 
out  where  we  didn't  have  good  roads  and  why  we  shouldn't  have  them. 
I  have  been  in  this  road  game  about  fifteen  or  twenty  years  and  I 
found  out  that  we  spend  the  great  bulk  of  our  money  putting  wooden 
tops  on  bridges  and  have  nothing  left  to  fix  our  roads  with;  conse- 
quently, I  insisted  on  concrete  or  other  permanent  culverts  being 
built  in  our  State,  and  before  any  one  of  these  774  roads  were  es- 
tablished, nearly  7  to  each  county,  I  established  a  system  of  rules 
which  they  must  comply  with  before  I  would  declare  it  to  be  a 
county  seat  road,  because  there  happened  to  be  a  clause  in  the 
bottom  of  that  law  that  said  they  couldn't  have  a  road  until  it  was 
approved  by  myself;  and  this  is  what  I  put  in  the  form: — That  all 
roads  should  be  at  least  40  feet  wide;  that  they  should  be  30  feet 
graded,  that  they  should  be  graded  at  least  2  feet  high  in  the  center, 
if  it  became  necessary;  I  didn't  think  they'd  get  up  that  high,  but 
if  they  did  it  wouldn't  make  any  difference,  because  a  dirt  road  will 
get  down  anyway;  that  the  culverts  should  be  not  less  than  30  feet 
and  should  be  all  installed  at  once,  and  bridges  installed  as  rapidly  as 
possible  and  with  concrete  tops;  that  all  hedges  should  be  cut  to 
5  feet  on  the  highways,  so  that  the  roads  would  get  plenty  of  light 
and  dry  out  in  the  spring;  that  all  hedges  should  be  cut  and  pulled 
150  feet  from  the  corners  to  eliminate  the  dangers  of  automobiles 
passing  around  the  same;  that  where  there  was  a  gravel  pit  within  2 
miles  of  any  road,  they  would  agree,  before  the  first  day  of  July, 
1914,  to  either  rock  or  gravel  that  road;  that  all  hills  should  be  re- 
duced to  at  least  7  per  cent  grade.  Now,  we  are  getting  those  re- 
sults. I  did  not  think  we  would,  but  when  I  found  that  about  30 
per  cent  of  the  counties  had  gone  to  work  and  had  done  that  much 
then  fully  30  per  cent  more  did  so  when  they  found  it  was  necessary 
and  I  insisted  that  the  balance  of  them  should  do  it,  because  I  said, 
whatever  the  others  have  done,  you  must  do,  you  must  do  it  or  not 
get  your  road.  Then  sprung  up  a  rivalry  immediately.  When  a 
county  would  back  out  and  say,  "We  won't  build  that  kind  of  a 
road,"  I  said,  "It's  with  you;  you  will  be  given  thirty  days  and  if, 


52  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

within  thirty  days,  I  come  back  and  your  road  is  not  fixed,  I  will  locate 
a  road  in  another  part  of  your  county;"  and  they  at  once  got  busy 
and  I  don't  remember  even  a  single  county  that  has  thrown  up  the 
privilege  to  get  a  highway  from  "county  seat  to  county  seat,"  be- 
cause I  tell  them  that  possibly  in  the  next  legislature  more  will  be 
given  to  the  counties  that  have  taken  care  of  their  roads.    We  have 
across  our  State  some  trails  and  we  are  trying  to  build  them  up  as 
fast  as  possible.    We  are  urging  that  they  be  made  complete,  that 
they  be  pushed  at  once  and  finished,  and  when  a  trail  does  not  get 
up  and  get  a  move  on  itself,  I  do  the  same  thing  I  do  with  the  county 
seat  road,  start  another  trail,  and  don't  you  ever  forget,  they  get 
busy  right  quick  on  the  other  one  that  had  it  established,  because, 
if  you  establish  a  trail  and  have  them  understand  that  they  have  it, 
they  will  simply  go  into  the  house  and  into  a  Rip  Van  Winkle  sleep. 
We  are  trying  to  get  five  or  six  trails  across  the  State  of  Missouri 
east  and  west  and  the  same  north  and  south  and  are  pushing  them 
to  a  finish.    We  hope  for  federal  aid  on  this  trail  work  and  also  on 
some  other  work  through  the  State,  but  I  am  not  a  believer  in  es- 
tablishing through  routes  across  the  State  by  Federal  aid  entirely. 
I  believe  it  will  come  and  be  endorsed  by  the  congressmen  of  our 
State  very  quickly,  as  soon  as  we  can  take  care  of  our  local  roads 
that  lead  into  these  roads;  in  fact,  it  will  get  to  a  point  of  not  merely 
wanting  it;  they  will  insist  that  we  have  Federal  aid  for  our  through 
highways  and  federal  aid  will  come  and  be  welcome.    We  are  doing 
road  work  on  one  basis,  "Do  it  now;  don't  put  it  off."     I  aim  to 
ride  every  road  between  the  county  seats.     I  keep  four  automobiles 
in  service  in  the  State  of  Missouri  and  I  go  from  one  to  another  and 
get  around  from  county  seat  to  county  seat  and  hold  meetings  with 
our  commissioners.     If  the  roads  suit  me,  I  approve  them,  and  if 
they  don't,  we  sit  down  and  argue  the  matter  out.     They  must  go 
the  right  way,  not  be  built  for  the  building  up  of  some  town  or  for 
the  killing  of  another,  and  not  be  done  with  malice  or  prejudice,  but 
be  done  for  the  good  of  the  State.     We  are  getting  these  results, 
getting  them  promptly,  straight  from  the  shoulder.     We  are  not 
fooling  away  our  time,  but  we  are  working  every  day.     The  St. 
Louis  Republic  started  the  good  roads  fund  in  our  State  and  raised 
for  me  the  sum  of  nearly  $4000  for  machinery.     I  am  ordering  the 
machinery  now,  sending  it  to  different  portions  of  the  State,  cutting 
down  the  hills  in  one  place,  grading  in  another,  and  scattering  that 
work  over  the  State  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  to  our  State  a  good 
roads  system.     A  road  is  like  a  chain;  a  chain  is  no  better  than  its 
weakest  link,  and  a  road  is  no  better  than  a  bad  piece  in  it.     If  you 
have  a  bad  piece  in  the  road,  a  man  can  ride  150  miles  and  strike 
that  bad  piece  and  never  forget  it,  and  we  are  trying  to  get  the  bad 
pieces  put  and  get  the  roads  handled  in  a  systematic  manner.     We 
are  trying  to  have  the  money  spent  in  the  right  way  and  we  are  bring- 
ing men  and  carrying  them  around,  showing  them  the  latest  improved 
machinery.     I  brought  two  men  with  me  here  at  the  State's  expense, 


THE   MISSOURI   PLAN  53 

men  who  will  have  charge  of  two  of  the  outfits,  and  as  soon  as  I  get 
through  with  them  I  will  take  other  men  to  other  conventions  and 
let  them  see  machinery,  see  the  latest  and  most  improved  methods  of 
building  roads,  and  thereby  we  hope  to  get  up  a  system  of  road  build- 
ing in  the  State  of  Missouri  that  will  not  be  equaled  in  the  United 
States.  I  thank  you. 

A  MEMBER:  I  would  like  to  ask  the  gentleman  what  he  builds 
his  roads  out  of  in  Missouri? 

MR.  BUFFUM:  In  Pike  County,  we  build  our  roads  from  gravel 
entirely  or  almost  entirely;  in  other  counties,  we  build  them  of  crushed 
rock;  in  other  places,  of  crushed  rock  with  a  top  dressing  of  gravel. 
One  of  the  finest  roads  in  the  State  is  between  Hannibal  and  Palmyra; 
it  has  been  given  a  calcium  carbide  treatment  and  they  have  been  very 
successful.  A  very  large  number  of  our  roads  are  dirt  roads,  but  we 
have  from  the  railroads  a  tariff  of  one-half  a  cent  per  ton  per  mile 
that  practically  puts  crushed  rock  at  the  door  of  any  community  that 
wishes  to  take  advantage  of  that  tariff.  That  does  not  give  the  rail- 
roads much  profit,  but  the  railroads  are  interested  in  the  road  work  and 
are  willing  to  give  us  that  rate,  and  we  are  bringing  that  rock  to  the 
prairies  where  they  have  no  rock,  and  establishing  rock  roads  in  that 
way.  We  have  fifty  counties  that  have  plenty  of  rock,  and  we 
have  fifty  more  that  have  scarcely  any  rock  exposure  in  them  at  all, 
but  I  have  found  out  that  many  counties  that  thought  they  had  no 
rock,  by  going  around,  could  find  an  exposure  of  a  small  place,  and 
if  I  can  find  a  foot  of  rock  in  a  county  I'll  find  the  balance  of  the 
quarry. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  President  Page,  in  pursuance  of  the  custom  of 
these  conventions,  has  appointed  a  committee  on  resolutions.  The 
personnel  of  that  committee  will  be  announced  by  the  secretary,  Mr. 
Pennybacker. 

Committee  on  Resolutions 
Chairman,  GEO.  C.  DIEHL 

Representative  at  Large,  James  H.  MacDonald,  Former  State  Highway  Com- 
missioner of  Connecticut. 

Alabama W.  S.  Keller,  State  Highway  Engineer 

Arkansas Judge    Joe    Asher 

Arizona Judge  T.  G.  Norris 

California A.  B.  Fletcher,  State  Highway  Engineer 

Colorado A.  J.  Lawton,  Commissioner  Public  Works,  Colo.  Springs 

Connecticut R.  L.  Saunders,  Deputy  State  Highway  Commissioner 

District  of  Columbia.  .Charles  P.  Light,  Field  Secretary,  Amer.  Highway  Ass'n. 

Delaware John  Bancroft 

Florida 

Georgia Prof.  C.  M.  Strahan,  Dean  of  Engineering,  U.  of  Ga. 

Idaho . .  


54  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Illinois A.  N.  Johnson,  State  Highway  Engineer 

Indiana C.  S.  Kenyon,  Indianapolis 

Iowa. Prof.  T.  M.  MacDonald,  State  Highway  Engineer 

Kansas. W.  S.  Gearhart,  State  Highway  Engineer 

Kentucky Robert  C.  Terrell,  State  Engineer 

Louisiana W.   E.   Atkinson,    State   Highway   Engineer 

Maine Lyman   K.    Nelson,    Chmn.    State    Highway   Commission 

Maryland R.  Keith  Compton,  Chmn.  Paving  Commission,  Baltimore 

Massachusetts Lewis   R.    Speare,    Former   President   A. A. A. 

Michigan P.  T.  Colgrove,  President  Michigan  State  Good  Rds.  Assn. 

Minnesota Geo.  W.  Cooley,  State  Highway  Engineer 

Mississippi 

Missouri 'Major  Frank  W.  Buffum,  State  Highway  Commissioner 

Montana Wm.    Jordan,    Jr.,    City   Engineer,    Helena 

Nebraska G.  E.  Parisoe,  Secy.  Omaha-Lincoln-Denver  Assn. 

Nevada 

New  Hampshire S.  Percy  Hooker,  State  Superintendent  of  Highways 

New  Jersey A.  G.  Batchelder,  Chairman  Ex.  Comm.  A. A. A. 

New  Mexico Francis  E.  Lester,  Pres.  State  Assn.  Highway  Officials 

New  York Geo.  C.  Diehl,  Chmn.  Good  Roads  Board,  A.A.A. 

North  Carolina Dr.   Joseph  Hyde   Pratt,    State   Geologist 

North  Dakota 

Ohio L.  M.  Brown 

Oklahoma Col.  Sidney  Suggs,  State  Highway  Commissioner 

Oregon J.  R.  Penland,  Albany 

Pennsylvania John   A.    Wilson 

Rhode  Island John  A.  Richmond,  Member  State  Board  of  Pub.  Roads 

South  Carolina W.  P.  Cantwell,  County  Supervisor,  Charleston 

South  Dakota 

Tennessee Dr.  J.  D.  Henderson,  Knoxville 

Texas Judge  Albert  S.  Eylar,  El  Paso 

Utah 

Vermont J.  W.  Votey,  Dean  of  Engineering,  Unv.   of  Vermont 

Virginia Capt.  P.  St.  J.  Wilson,  State  Highway  Commissioner 

Washington M.  Roy  Thompson,  County  Engineer,  Tacoma 

West  Virginia Geo.  B.  Chorpening,  Member  State  Roads  Commission 

Wisconsin A.  R.  Hirst,  State  Highway  Engineer 

Wyoming A.  J.  Parshall,  State  Engineer 

Canada The  Honorable  A.  W.  Campbell,  Deputy  Minister 

of  Railways  and  Canals,  Ottawa,  Canada 


FEDERAL  LEGISLATION  SESSION 

September  30,  10  a.m. 

UNDER  AUSPICES  OF  AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 
Mr.  Diehl  in  the  Chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  A.  A.  A.,  under  whose  auspices  this  meeting 
is  held  today,  is  an  earnest  advocate  of  road  building.  It  is  believed 
that  we  will  never  have  connected  and  properly  developed  system  of 
highways  until  the  cities  of  the  country  pay  a  fair  share  toward  the 
cost  of  construction.  For  a  hundred  years  good  roads  were  a  local 
issue  and  the  entire  cost  of  the  construction  was  borne  by  the  lo- 
cality. A  century  has  demonstrated  that  this  system  does  not 
result,  except  in  isolated  cases,  in  good  roads.  In  sections  where 
there  are  large  cities,  County  aid  laws  frequently  accomplish  an 
equitable  division  of  the  expense  between  the  city  and  the  country, 
but  where  there  are  no  large  cities  the  unit  must  be  extended  and  a 
State  law  is  necessary  to  secure  a  proper  division  of  the  expense. 
There  are  many  states  which  are  so  relatively  low  in  taxable  assets 
that  the  unit  must  be  still  further  extended  and  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, through  legislation,  must  be  called  upon  to  divide  the  expense 
of  road  construction  in  these  states  between  the  rural  localities  and 
large  cities  of  the  country. 

Three  distinct  methods  have  been  suggested  for  federal  partici- 
pation in  road  building  and  it  is  with  a  view  of  having  a  full  and 
fair  discussion  that  we  have  asked  the  advocates  of  each  of  those 
plans  to  be  here  today.  The  first  plan  seeks  to  distribute  the 
government  money  throughout  all  the  townships  of  the  United  States, 
so  that  every  mile  of  the  2,000,000  miles  of  highway  may  receive 
some  small  portion  of  it.  The  second  plan  seeks  to  build  main 
highways  in  cooperation  with  the  State,  with  the  initiative  with 
the  State,  and  with  the  approval  of  the  Federal  authorities.  The 
third  system  seeks  to  have  the  government  build  a  so-called  fed- 
eral system  of  trunk  lines,  connecting  the  various  capitals,  and 
running  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf. 

The  foremost  advocate  of  distribution  among  townships  is  with 
us  today.  He  has  been  in  Congress  a  good  many  years  and  is  prob- 
ably one  of  the  most  aggressive  road  enthusiasts  in  Congress,  and 
while  some  of  us,  myself  included,  do  not  agree  with  his  plan,  we 
recognize  his  ability  and  aggressiveness.  We  are  glad  to  have 
him  here,  and,  like  him,  we  are  from  Missouri  and  want  to  be  shown. 
It  is  a  pleasure  to  present  Hon.  Dorsey  W.  Shackleford,  chairman  of 
the  committee  on  public  roads  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  which 
we  hope  will  be  the  most  important  committee  of  Congress. 

55 


56  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

FEDERAL  ROAD  LEGISLATION 

BY  HON.  DORSET  W.  SHACKLEFORD 
Chairman  of  House  of  Representatives  Committee  on  Roads 

I  esteem  it  a  distinguished  honor  to  have  been  invited  to  address 
this  great  road  congress.  The  deliberations  of  this  body,  if  wise, 
must  advance  the  civilization  and  promote  the  happiness  of  this 
already  highly  civilized  and  happy  land. 

Nothing  is  more  essential  to  the  prosperity,  the  intelligence, 
and  the  happiness  of  the  people  than  easy  and  convenient  ways 
of  travel  and  transportation.  The  degree  of  a  country's  civiliza- 
tion may,  in  a  measure,  be  gauged  by  its  highways. 

The  term  highway  is  not  to  be  limited  to  mere  roads  but 
must  be  held  to  embrace  oceans,  rivers,  canals,  railways,  and  every 
other  means  over  which  people  or  property  may  be  carried. 

No  country  has  a  more  extensive  and  adequate  system  of  high- 
ways than  the  States  of  this  Union.  With  their  vast  coast  line, 
indented  by  multitudinous  harbors;  their  canals;  their  innumerable 
rivers,  with  unbounded  possibilities  for  navigation;  their  millions 
of  miles  of  well-constructed  and  efficiently  maintained  railways; 
their  more  than  2,000,000  miles  of  roads  of  varying  degrees  of  per- 
fection, the  American  people  may  well  be  proud  of  their  possessions 
and  their  achievements  in  the  matter  of  highways. 

The  subject  upon  which  I  am  expected  to  talk  today  is,  ''Federal 
Road  Legislation." 

Whatever  doubts  may  have  formerly  existed,  it  is  now  gen- 
erally conceded  that  the  federal  government  has  authority  to  con- 
struct and  maintain  roads  which  are  used  for  federal  purposes. 
This  granted,  it  follows  that  it  also  has  authority  to  aid  the  States 
in  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  roads  which  are  in  part  de- 
voted to  federal  use. 

There  are  at  least  three  sources  from  which  Congress  gets  power 
to  legislate  in  relation  to  roads:  First,  to  provide  military  roads; 
second,  to  provide  post  roads;  third,  to  provide  roads  over  which 
interstate  commerce  may  be  carried. 

To  what  extent  these  constitutional  powers  should  be  exercised  is  a 
question  which  will  severely  tax  statesmanship  to  answer. 

Primarily  it  is  the  duty  of  the  States  to  provide  their  inhabitants 
with  roads,  and  it  would  be  a  long  step  backward  if  congressional 
legislation  should  afford  them  any  means  for  avoiding  this  funda- 
mental obligation.  On  the  other  hand,  to  provide  an  adequate  sys- 
tem of  roads  lays  a  heavy  burden  upon  the  taxpayers  of  a  State, 
and  it  is  no  more  than  justice  that  the  federal  government  should 
contribute  to  the  upkeep  of  the  roads  of  the  State  which  it  uses  in  the 
performance  of  federal  functions. 

It  can  not  be  doubted  that  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
people  want  federal  road  legislation;  but,  unfortunately,  they 


FEDERAL  ROAD    LEGISLATION  57 

radically  differ  in  opinion  as  to  what  such  legislation  should  pro- 
vide. They  are  divided  into  two  general  classes,  which  for  the 
purposes  of  this  discussion  may  be  designated  as  the  '  'touring- 
roads"  class  and  the  "business-roads"  class.  The  ' 'touring-roads" 
class  is  marching  under  a  banner  upon  which  is  inscribed  in  letters 
of  gold:  "See  America  first."  The  "business-roads"  class  is 
marshaling  its  forces  under  a  flag  which  bears  the  legend:  "Cheaper 
transportation  and  lower  cost  of  living." 

The  "touring-roads"  class  is  largely  made  up  of  rich  automo- 
bile owners,  who  desire  to  spend  a  part  of  their  leisure  in  touring 
the  country.  These  are  reenforced  by  manufacturers  of  road  ma- 
chinery and  road  materials,  who  regard  Uncle  Sam  as  "good  pay," 
a  liberal  buyer,  and  one  who  would  be  a  valuable  customer  if  only  he 
would  embark  in  the  business  of  building  "national  roads." 

The  "touring-roads"  class  demands  that  the  United  States  shall 
limit  its  road  activities  to  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  a 
few  "ocean-to-ocean"  and  "across-country"  highways  of  great 
perfection  and  then  leave  the  rest  of  the  people  to  build  their  own 
roads  or  do  without,  as  they  may  choose. 

The  "business-roads"  class  believes  that  in  dealing  with  roads 
we  must  keep  in  mind  their  functions  and  the  relation  which 
they  bear  to  the  general  transportation  system  of  the  country; 
that,  as  the  harbor  is  the  terminus  of  the  river  and  the  railroad, 
so,  for  practical  purposes,  the  railway  station  is  the  terminus 
for  roads;  that  neither  freight  nor  passengers  will  ever  be  car- 
ried long  distances  over  roads  as  cheaply  as  they  could  be  over 
railways,  and  that  it  is  an  idle  dream  to  imagine  that  auto  trucks 
and  automobiles  will  take  the  place  of  railways  in  the  long-distance 
movement  of  freight  or  passengers;  that  the  proper  function  of  roads 
is  not  to  connect  antipodal  oceans  nor  the  distant  capitals  of  far-away 
States,  but  to  make  easy  communication  between  the  farms  on  one 
hand  and  the  towns  and  railways  stations  on  the  other,  to  the  end  that 
the  farmer  may  market  his  crops  at  less  expense  and  the  town  dweller 
may  get  farm  products  more  easily  and  at  less  cost.  They  therefore 
favor  a  general  system  of  roads  radiating  from  the  towns  and  raijway 
stations  out  among  the  farms. 

I  am  quite  convinced  that  a  large  majority  of  the  people  belong 
to  the  "business-roads"  class,  but  they  are  not  here  today.  They  are 
at  home  sowing  wheat  for  a  harvest  from  which  all  of  us  must  get 
our  bread.  They  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  money  to  travel 
across  the  continent  to  attend  road  congresses.  Nevertheless,  Mr. 
President,  they  are  the  plain  people — the  producing  masses — upon 
whom  we  must  all  depend. 

Mr.  President,  I  have  been  accused  of  being  antagonistic  to 
automobiles  and  automobile  interests.  It  is  not  true.  I  am  an 
automobilist  myself  and  a  member  of  an  automobile  club.  I 
believe  that  no  economic  instrumentality  has  contributed  more 
to  the  progress  of  our  times  than  has  the  automobile  industry. 


58  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

I  do  not  want  to  see  the  number  of  automobiles  in  use  diminish, 
but  rapidly  increase.  I  want  to  see  the  whole  country  supplied 
with  a  general  system  of  average  good  roads  and  every  farmer 
replace  his  horse  and  buggy  with  an  automobile.  I  want  the 
time  to  speedily  come — and  come  it  will — when  the  products  of 
the  farm  are  hauled  to  the  towns  and  the  railway  stations  in  auto- 
trucks, when  the  fields  are  plowed,  the  crops  cultivated  and  har- 
vested, by  self-propelled  tractors.  If  I  shall  live  my  allotted  time, 
I  will  see  all  of  this.  Even  now  the  time  has  already  come  when 
the  automobile  is  no  longer  regarded  as  a  mere  toy  of  the  idle  rich, 
but  as  the  utility  vehicle  of  the  plain,  everyday  business  man.  It 
also  affords  me  pleasure  to  know  that  there  are  now  more  autos  in 
the  country  than  in  the  large  cities. 

The  "touring  roads"  advocates  have  two  plans,  by  one  of  which 
they  hope  to  secure  some  high-class  "See  America  first"  boulevards. 

Their  favorite  plan  is  to  have  the  United  States,  independently 
of  the  States,  build  and  maintain  a  system  of  "national  roads." 
If  they  shall  not  be  able  to  get  these  "national  roads,"  then  their 
next  plan  is  to  have  the  federal  government  and  the  States  jointly 
construct  and  maintain  a  limited  mileage  of  excellent  "across  country" 
roads. 

Under  both  plans  the  primary  purpose  is  to  get  "touring  roads." 
To  accomplish  this  they  feel  that  they  must,  as  far  as  possible,  get 
away  from  local  influence  and  local  control. 

The  "national  roads"  movement  has  had  most  of  its  momentum 
imparted  to  it  by  the  American  Automobile  Association  and  the 
National  Highways  Association.  The  first  of  these  is  an  association 
formed  to  promote  the  pleasure  of  its  members,  to  whom  "touring 
roads"  are  a  necessity. 

The  leading  spirits  in  the  other — the  National  Highways  As- 
sociation— are  gentlemen  who  are,  or  have  been,  connected  with 
the  manufacture  of  road  machinery  and  road  materials.  Both 
of  these  associations  are  dominated  by  men  of  the  highest  character 
and  ability.  They  have  abundant  leisure  and  unlimited  resources. 
They  have  devoted  much  time  and  money  to  their  propaganda. 
Every  year  they  collect  and  expend  many  thousands  of  dollars  to 
cultivate  sentiment  for  "touring  roads."  They  have  found  the 
fountains  of  publicity.  Wherever  a  road  convention  or  a  road  con- 
gress has  been  held  they  have  been  in  it  with  delegates  enough  to 
dominate  it — to  fashion  and  form  its  resolutions.  They  have  even 
been  powerful  enough  to  place  before  the  country  in  an  unfavorable 
light  those  who  have  opposed  their  plans.  Yet,  Mr.  President, 
at  the  hazard  of  being  called  a  "knight  of  the  dirt  roads,"  or  a  "pork- 
barrel  Congressman,"  I  will  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to 
reason  with  these  "touring  roads"  advocates — to  convince  them 
that  the  first  duty  of  Congress  on  this,  as  on  every  other  subject,  is  to 
legislate  in  a  practical  way,  in  the  interests  of  the  general  masses 
of  the  people. 


FEDERAL  ROAD   LEGISLATION  59 

Let  us  examine  the  "national  roads'7  scheme. 

There  are  in  this  country  about  2,250,000  miles  of  roads.  Every 
mile  of  these  roads  is  a  prime  necessity  to  the  people  who  live  along  it. 

Mr.  Charles  Henry  Davis,  president  of  the  National  Highways 
Association,  estimates  that  it  would  cost  $20,000  a  mile  to  build 
"national  roads."  At  that  figure  our  entire  road  system  of  2,250,000 
miles  would  cost  $45,000,000,000.  The  human  mind  is  paralyzed 
in  contemplation  of  such  an  enormous  sum.  All  the  nations  of  the 
world  could  scarcely  raise  it. 

To  escape  from  such  a  situation  the  American  Automobile  Asso- 
ciation and  the  National  Highways  Association  propose  that  only 
a  limited  number  of  miles  of  "national  roads"  shall  be  built.  Fifty 
thousand  miles  is  the  limit  they  suggest.  This  would  leave  2,200,000 
miles  of  roads  unprovided  for;  and  yet  the  people  along  these 
2,200,000  miles  of  unprovided-for  roads  would  be  taxed  to  give  these 
50,000  miles  of  fancy  "national  roads"  to  favored  communities  and 
favored  classes. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  map  of  the  United  States  showing  the  ten- 
tative location  of  these  proposed  50,000  miles  of  "national  roads." 
I  can  not  take  the  time  to  analyze  it  as  to  all  of  the  States.  One 
or  two  will  illustrate  the  whole  scheme.  Look  at  Ohio,  for  instance. 
One  "national  road"  is  laid  along  its  northern  boundary,  through 
the  counties  of  Ashtabula,  Lake,  Cuyahoga,  Erie,  Ottawa,  and 
Lucas — 7  counties.  The  other  is  laid  across  the  center  of  the  State 
through  the  counties  of  Belmont,  Guernsey,  Muskingum,  Licking, 
Franklin,  Madison,  Clark,  Montgomery,  and  Preble — 9  counties. 
All  told,  these  "national  roads"  in  Ohio  would  touch  only  16  coun- 
ties and  leave  wholly  untouched  72  counties.  Yet  to  give  "na- 
tional roads"  to  these  favored  16  counties  the  other  72  untouched 
counties  would  be  taxed.  The  entire  mileage  of  these  two  "national 
roads"  through  Ohio  would  not  be  much  more  than  the  mileage 
of  improved  roads  which  Hardin  and  Auglaze  Counties  have  already 
built  for  themselves;  but  the  enterprising  people  of  these  two  coun- 
ties would  be  taxed  to  build  these  "touring  roads,"  over  which 
the  rank  and  file  of  them  would  never  travel  or  haul  a  bushel  of 
wheat  in  a  lifetime. 

Let  us  take  another  State,  Alabama.  This  "national  roads" 
map  lays  one  of  these  "touring  roads"  through  the  counties  of 
Dekalb,  Etowah,  St.  Clair,  Jefferson,  Tuscaloosa,  Green,  and 
Sumpter — 7  counties.  Another  passes  through  Cleburne,  Cal- 
houn,  Bibb,  Marengo,  Clarke,  Washington,  and  Mobile — 8  counties. 
In  the  whole  State  of  Alabama  15  counties  are  touched  by  these 
expensive  highways  and  52  counties  are  left  wholly  untouched. 
Yet  these  52  untouched  counties  must  be  taxed  to  build  luxurious 
roads  through  these  favored  15  counties.  After  these  untouched 
counties  have  paid  this  tax  they  may  then  build  themselves  some 
roads  if  they  have  any  money  left.  These  proposed  high-class 
"national  roads"  through  Alabama  would  not  aggregate  more  than 


60  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

400  or  500  miles.  Montgomery  County  alone  has  built  more  than 
that  many  miles  of  improved  roads.  Yet  her  wide-awake  people 
would  be  called  upon  to  help  pay  for  these  "joy  rider"  roads,  which 
would  be  too  far  away  to  ever  be  used  by  them. 

Let  us  look  at  these  50,000  miles  of  proposed  "national  roads" 
from  another  angle.  I  recently  read  a  paper  by  Mr.  Charles  Henry 
Davis,  president  of  the  National  Roads  Association,  in  which  I  find 
this  statement:  "Fifty  thousand  miles  of  national  roads  at  $20,000 
a  mile  would  cost  a  billion  dollars." 

Now,  the  federal  government  will  not  likely  expend  more  than 
$25,000,000  a  year  on  roads.  At  that  rate  it  would  require  40  years 
to  complete  the  proposed  50,000  miles.  Long  before  that  time  shall 
have  elapsed  most  of  us  will  have  died  and  gone  to  judgment.  What 
we  want  is  roads  while  we  live. 

But  Mr.  Davis  proposes  that  having  once  adopted  the  policy 
the  Government  would  proceed  to  build  one  road  at  a  time.  In 
that  event  some  States  would  be  reached  the  first  year  and  others 
not  until  the  end  of  forty  years.  Which  would  be  the  first  lucky 
State?  which  the  last  unlucky  one? 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen,  don't  you  see  that  this  "national- 
roads"  scheme  is  a  dismal  delusion? 

Now,  just  a  word  or  two  in  relation  to  the  other  scheme  for  getting 
"touring  roads" — that  of  having  the  federal  government  and  the 
States  jointly  construct  a  limited  mileage  of  high-class  "across- 
country"  highways. 

The  most  concrete  presentation  I  have  seen  of  this  plan  is  a 
bill  now  pending  in  Congress.  I  have  not  the  time  to  analyze  it  in 
detail  now.  I  shall  content  myself  with  calling  attention  to  its 
two  most  salient  features.  As  I  said  a  moment  ago,  the  "tour- 
ing-roads" class  desire  to  get  as  far  as  possible  away  from  local 
control.  To  accomplish  this  the  bill  to  which  I  refer  provides 
that  a  new  office  shall  be  created — that  of  public-highway  com- 
missioner— who  shall  keep  his  office  at  Washington,  where  he  may 
not  be  influenced  nor  even  impressed  by  the  yearnings  of  the  people 
among  whom  the  roads  should  radiate.  Then,  "to  make  assurance 
double  sure,"  the  bill  carries  this  further  provision:  "Provided,  That 
all  questions  as  to  the  location,  method  of  construction,  and  main- 
tenance shall  be  finally  determined  by  the  commissioner  of  public 
highways." 

If  such  a  provision  as  that  shall  ever  be  written  into  the  Federal 
law,  then,  indeed,  will  the  "joy  rider"  reign  supreme. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  not  a  road,  nor  yet  a  few  roads  that  we  want. 
What  we  must  have  is  a  general  system  of  good  roads  extending 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the  National  Roads 
Association. 

On  one  page  of  this  pamphlet  is  a  picture  of  a  rocky,  muddy, 
impassable  road.  Beneath  the  picture  in  bold  type  is  printed  the 
words:  "Poor  roads — poor  schools — ignorance — poverty." 


FEDERAL  ROAD   LEGISLATION  61 

On  the  same  page  is  another  picture — a  picture  of  a  good  road 
under  which,  in  equally  bold  type,  is  printed  the  words:  "Good  roads 
• — good  schools — knowledge — prosperity." 

That  is  a  pertinent  illustration.  According  to  this  pamphlet, 
where  good  roads  are  there  will  be  good  schools,  knowledge,  and 
propsperity,  while  along  bad  roads  poor  schools,  ignorance,  and 
poverty  will  prevail.  Yet  this  pamphlet  advocates  devoting  40 
years  to  improve  2  per  cent  of  the  roads,  leaving  the  people  along 
the  other  98  per  cent  groping  in  ignorance  and  poverty.  Even 
worse  than  that,  the  National  Roads  Association  proposes  that  the 
people  along  the  98  per  cent  of  the  roads  who  are  thus  to  be  left 
forty  years  wandering  in  the  wilderness  of  poor  roads,  must  help  pay 
the  costs  of  the  2  per  cent  of  the  roads  which  the  American  Auto- 
mobile Association  and  the  National  Roads  Association  would  build 
to  the  end  that  the  rich  automobile  owners  may  "see  America  first." 

Abraham  Lincoln  once  said,  "This  country  can  not  exist  half 
slave  and  half  free."  Paraphrasing  that  lofty  utterance  I  say 
this  country  can  not  exist  2  per  cent  enlightened  and  98  per  cent 
ignorant — 2  per  cent  good  roads  and  98  per  cent  bad. 

Mr.  President,  another  fundamental  error  into  which  aristo- 
cratic classes  fall  is  that  there  is  no  official  wisdom  and  capacity 
except  in  federal  officers.  Why  may  not  a  State  officer  possess 
wisdom,  capacity,  and  devotion  to  duty  to  the  same  extent  as 
a  federal  functionary?  Suppose  you  should  create  the  office  of 
public  highway  commissioner  as  asked  for  by  the  "touring  roads" 
advocates.  Where  will  you  get  a  man  to  fill  the  office?  Will 
Jupiter  detail  Mercury  to  bring  us  one  from  the  ethereal  realms 
above?  No.  You  will  have  to  take  some  citizen  from  some  State, 
educated  and  trained  in  some  State  college.  Can  not  the  States 
get  the  same  kind  of  men?  Indeed,  have  not  many  of  them  already 
provided  themselves  with  the  best  talent  in  the  land? 

Oh,  you  say  the  States  have  been  slow  to  grapple  with  the  road 
problem.  Sir,  how  much  slower  have  the  States  been  in  this  respect 
than  has  been  the  federal  government? 

The  States  have  not  been  slow  in  dealing  with  roads.  On  the 
contrary,  they  have  made  great  progress,  considering  the  difficulties 
they  have  had  to  meet. 

"Touring  roads"  gentlemen  beam  with  enthusiasm  as  they 
tell  us  of  the  good  roads  of  France  over  which  they  have  traveled. 
Why  do  not  they  go  to  the  trouble  to  inform  themselves  of  the  fact 
that  there  are  more  miles  of  good  roads  in  this  country  than  there 
are  in  France.  Every  mile  of  these  roads  has  been  built  by  the 
States  without  either  financial  or  engineering  assistance  from  the 
federal  government. 

Before  the  "touring  roads"  advocates  berate  the  States  for  being 
tardy  in  road  building  let  them  consider  the  surrounding  facts. 

The  rapid  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the  character  of 
road  vehicles  and  the  method  of  their  propulsion  has  thrown  even  the 
engineering  world  into  confusion  as  to  what  should  be  the  character 


62  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

of  road  construction  to  meet  the  demands  of  traffic.  Roads  which 
were  sufficient  for  the  uses  to  which  they  were  put  a  decade  ago  are 
wholly  inadequate  for  the  traffic  of  the  present  day. 

Again,  most  of  the  States  are  hampered  by  archaic  constitu- 
tions which  prevent  them  from  levying  as  much  road  tax  as  their 
people  would  cheerfully  pay.  It  takes  time  to  amend  constitutions. 
However,  they  are  doing  it  with  much  celerity. 

Until  recently  few  of  the  States  had  provided  themselves  with 
adequate  highway  departments.  In  another  year  or  two  very  few 
will  be  without  them.  Already  some  of  the  best  administrative 
and  engineering  talent  of  the  country  has  been  secured  by  State 
highway  departments. 

Road  construction  and  road  maintenance  involves  many  me- 
chanical and  financial  difficulties.  Differences  of  climate,  kinds  of 
road  material  at  hand,  volume  of  traffic,  and  available  road  funds 
will  require  much  variety  in  road  construction  and  upkeep.  These 
are  problems  for  the  States  and  their  civil  sub-divisions.  Roads  are 
local  affairs,  and  their  control  should  remain  with  the  States  and  the 
people  in  whose  midst  they  are.  The  federal  government  should  not 
invade  this  domain.  Any  federal  legislation  which  should  in  the 
slightest  degree  tend  to  belittle  or  discount  States  or  State  highway 
departments  would  be  reactionary  in  the  extreme. 

Where  the  States  construct  and  maintain  roads  of  such  degree 
of  perfection  as  to  supply  the  federal  government  with  highways 
over  which  to  perform  its  functions  with  reasonable  facility,  then  it 
should  contribute  to  their  upkeep. 

Of  course,  the  federal  government  should  see  to  it  that  it  is  not 
overreached  in  these  expenditures.  Congress  should  provide  gen- 
eral standards  of  roads  for  which  contribution  would  be  made. 
The  government  could  then  protect  itself  by  inspection  and  a  re- 
fusal to  make  payment  for  any  road  falling  below  specified  standards. 
Such  a  system  would  not  require  much  federal  machinery  to  admin- 
ister it. 

Mr.  President,  I  fully  realize  that  I  am  not  in  entire  harmony 
with  the  dominant  spirit  of  this  great  roads  congress.  I  am  con- 
scious that  a  majority  of  the  delegates  here  are  members  either  of 
the  American  Automobile  Association,  the  National  Roads  Associa- 
tion, or  some  other  organization  affiliated  with  one  of  these.  You, 
gentlemen,  are  seeking  to  promote  the  construction  and  maintenance 
of  a  limited  mileage  of  excellent  highways,  while  I  am  seeking  to 
secure  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  a  general  system  of  good 
roads.  You  believe  that  a  few  very  high-class  boulevards  stretched 
across  the  continent  would  serve  as  object  lessons  to  the  people 
generally.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  my  opinion  that  if  we  should 
succeed  in  securing  a  general  system  of  average  roads  they  would  be 
maintained  in  such  manner  that  in  a  few  years  they  would  grow  into 
high-class  roads.  You  want  50,000  miles  of  expensive  "touring 
roads"  to  be  built  in  forty  years.  I  want  1,000,000  miles  of  "busi- 
ness and  post  roads"  to  be  built  in  five  years. 


FEDERAL   ROAD    LEGISLATION  Od 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  know  you  are  just  as  conscientious  and  public 
spirited  as  I  am,  and  it  is  that  consciousness  which  moves  me  to 
conclude  my  remarks  in  an  appeal  to  you  to  withdraw  your  opposi- 
tion to  a  plain  people's  plan,  which  we  desire  to  pass  through  Congress 
at  the  next  session. 

Our  plan  will  be  a  modest  one.  It  will  not  be  expensive,  and  a 
vast  majority  of  the  people  favor  it.  Get  out  of  the  way  and  let  us 
try  it  out.  If  it  fails,  then  we  can  take  up  one  of  your  more  ambitious 
schemes. 

In  the  last  Congress  we  passed  through  the  House  a  bill  providing 
a  yearly  contribution  to  each  mile  of  roads  in  the  States  which 
should  be  constructed  and  maintained  according  to  specified  stand- 
ards. Although  vigorously  opposed,  this  bill  passed  the  House  by  a 
vote  of  240  to  86.  It  failed  in  the  Senate,  however.  I  am  informed 
that  the  American  Automobile  Association  claims  the  credit  of  its 
defeat.  How  that  was  accomplished  has  not  been  revealed. 

Had  that  bill  become  a  law  it  is  my  candid  opinion  that  within  one 
year  it  would  have  given  us  50,000  miles  of  improved  roads  and  in 
five  years  would  have  given  us  a  million  miles. 

As  a  warrant  for  this  expression  of  opinion  let  me  cite  some  facts. 

Last  winter  the  legislature  of  Missouri  passed  a  bill  modeled  after 
ours,  providing  that  every  mile  of  road  in  the  State  leading  from 
county  seat  to  county  seat  which  should  be  built  up  to  specified  stand- 
ards should  receive  aid  from  the  State  to  the  extent  of  $15  a  mile. 
The  State  highway  commissioner,  who  was  charged  with  the  duty  of 
administering  this  law,  refused  to  accept  any  road  which  was  not 
40  feet  wide  between  fences,  30  feet  wide  between  side  ditches,  so 
graded  and  crowned  as  to  quickly  shed  water  into  side  ditches,  and 
provided  with  all  necessary  culverts,  to  be  of  stone  or  concrete.  These 
are  rather  hard  specifications.  Yet  that  law  has  been  in  operation 
in  Missouri  only  about  six  months,  and  6,000  miles  have  been  ac- 
cepted by  the  State  highway  commissioner  as  having  been  brought 
within  the  provisions  of  the  law.  In  many  cases  where  public 
funds  were  not  available,  money,  labor,  and  material  were  con- 
tributed by  private  persons.  Within  a  year  this  $15  a  mile  stimulus 
will  have  given  the  people  of  Missouri  10,000  miles  of  good  roads. 
Had  the  same  thing  been  done  in  the  other  of  the  48  States  a  single 
year  would  have  given  us  480,000  miles  of  good  roads. 

Recurring  again  to  Missouri,  Governor  Major,  by  public  procla- 
mation, set  apart  August  20  and  21  as  road  days,  upon  which  he 
requested  all  able-bodied  men  to  work  the  roads.  Two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  men  responded,  and  it  is  estimated  that  in  labor 
and  material  there  was  more  than  a  million  dollars  put  upon  the 
roads  of  Missouri  during  those  two  days.  Later  the  governor  of 
Arkansas  issued  a  similar  proclamation  with  similar  results. 

These  facts  warrant  me  in  feeling  that  if  the  federal  government 
would  stimulate  the  road  movement  by  a  very  modest  aid  per  mile 
of  improved  roads  astonishing  results  would  follow. 


64  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

Another  lesson  to  be  drawn  from  the  facts  which  I  have  just 
cited  from  Missouri  and  Arkansas  is  that  the  States,  the  coun- 
ties, and  the  people  can  be  stirred  to  action,  and  that  it  would  be 
unwise  to  take  away  from  them  the  control  of  their  roads  and  trans- 
fer it  to  Washington. 

Mr.  President,  I  repeat  that  if  only  moderate  encouragement 
by  the  United  States  is  given  to  the  States  and  local  authorities 
we  shall  in  five  years  have  a  million  miles  of  good  roads — roads 
over  which  you  gentlemen  may  in  comfort  tour  any  part  of  this 
great  country  of  ours. 

Won't  you  "come  over  and  help  us?" 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  sure,  gentlemen,  it  is  a  very  great  pleasure 
to  us  all  to  listen  to  Judge  Shackleford,  to  listen  to  his  able  address. 
I  know  to  us  motorists,  especially  the  poor  ones,  like  myself,  it  is 
very  pleasing  to  be  put  in  the  plutocratic  class.  After  having  hard 
work  to  pay  my  office  rent  in  Buffalo  and  take  a  day  or  two  off, 
I  love  to  close  my  eyes  as  he  talks  and  see  myself  swimming  in  mil- 
lions and  revelling  in  luxury  and  splendor.  However,  the  practical 
training  I  have  had  makes  it  very  difficult  for  me,  when  I  take  my 
lead  pencil  and  revert  back  to  the  mathematics  they  taught  me  be- 
fore I  practiced  engineering,  to  figure  out  how,  if  it  takes  forty 
years  to  build  50,000  miles  of  roads,  you  can  build  1,000,000  miles 
of  roads  in  five  years.  That  is  something  like  the  problem,  "Why 
is  a  hen?"  and  while,  of  course,  I  am  not  going  to  take  any  time 
here  in  debate,  because  I  am  only  supposed  to  introduce  the  speakers, 
I  do  not  want  Judge  Shackleford  to  go  away  with  the  idea  that  we 
want  to  build  2  per  cent  of  the  roads  and  let  the  other  98  per  cent 
go.  The  federal  government  can  care  for  2  per  cent  and  the  State 
and  county  and  township  to  care  for  the  other  98  per  cent,  and  they 
can  do  it  far  better  when  they  have  their  trunk  lines  built. 

I  would  also  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  you  cannot  build 
a  business  road  without  building  a  motor  road.  The  motorists 
will  go  where  the  roads  are  built  and  if  they  are  crowded  with  farmers, 
so  much  the  better.  The  day  before  yesterday  I  took  the  Judge 
from  Buffalo  to  Niagara  Falls  in  my  automobile  over  a  road  that 
the  State  has  built  and  over  which  the  farmers  bring  15,000  tons  of 
produce  to  market  from  the  grandest  fruit  country  in  the  world. 
Then  we  went  to  Niagara  Falls.  It  was  the  first  time  the  Judge 
had  seen  it  and  we  showed  him  the  power  development,  which 
takes  one-seventh  of  the  water,  and  he  says:  "That's  the  best  part  of 
it,  in  time  those  Falls  will  run  dry;  you  fellows  with  your  aesthetic 
ideas  are  all  wrong;  commercialism  will  rule  this  country.  It  is 
wise  that  every  bit  of  the  water  should  be  for  commercial  purposes 
and  we  poor  farmers  will  then  get  the  benefit  of  that  water."  Then 
I  took  him  to  Goat  Island  and  showed  him  the  trees  and  shrubbery 
and  told  him  that  every  form  of  growth  in  the  State  of  New  York 
is  represented  on  Goat  Island;  it  is  in  its  virgin  state,  has  never 


ADDRESS   BY   EDWARD   H.    BUTLER  65 

been  touched.  He  said,  "It's  grand,  it  never  should  be  touched, 
it  should  be  left  just  as  it  is."  I  said,  "No,  Judge,  we  will  have 
to  cut  down  the  trees  and  make  lead  pencils  of  them." 

Then  we  came  up  the  Canadian  shore — on  the  American  shore 
we  can't  go  along  the  river;  it  is  teeming  with  factories,  with  com- 
mercial development — but  on  the  Canadian  side  there  is  a  strip 
of  100  feet  wide,  and  we  went  along  the  river's  edge  from  one  end 
to  the  other,  and  the  Judge  forgot  himself  for  a  moment  and  said, 
"This  is  grand,  they  are  away  head  of  us  on  this  side." 

I  want  to  say  that  the  real  test  of  the  right  way  of  building  roads 
is  to  actually  put  it  into  practice.  In  the  State  of  New  York,  in 
1895,  there  was  appropriated  $50,000,000  for  building  State  roads, 
constituting  10  per  cent  of  the  total  mileage,  4  per  cent  State  mileage, 
6  per  cent  county  mileage,  leaving  90  per  cent  untouched.  After 
they  spent  that  $50,000,000,  the  people  were  asked  to  vote  on  another 
road  proposition.  There  were  counties  in  which  there  wasn't  a 
mile  of  road  built  or  proposed  to  be  built,  of  these  main  highways, 
but  what  was  the  result?  The  second  $50,000,000  was  carried  by 
a  bigger  vote  than  the  first;  there  wasn't  a  township  or  highway 
district  or  county  in  the  State  that  didn't  vote  in  favor  of  it  and 
by  an  increased  majority  over  what  they  had  voted  for  the  first 
$50,000,000  appropriation  in  1895,  which  showed  what  the  people 
wanted.  It  showed  that  when  we  build  the  main  highways,  the 
local  people  will  care  for  the  local  highways.  In  New  York  State 
it  was  possible  to  pass  that  $100,000,000  appropriation,  partly 
because  we  had  such  meetings  as  these. 

When  you  people  go  home,  you  meet  a  few  constituents,  but 
we  would  be  entirely  lost  without  the  great  press  of  the  United  States. 
It  is  the  newspapers  of  this  country  who  are  more  responsible  for 
the  good  roads  movement  than  any  other  source,  and  of  the  news- 
papers there  was  one  man  in  New  York  State  twenty  years  ago 
who  had  the  keenness  of  perception  to  see  what  the  road  problem 
meant  in  this  country  and  fight  for  good  roads,  and  that  man  has 
fought  for  good  roads  from  that  day  to  this  and  he  is  here  today, 
and  it  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  introduce  the  proprietor  of  the 
Evening  News  of  Buffalo,  the  greatest  good  roads  daily  in  the  United 
States,  the  Hon.  Edward  H.  Butler. 

ADDRESS  BY  EDWARD  H.  BUTLER 

I  did  not  expect  to  meet  such  a  strong  advocate  for  letting  every- 
thing alone  in  the  way  of  federal  aid  as  Judge  Shackleford.  I  have 
heard  of  him  and  know  what  he  is  capable  of.  He  is  one  of  the 
ablest  opponents  we  have  and  we  will  have  to  watch  him  when  he 
gets  back  to  Congress. 

But  first  of  all,  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  something  that  hap- 
pened in  New  York  last  night.  The  newspapers  of  Detroit,  to  which 
my  good  friend,  Mr.  Diehl,  pays  tribute,  contained  the  news  this 


66  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

morning  of  the  sad  fate  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Woodruff,  of  New 
York.  He  has  been  a  strong  good  roads  man  and  pike  man,  and 
it  was  by  reason  of  the  interest  that  he  took  in  good  roads  that 
we  have  sidewalks  along  the  farms  made  of  cinders,  by  which  the 
automobilists  could  find  safe  journey  to  the  next  town,  and  that  and 
other  things  for  which  he  was  famous  made  him  lieutenant-governor 
of  our  State. 

I  move  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  a  resolution  of  condolence  and 
sympathy  be  sent  today  as  the  expression  of  this  convention,  to  Mr. 
Woodruff.  He  is  not  in  immediate  danger.  The  'phone  tells  me 
that  he  is  resting  easily,  but  will  never  recover  the  use  of  his  side, 
and  it  may  terminate  fatally  within  twenty-four  hours.  He  ad- 
dressed the  Association  for  National  Good  Roads  four  years  ago  in 
Chicago. 

I  spoke  on  that  occasion  and  made  a  prediction  which  is  verified 
here  today,  that  it  would  be  four  years  more  before. you  had  them. 
I  do  not  want  to  say  that,  with  the  strong,  strenuous  opposition  of 
Judge  Shackleford,  it  will  be  another  four  years,  because  now  that  we 
know  him  and  know  what  we  have  got  to  contend  with,  we  will  get 
busy. 

I  have  heard  the  term  "de  luxe"  used  inadvertently  here  two  or 
three  times,  and  "wealthy  aristocrat,"  in  connection  with  good 
roads.  Now,  does  anyone  think  for  one  minute  how  much  money 
is  spent  for  labor  in  making  these  automobiles  for  the  "leisurely 
rich?"  I  do  my  share  in  buying  them.  I  have  the  largest  num- 
ber of  private  automobiles  registered  at  Albany  of  any  man  in  my 
State,  and  still  I  am  looking  for  another.  If  something  new  comes 
on  the  market,  we  get  it. 

Now,  we  want  to  speak  about  what  we  did  in  New  York  State. 
There  was  a  lot  of  highway  money  wasted.  Governor  Sulzer  came 
in  and  said,  "Gentlemen,  you  have  got  to  spend  every  dollar  hon- 
estly in  the  construction  of  these  roads  and  I  will  put  men  in  to 
make  you  do  it,"  and  he  selected  Mr.  Diehl  from  our  end  of  the 
State.  We  knew  him,  we  knew  his  worthy  father,  who  had  been 
mayor  twice,  and  refused,  almost  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  to 
accept  another  nomination. 

The  engineer  had  more  than  he  could  do  in  the  private  practice, 
yet  he  yielded  to  the  public  call.  They  asked  him,  "Don't  you  owe 
something  to  the  State?  We  know  you  are  honest  and  will  trust 
that  you  are  not  ignorant."  Immediately,  Governor  Sulzer  became 
the  target  of  the  rabble  that  couldn't  get  a  contract  to  do  nothing  and 
draw  money,  and  the  result  is,  they  are  trying  to  crucify  him  now. 
That  was  the  inception  of  the  whole  business.  We  can't  do  this 
thing  of  building  good  roads  honestly  by  States  alone,  Judge  Shackle- 
ford  notwithstanding.  Look  at  the  State  of  New  York  and  the 
money  that  was  squandered.  Half  the  stuff  they  put  down  this  year 
would  be  over  in  the  fields  next  year. 


ADDRESS   BY   EDWARD   H.    BUTLER  67 

We  want  federal  inspection  and  control.  Let  the  inspection  start 
with  the  trunk  lines  and  the  others  will  follow.  I  go  through  Europe 
every  year  in  my  automobile  and  hope  I  will  do  so  as  long  as  I  live. 
This  year  I  can't  go  on  account  of  this  meeting.  I  have  seen  the 
trunk  lines,  I  have  seen  the  lateral  roads  left  unfinished,  but  they  have 
brains  enough  to  get  over  on  the  trunk  line  and  go  to  the  nearest 
town.  We  cannot  do  everything  at  once. 

I  was  one  of  the  committee,  being  a  member  of  the  Waterways 
Congress,  who  went  to  see  Uncle  Joe  Cannon,  who  lives  not  far  from 
here  and  who  is  going  to  run  again.  He  raised  both  hands  and  said 
"$6,000,000— great  God!  Where  would  you  get  it?"  The  next 
day  he  knew,  when  the  governor  of  Alabama  got  on  that  platform, 
succeeding  Mr.  Taft,  and  said,  "If  anyone  gets  in  the  way  of  your 
doing  what  you  should  do  for  the  people,  throw  him  off;"  then 
Uncle  Joe  saw  a  new  light;  he  didn't  hand  us  out  the  $6,000,000, 
but  he  wasn't  so  reluctant  as  he  had  been  the  day  before,  and  the 
wonder  where  it  was  to  come  from  never  happened  to  enter  his 
breast.  He  said,  "If  they  want  it,  I  don't  care;  it's  the  people's 
money." 

Don't  be  so  sparing  of  the  federal  money;  go  ahead,  let  Congress 
do  something;  let  it  begin  and  we  will  take  care  of  the  other,  and 
these  leisurely  rich.  How  many  rich  men  are  there  who  own  auto- 
mobiles compared  with  the  poor  man?  Mr.  Ford — and  I  am  willing 
to  give  him  the  benefit  of  this  advertising — said  he  was  going  to  build 
300,000  automobiles  next  year  here  in  Detroit.  What  does  that 
mean?  Are  there  three  hundred  and  odd  thousand  rich  men  ready 
to  buy  that  Ford?  No,  they  will  go  to  the  poor  man,  and  the  farmer 
and  the  farmer's  daughter  and  to  the  farmer's  son,  and  his  grand- 
children; they  will  be  running  those  Fords,  because  they  cannot 
afford  to  buy  a  more  costly  machine.  Don't  you  think  they  are 
interested  in  this  as  well  as  the  five  or  ten  thousand  leisurely  rich? 

Mr.  Enos,  the  head  of  one  of  our  great  Buffalo  institutions,  is  a 
man  of  large  affairs,  a  manufacturer  employing  thousands  of  men, 
a  rich  man,  and  he  is  doing  more  to  help  the  poor  man  than  any 
poor  man  has  ever  done.  Now,  that  is  the  truth.  Mr.  Diehl, 
to  my  own  positive  knowledge,  because  I  talked  it  over  with  Mr. 
Argyle,  didn't  want  to  become  associated  with  good  roads;  he  had 
more  than  he  could  do  in  his  private  practice.  There's  a  lot  of  new 
building  going  on  down  our  way.  We  are  not  inspired  by  the  suc- 
cess in  the  manufacture  of  automobiles  here  in  Detroit,  but  we  are 
doing  very  well. 

You  passed  us  in  population  because  we  were  asleep;  we  were 
afraid  the  federal  government  would  do  something  to  help  us  along, 
but  we  have  better  roads  than  you  have  here.  I  don't  want  to 
say  that  I  know  all  about  the  roads  in  Europe,  but  I  want  to  see  the 
roads  I  don't  know  about  in  Europe.  Why,  just  think  of  it,  Appius 
Claudius  built  a  road  between  Rome  and  Naples  300  years  B.C.  and 


68  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

that  road  is  better  today  than  this  road  from  here  to  Jackson  that  was 
built  two  years  ago. 

That  is  contractors'  graft;  that's  what  I  mean.  It  is  not  that  our 
States  cannot  do  it,  but  they  won't  let  them  do  it;  the  politicians 
have  got  it  in  their  hands;  you  have  to  go  down  and  grab  anything 
back  from  them.  We  have  had  it.  Some  of  them  are  going  to  jail 
for  it,  too.  Let  the  federal  government  help  us  all  they  can.  I  use  the 
collective  noun  in  the  plural,  "they ,"  because  the  government  is  com- 
prised of  eight  or  nine  strong  men  like  Brother  Shackleford  and  some 
others.  They  will  let  him  go  on  and  the  rest  will  sit  back  and  say, 
"That's  so." 

I  hate  a  "that's  so"  man.  Get  out  and  see  what  you  can  do  for 
yourself.  I  haven't  told  you  gentlemen  a  word  that  is  untrue.  I 
know  how  fast  they  are  going  to  do  this  thing  over  in  Missouri,  but 
you  will  have  to  show  me.  My  good  friend,  Colonel  Nelson,  of  the 
Kansas  City  Star,  than  whom  there  are  few  better  automobilists 
(I  have  been  abroad  with  him  and  raced  with  him),  is  always  telling 
us,  "We  are  going  to  have  that  thing  fixed  within  a  few  days;  come 
up  and  see  us."  He  spoke  last  night  and  told  us  how  much  we'd 
get  up  there  and  I  am  going  up  to  see  it.  I  am  from  Missouri  now 
and  the  Colonel  will  have  more  excuses  to  offer  about  being  more 
hampered  by  contractors  or  men  who  furnish  materials  than  we  are. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  do  not  want  to  take  up  any  more  of  your  time. 
I  might  talk  here  on  the  European  roads  and  tell  you  what  you  can 
get;  so  well  were  they  advertised  that  the  road  leading  all  the  way 
down  to  Naples  was  cut  up  with  ridges,  after  that  book,  The  Light- 
ning Conductor,  was  circulated  and  told  about  the  beauties  of  that 
trip.  Millions  of  dollars  every  year  are  left  there.  I  talked  with 
Mr.  Coliet,  of  the  Automobile  Club  of  France,  of  which  I  am  a 
member,  and  he  said,  "We  are  going  to  get  $500,000,000  this  year 
out  of  you  Americans,"  and  I  guess  they  are. 

I  have  a  son  down  in  the  Italian  Lakes  with  his  wife  now  and  he 
said,  "I  can't  get  through  until  the  23d  of  October,"  and  he  com- 
menced September  8th.  Why  is  that  money  left  over  there?  There 
isn't  a  more  beautiful  tour  in  the  world,  more  beautiful  scenery, 
more  alluring  and  everything,  and  nature  has  been  generous  to  us, 
than  the  Hudson  River  country  from  New  York  to  Albany,  yet  we 
hear  all  about  the  other  side,  go  over  to  see  it,  come  right  back  home. 
Of  course,  I  am  only  furthering  the  argument  of  Mr.  Shackleford 
when  he  said,  "See  your  own  country  first."  I  am  willing  to  if  I 
can  ride  in  an  automobile  without  a  spike,  a  blow-out  or  a  puncture 
every  40  feet. 

I  do  wish  today  that  this  Convention,  composed  at  it  is,  of  the 
smartest  lot  of  men  I  have  ever  met  in  any  convention — politicians 
are  here,  members  of  Congress  are  here,  and  the  Southern  Railway 
President,  Mr.  Finley,  is  here,  though  what  he  is  doing  in  this  com- 
pany I  don't  know.  Someone  said  down  in  Richmond  that  we'd  leave 
the  railroads  out  of  business.  Well,  some  of  then  ought  to  be  left. 
When  we  get  good  roads  down  through  that  country  they  will  be  left. 


ADDRESS    BY    EDWARD    H.    BUTLER  69 

I  own  a  winter  home  in  South  Carolina  and  up  at  Columbia  they 
got  that  far  with  the  road  that  the  Atlanta  Journal  and  the  New 
York  Herald  are  promoting,  but  they  don't  get  money  enough  to 
bring  it  on  down  and  that  road  has  been  a  failure.  Now,  if  the 
federal  government  did  what  they  should,  they  would  give  that  poor, 
oppressed,  ground-down  southern  country  a  lifting  hand;  that's 
what  they  should  do.  There  are  thousands  of  us,  probably  many 
through  sentiment  and  others  for  climatic  reasons,  who  would  buy 
plantations  en  route  to  Atlanta.  We'd  stop  over,  entertain  our 
friends  and  have  model  farms. 

I  have  one  in  New  York  State — yes,  we  are  a  leisure-loving  class, 
a  de  luxe  class  and  all  that,  but  going  down  there  to  our  ranches 
over  a  decent  road,  what  would  be  the  result?  That  country  would 
boom.  We  will  put  our  money  in  there  and  help  them  along.  We 
owe  that  southern  country  $100,000,000  right  now.  I  dare  stand 
up  as  a  Republican — and  they  recognize  me  in  my  party — and 
say  that  if  we  were  in  their  shoes  we  would  never  get  up  in  God's 
green  world!  No,  sir!  That  country  was  devastated;  everything 
was  taken  away;  they  were  crushed  down  and  left  nothing.  War  is 
hell.  Well,  with  them  it  was  two  hells,  that's  all  there  is  to  it. 

I  want  to  see  the  South  get  a  little  of  this  money,  this  federal  aid; 
it's  the  least  we  can  do.  After  we  whipped  them  we  went  right  in  and 
despoiled  them  and  we  followed  that  up  with  our  carpet  baggers, 
sent  down  to  annoy  and  tantalize  that  glorious  people,  and  now, 
when  they  ask  a  little  aid  from  the  federal  government,  they  should 
get  it.  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  some  of  my  people  are  opposed 
to  it.  Now,  let  the  government  do  all  they  can  and  we  will  do  the 
rest. 

We  know  that  we  are  going  to  have  good  roads  around  Buffalo 
and  Niagara  Falls.  Why,  Mr.  Carlisle  said  I  knew  when  he  ap- 
pointed Mr.  Diehl  the  manager  of  this  western  part  of  the  State, 
that  things  would  come  right,  and  they  have  come  right.  You 
can  go  to  Niagara  Falls  now  without  getting  out  four  times  and 
having  everybody  get  off  the  back  seat — "Come  ladies,  got  to  get 
the  jack." 

It  got  to  be  so  bad  that  we  wouldn't  go  any  more,  and  one  cruel 
beast  of  a  man  said  his  wife  was  always  running  the  front  of  the 
car  from  the  back  seat;  she'd  say,  "That's  right,  John,  run  it  right 
in  that  hole;  I  saw  it  from  the  back  seat  and  you  couldn't  see  it 
from  the  front;  why  don't  you  get  out  and  ask  somebody  where 
we  are?"  Yet,  I  suppose,  if  it  was  to  do  over  again,  I'd  marry  her 
again.  I  told  her  so  and  she  said,  "I'll  bet  you  ten  dollars  you 
wouldn't." 

The  ladies  are  always  running  cars.  I  bought  one  in  Chicago, 
that  everyone  of  my  family  can  run.  We  can't  meet  every  year  and 
dp  nothing.  I  hope  this  Convention  will  be  in  favor  of  the  federal 
aid  plan.  Let  them  start;  if  they  go  bankrupt  we  can  put  in  a 
little  and  help  them  out,  but  I  want  to  see  something  done  that  is 
tangible. 


70  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Mr.  Diehl  went  up  against  the  hardest  proposition  that  you  ever 
saw.  We  had  been  stolen  blind  and  hadn't  been  able  to  catch  the 
thief,  but  after  he  gave  us  good  roads  and  saw  that  the  material  was 
there  to  mend  the  roads  when  they  got  holes  in  them,  if  we  did  feel 
plutocratic;  we  held  our  fingers  and  thumbs  here  and  were  the 
leisurely  rich.  If  a  market  boy  had  a  little  Ford  he  could  go  over  and 
assume  the  air  of  greatness  if  he  had  it  not.  I  think  it's  an  upbuilding 
proposition  and  the  sooner  we  can  get  so  we  can  go  down  South  into 
that  wonderful  country  and  see  our  own  country  first,  the  better. 

You  can't  see  that  country  now  unless  you  ride  on  Mr.  Finley's 
railroad  and  that's  a  train  de  luxe  that  goes  from  New  York  to 
Florida  and  doesn't  stop  en  route  for  poor  people;  the  poor  people 
have  to  take  the  freight  trains.  I  think  Detroit,  with  all  it  has  done 
to  promote  touring,  should  get  busy;  come  down  and  see  Mr.  Diehl 
or  Mr.  Enos  and  he  will  come  up  here  and  build  more  than  thirteen 
miles  of  road  in  every  direction  out  of  Detroit;  that's  what  they  tell 
me  they  have. 

He  will  put  an  electric  light  on  a  pole  a  mile  high,  so  that  you  can 
see  the  mudhole.  Get  busy  right  here.  This  Convention  will  bring 
forth  fruit,  I  am  sure  of  it.  Look  at  the  price  the  gentleman  (Mr. 
Shackleford)  starts  off  with!  The  initial  cost  of  brick  is  too  much, 
but  if  he  was  thinking  of  the  road  Mr.  Diehl  builds,  the  road  that 
will  stay,  he  can  do  it  for  $11,000  a  mile,  Mr.  Davis,  his  authority, 
notwithstanding. 

You  know  the  old  story  that  Joe  Cannon  told  in  one  of  his  speeches 
about  the  young  couple  wanting  to  be  married  and  they  were  look- 
ing at  furniture  and  the  fellow  thought  it  was  too  high.  He  said, 
"Twenty  years  from  now  I  can  buy  that  dining  room  set  for  about 
two-thirds  of  the  money."  "But,  Joe,  in  the  meantime  we  have  been 
missing  a  lot  of  fun." 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  am  in  favor  of  just  one  thing;  Uncle  Sam  has 
the  money  and  he  has  the  disposition,  and  has  nearly  two-thirds  of 
the  people  with  him,  so  let  him  help  on  this  road  proposition;  he 
can  do  it.  Let  him  control  it  and  let  the  others  get  in  when  they  can. 
It  is  so  in  Europe;  it  certainly  is  in  Germany,  which  is  beginning  now 
to  go  all  over  her  roads. 

The  Kaiser  belongs  to  that  leisurely  class,  rich  and  plutocratic 
and  something  else.  He  goes  over  the  roads  and  if  things  are  bad 
he  gets  a  jog  and  the  secretary  is  always  in  front.  "You  get  after 
the  highway  commissioner  and  tell  him  it's  between  36  K  and  M," 
and  he's  out  there  by  daylight  with  a  gang  of  men  fixing  it.  Some- 
body asked  the  Kaiser  if  he  wouldn't  take  a  ride  in  this  country. 
He  said,  "No,  sufficient  unto  me  is  the  evil  roads  I  have  here." 

But  next  year  we  will  get  it.  The  roads  are  carrying  big  wagons 
and  all  that.  Do  you  know  what  this  means  to  you  people?  In 
Chicago  they  are  running  automobile  trucks  with  express  to  Mil- 
waukee on  account  of  the  expensiveness  or  slowness  of  the  express 
service.  I  had  it  up  with  their  agent.  It  is  about  as  bad  down  our 


ADDRESS   BY   WM.    P.    BORLAND  71 

way;  they  are  going  to  put  in  a  trunk  line  between  Rochester  and 
Buffalo,  78  miles,  over  a  beautiful  road.  They  have  been  trying  it 
for  two  years  between  Niagara  Falls  and  Buffalo. 

They  tell  me  the  railroads  want  to  see  these  good  roads;  well,  they 
have  changed  their  tune  if  they  do;  I  don't  believe  them;  I  don't 
believe  they  want  it,  but  they  will  be  in  it,  don't  forget  that;  they 
will  be  with  you,  and  if  they  can  hold  back  any  improvement  on  the 
road  that  foreshadows  any  degree  of  competition  with  them,  look  out 
for  them.  I  thank  you,  gentlemen. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  There  are  men  in  Congress  who  do  not  take 
the  same  view  of  the  road  question  as  Judge  Shackleford.  In 
the  delegation  of  16  Congressmen  from  Missouri,  all  but  one  lean 
toward  Judge  Shackleford's  view;  the  other  man  takes  a  contrary 
view.  The  mere  fact  that  that  one  man  is  equal  to  his  15  colleagues 
from  the  State  is  a  slight  indication  of  his  great  ability.  He  is  also 
known,  and  deservedly  so,  as  being  a  silver-tongued  orator,  the  most 
eloquent  Congressman  west  of  the  Missouri.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
present  the  Hon.  Wm.  P.  Borland,  member  of  Congress,  from  Kan- 
sas City,  Missouri. 

ADDRESS  BY  HON.  WM.  P.  BORLAND 

Member  of  Congress 

No  man  could  live  up  to  that  introduction,  so  that  I  am  not 
going  to  attempt  to  do  so,  but  I  am  very  glad  to  say  that  Missouri 
is  fortunate  in  being  represented  here  by  two  members  of  her  dele- 
gation. That  indicates  the  substantial  interest  that  Missouri  has 
in  the  cause  of  good  roads.  It  is  fortunate  also  in  another  respect, 
in  that  it  may  clear  away  from  your  minds  some  misapprehension 
that  we  have  only  one  idea  of  roads  out  there  in  Missouri,  and  that  is 
Judge  Shacklefprd's  idea.  My  congressional  district  is  but  one 
county,  containing  a  city  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  people  and  a  very 
prosperous  rural  section,  containing  about  2200  farmers,  about  6500 
voters  in  the  rural  section;  that  county,  Jackson  county,  contains 
300  miles  of  the  highest  grade  of  improved  rock  roads  with  oil  binder, 
that  are  passable  365  days  out  of  the  year,  and  no  man  can  go  out 
there  into  Jackson  County,  of  all  the  counties  in  Missouri,  and  tell 
the  farmers  that  we  don't  want  a  high  grade  of  roads.  People  out 
there  have  learned  by  actual  experience,  so  that  we  have  taken  a 
different  view  of  it  than  is  sometimes  taken  in  other  sections  of 
Missouri.  I  find  there  are  more  automobiles — I  don't  own  one 
myself  and  therefore  I  am  not  in  this  plutocratic  class,  but  that 
is  not  due  to  any  lack  of  inclination,  that's  my  misfortune  not  my 
fault — but  I  find  there  are  more  automobiles  owned  by  the  farmers 
than  by  any  other  class  of  citizens  in  my  District.  They  are  not 
the  high  grade  automobiles,  they  are  not  the  expensive  kind,  but 


72  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

they  are  automobiles  suited  to  the  country  user.  I  heard  about  a 
man  down  in  Judge  Shackleford's  district,  103  years  old,  and  some 
fellow  came  out  from  New  York  City,  looked  this  man  up  and  wanted 
to  engage  him  for  a  show,  a  museum.  He  went  down  there  and  found 
the  old  fellow  and  found  it  was  all  true;  he  was  103  years  old,  had  a 
family  Bible  to  prove  it.  The  showman  from  New  York  said, 
"Well,  I'll  make  a  contract  with  you;  I'll  give  you  fifty  dollars  a 
week  and  expenses  to  come  with  the  show."  "Well,"  the  old  fel- 
low said,  "that  sounds  pretty  good  to  me,  but  I  can't  close  the  deal 
with  you  right  now.  I've  made  a  rule  all  my  life  not  to  close  up  a 
business  deal  without  consulting  Pa."  The  fellow  says,  "For  the 
love  of  Heaven,  where  is  your  Pa?"  He  says,  "He  has  gone  down 
town  to  show  Grandpa  how  to  run  his  automobile."  If  I  believed 
in  the  doctrine  that  Judge  Shackleford  has  enunciated,  of  course  I 
would  be  opposed  to  federal  aid  in  any  form,  and  I  would  not  be  here 
and  this  Convention  would  not  be  here.  If  this  be  purely  a  local 
enterprise  and  amply  and  thoroughly  handled  by  local  initiative, 
then  there  is  no  justification  for  federal  aid  in  any  form.  If  the 
uniformity,  efficiency,  economy,  scientific  perfection,  utilization  of 
advanced  ideas  of  construction  and  maintenance,  if,  in  other  words, 
the  reduction  of  things  to  a  business  basis,  is  not  necessary,  then 
there  is  no  justification  for  our  acting  in  larger  bodies.  We  ought  to 
go  back  and  act  solely  in  our  small  and  local  bodies.  If  I  believed 
it  was  not  to  the  national  interest  to  spend  a  dollar  in  your  road 
district,  except  the  taxes  that  were  collected  in  your  road  district, 
then  there  would  be  no  justification  for  our  meeting  together.  If 
it  were  not  true  that  the  great  wealthy  centers  of  population  in  this 
country  stand  ready  and  ought  to  stand  ready  to  contribute  to  the 
development  of  the  less  developed  sections  of  the  country  for  the 
common  prosperity  of  the  whole  nation,  then  there  would  be  no 
basis  for  federal  aid.  If  it  were  not  true  that  a  commercial  metropolis 
of  a  State,  like  Kansas  City  and  St.  Louis,  had  a  vital  interest  in  the 
construction  of  highways  and  the  development  of  Camden  County 
or  Morgan  County  or  any  county  in  Judge  Shackleford's  district, 
then  that  State  would  be  committing  a  political  crime  if  it  under- 
took to  meddle  in  the  construction  or  maintenance  of  highways. 
But  it  is  only  because  the  concentrated  wealth  in  New  York  City 
or  in  Detroit  or  in  St.  Louis,  is  the  wealth  that  has  been  gathered 
in  the  last  analysis  from  the  farms,  that  it  is  right  for  the  federal  gov- 
ernment or  the  State  government  or  the  large  political  power  to  lay 
its  hands  on  that  concentrated  wealth  and  return  it  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  original  source  from  which  the  wealth  came.  If  I 
agreed  with  Judge  Shackleford  that  not  a  dollar  should  be  spent  in 
your  little  road  district  except  what  you  yourselves  raise,  in  other 
words,  if  I  believe  that  the  federal  government  ought  not  to  be  called 
upon  to  build  a  road  in  some  other  man's  district,  then  I  would 
believe  it  ought  not  to  build  a  road  in  your  district  and  we  would 
get  right  back  to  the  point  that  you  could  take  out  of  the  federal 


ADDRESS   BY   WM.    P.    BORLAND  73 

treasury  exactly  every  penny  you  put  in  and  not  a  penny  more. 
Under  those  circumstances,  what  would  be  the  object  in  the  federal 
government  interfering  in  the  matter  at  all?  That  is  exactly  the 
situation.  If  we  are  on  that  basis,  we  are  on  an  entirely  different 
basis  from  what  we  think  we  are.  But  I  took  for  my  text  the  words 
of  the  secretary  of  agriculture  yesterday,  "those  who  fear  the  power 
of  the  federal  government  had  better  take  counsel  of  their  fears 
before  they  approach  the  federal  treasury."  For  you  gentlemen 
have  every  dollar  in  your  road  district  of  taxable  wealth  that  belongs 
to  you,  and  if  you  want  to  keep  it  there,  if  you  want  to  fence  yourself 
off  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  if  you  want  to  dig  a  moat  around  a 
parapeted  castle  so  that  we  cannot  break  in,  you  have  no  basis  on 
which  you  can  appeal  to  the  federal  government  at  all.  This  mat- 
ter of  good  roads  is  engaging  public  attention  on  a  scientific  and 
businesslike  basis  for  the  first  time,  practically  for  the  first  time, 
in  the  history  of  our  country.  There  never  has  been  such  general 
and  widespread  interest  in  good  roads.  In  indicates  that  there  is  some 
insistent,  natural  and  well-justified  public  demand  for  a  solution 
of  this  problem,  and  that  is  reflected  in  Congress.  There  are  many 
men  who  are  willing  to  shout  enthusiastically  and  talk  glittering 
generalities  about  the  improvement  of  roads,  but  there  are  mighty  few 
men,  in  or  out  of  Congress,  and  I  can  say  with  certainty  there  are 
mighty  few  men  in  Congress,  that  have  the  boldness  to  grasp  the 
necessary  factors  of  the  situation.  For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
or  more,  in  this  country  we  have  been  pursuing  the  plan  of  build- 
ing and  maintaining  highways,  the  great  arteries  of  the  nation,  by 
means  of  isolated  local  control.  We  inherited  that  system  from 
England,  from  which  we  inherited  our  other  political  institutions, 
but  we  inherited  that  system  at  a  time  when  England  was  a  hermit 
nation,  with  her  forests  full  of  outlaws,  when  99  out  of  100  of  her 
young  men  went  abroad  for  their  education,  when  she  had  not  a 
manufactory  or  a  large  city  in  her  entire  limits.  We  have  attempted 
to  adapt  that  feudal  system  of  the  little  road  district  to  a  great  na- 
tion three  thousand  miles  in  extent,  that  had  to  be  carved  out  of 
the  native  wilderness.  We  have  attempted  to  cling  to  that  system 
of  isolated  local  control  of  the  construction  and  maintenance  of 
roads,  when  the  mother  country  herself  has  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  abandoned  it  and  when  no  other  civilized  nation  on 
earth  ever  adopted  it.  There  are  inherent  weaknesses  in  the  system 
of  local  control,  natural  and  inherent.  One  is  that  the  road  dis- 
tricts vary  in  size,  they  vary  in  taxable  wealth,  they  vary  in  their 
location  to  their  neighbors  and  to  the  general  community,  and, 
more  than  all,  they  vary  in  their  legal  powers.  Those  of  us  who  have 
tried  to  do  anything  along  the  line  of  good  roads  from  a  practical 
standpoint,  beyond  shouting  with  the  crowd  occasionally,  have  found 
that  the  whole  subject  of  road  laws  is  a  legal  jungle,  almost  im- 
penetrable, overlapped  with  the  accumulation  of  ages,  choked  with 
briers  and  underbrush  and  fallen  timber.  Those  of  us  who  have  tried 


74  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

to  penetrate  it  in  any  direction  have  had  the  usual  reward  of  pio- 
neers to  get  our  hands  and  faces  scratched  and  torn  until  they  bled, 
and  that  has  been  about  the  only  result  so  far.  Any  lawyer  will 
tell  you  that  the  road  laws  of  any  State  in  the  Union  are  in  chaos. 
There  is  not  uniformity  even  in  the  laws  of  the  individual  State  as 
to  the  local  powers  of  the  road  districts  themselves.  There  is  not  a 
road  district  in  a  State  in  the  Union  that  has  a  clean-cut  knowledge 
of  the  extent  and  definition  of  its  own  power.  The  road  districts 
vary  in  taxable  wealth.  Why,  it  almost  invariably  happens  that  the 
road  district  with  the  largest  taxable  wealth  has  the  fewest  road 
problems.  It  has  a  rich,  level  country  near  a  popular  city,  where 
its  road  problems  are  few,  and  the  road  district  with  the  smallest 
taxable  wealth  has  the  rough  country  and  the  difficult  road  problems, 
and  yet  we  expect  those  two  districts  to  maintain  a  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence, almost  of  hostility,  towards  each  other,  for  fear  that  there 
might  be  some  cooperation  that  would  lead  to  the  improvement  of  the 
general  highway.  If  that  kind  of  cooperation  is  necessary  between  the 
road  districts  or  townships  of  a  county,  if  it  is  necessary  between 
the  counties  of  a  State,  it  is  necessary  between  the  States  of  the 
Union.  I  had  an  idea  when  I  first  approached  this  problem,  because 
I  had  had  some  little  to  do  with  city  government,  had  drafted  the 
charter  of  Kansas  City  as  a  member  of  its  board  of  freeholders,  and 
had  had  some  little  to  do  with  the  city  government  itself — I  had  an 
idea  that  the  way  the  roads  ought  to  be  built  was  to  have  them  built 
by  the  man  who  owned  the  abutting  land  on  the  road.  It  appeared 
perfectly  clear  that  if  the  city,  as  most  cities  do,  required  the  local 
street  to  be  constructed,  and  in  many  cases  maintained,  by  the 
property  owner,  that  the  same  rule  must  apply  to  the  country  prop- 
erty owner.  I  assumed  that  if  that  were  true,  that  the  construction 
of  a  high  grade  street  in  a  city  along  a  certain  block,  raises  the  value 
of  the  adjoining  property,  until  the  cost  is  completely  absorbed  in 
the  advanced  price  of  the  property  abutting  on  it,  that  that  same 
principle  would  apply  in  country  roads.  It  took  me  some  time  to 
find  out  why  I  had  any  interest  in  the  roads  in  Judge  Shackleford's 
district.  I  discovered,  in  getting  a  little  deeper  into  this  proposition, 
that  the  value  of  city  property  consisted  solely  in  its  accessibility. 
You  want  property  in  a  city  because  it  is  located  advantageously, 
because  it  is  accessible  and  surrounded  by  the  city  improvements, 
but  the  value  of  farm  lands  depends  upon  the  amount  of  crops  per 
acre  that  you  can  raise  on  the  farm.  If  you  have  got  a  good,  well- 
located  city  lot,  there  is  no  limit  but  the  blue  sky  to  the  value,  to  the 
price  you  can  get  out  of  that  by  the  accumulation  of  business  in 
your  neighborhood.  Your  farm  land  cannot  retain  upon  itself  the 
wealth  it  produces;  if  it  did  it  would  be  useless  to  the  owner  and  to 
humanity,  but  the  farm  land  must  send  the  greater  portion  of  its 
wealth  to  the  city,  and  we  in  the  city  do  business  upon  the  wealth 
that  comes  in  from  the  farm,  and  that  basis  alone  is  the  only  honest 
and  ethical  basis  on  which  cooperation  must  be  compelled  between 


ADDRESS   BY  WM.   P.   BORLAND  75 

the  city  man  and  the  country  man  in  the  construction  of  the  great 
highways  of  commerce.  Now,  under  those  circumstances,  gentle- 
men, I  have  no  desire,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  man  who  represents 
both  a  city  and  a  country  constituency,  to  either  kick  the  city  man 
in  the  face  nor  trample  upon  the  country  man;  it  is  a  question  of 
honest  cooperation.  I  don't  believe  that  the  city  man  should 
have  his  property  laid  upon  by  the  strong  hand  of  the  law  to  hand 
over  to  the  one-gallus  fellow  that  don't  fix  his  road  down  in  the 
country.  In  fact,  I  don't  believe  in  this  vanishing  illusion  of  the 
one-gallus  farmer;  there  isn't  any  one-gallus  farmer  left  in  my  part 
of  Missouri,  and  I  trust  in  a  few  years  there  won't  be  any  one-gallus 
farmers  left  in  any  part  of  Missouri.  If  that  principle  applies  to  the 
State  of  Missouri,  (and  it  is  the  only  honest  principle  on  which  we 
can  justify  a  State  tax  for  roads),  if  that  applies  to  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri, that  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  farms  of  Missouri  is  what 
makes  the  commercial  metropolis  of  Kansas  City  and  St.  Louis,  and 
therefore  it  is  right  for  the  great  State  of  Missouri  to  lay  its  hands 
on  the  taxable  wealth  accumulated  in  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  City 
and  return  a  portion  of  it  to  the  source  from  which  it  came — if  that 
is  true  in  the  case  of  the  state,  it  is  true  in  the  case  of  the  nation. 
Now,  that  principle  seems  to  me  immutable.  You  cannot  keep  the 
wealth  of  the  farm  on  the  farm  and  if  you  did  the  cities  would  starve 
to  death.  You  cannot  keep  the  wealth  of  the  city  in  the  city,  you 
must  transact  your  business  in  the  city  with  the  growing  wealth 
that  comes  from  the  country,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  nation. 
Here  is  the  great  City  of  New  York,  so  ably  represented  by  these 
broadminded  men  who  have  spoken  to  you.  I  am  glad  they  are, 
because  I  want  to  tell  you  that  I  was  born  and  raised  and  have 
grown  to  political  and  to  professional  manhood,  out  in  the  Missouri 
Valley,  the  great  granary  of  the  country,  and  I  have  always  had  the 
belief  and  still  cherish  it,  that  if  we  were  to  cut  off  the  means  of 
transportation  across  the  Allegheny  Mountains,  New  York  would 
be  in  danger  of  starving  to  death  in  thirty  days.  I  have  heard 
some  men  from  New  York  get  up  and  say,  "Why  should  the  nation 
lay  its  hands  upon  the  wealth  accumulated  in  the  City  of  New 
York  and  build  roads  in  Missouri  and  Montana?"  And  I  tell 
them  that  the  principle  is  precisely  the  same,  that  they  lay  hands 
upon  the  wealth  of  Buffalo  and  New  York  City  to  build  roads  in 
the  interior  counties  of  New  York.  The  wealth  that  is  centered  in 
the  great,  glittering  metropolis  of  this  wealthy  nation  of  ours,  was  not 
produced  upon  the  barren  streets  and  squares  of  the  metropolis;  it 
came  from  the  rural  sections,  and  the  more  of  it  that  comes  from  the 
rural  sections,  the  greater  will  New  York  be.  New  York  is  our  me- 
tropolis, it  is  our  great  gateway  to  the  world,  it  is  our  great  export 
market.  It  draws  its  wealth  from  all  the  nations.  Great  railroads 
run  through  Missouri,  but  their  general  offices  are  located  and  their 
bonds  are  owned  in  New  York.  It  is  true,  we  pay  life  insurance  in 
Missouri,  but  we  send  the  check  back  to  New  York,  and  then  borrovr 


76  AMERICAN  ROAD    CONGRESS 

it  back  again  to  get  a  mortgage  on  our  farms.  It  is  true,  we  have 
banks  in  Missouri,  but  we  send  our  reserves  to  New  York.  It  is 
true,  we  raise  the  crops  in  Missouri,  but  we  ship  them  to  New  York, 
and  New  York  will  no  more  divorce  herself  from  Missouri  and  Mon- 
tana than  Montana  and  Missouri  can  divorce  themselves  from  New 
York.  We  are  one  great  nation,  and  if  we  justify  ourselves  in 
federal  aid  to  roads,  on  the  theory  that  we  are  on  a  dishonest  basis, 
if  there  be  any  danger  in  federal  control,  let  your  little  road  district 
run  it  to  suit  itself;  then  it  will  be  perfectly  safe  and  have  its  money 
in  its  own  hands.  If  I  believed  that,  I  would  vote  against  the  im- 
provement of  every  navigable  river  and  every  harbor  in  the  United 
States.  I  live  at  the  furthest  end  of  navigable  water  in  the  United 
States,  at  the  great  place  where  the  Missouri  River  bends  to  the  north- 
ward and  spreads  out  to  the  great  northwest,  the  country  that  has  no 
navigation.  I  have  been  working,  since  my  service  began  in  Congress 
for  the  navigation  of  the  Missouri  River.  This  year,  for  the  first 
time,  we  had  a  fleet  of  seven  boats  running  all  the  seasons,  because 
we  had  the  banks  revetted  and  had  no  sand  bar.  We  have  got  the 
water,  the  channel  and  the  boats,  and  I  have  combatted  this  same 
idea  among  my  Kansas  and  Nebraska  and  Colorado  colleagues,  who 
say,  "The  Missouri  River  don't  touch  us,"  and  I  say,  "The  nearer  I 
can  get  it  to  your  wheat  fields  the  cheaper  you  can  get  your  wheat 
on  the  market."  If  I  believed  in  that  doctrine  of  isolated  local 
control,  I  would  be  compelled  to  vote,  not  against  the  improvement 
of  the  Missouri  River,  which  runs  by  my  door,  but  against  all  the 
rivers  that  did  not  run  by  my  door;  against  the  improvement  of 
Gasconade  and  Osage,  that  run  solely  through  Judge  Shackleford's 
district.  They  are  tributaries  of  the  Missouri,  but  the  freight  they 
haul,  by  virtue  of  the  improvements  thereon  by  the  federal  govern- 
ment, is  a  part  of  the  great  wealth  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Missouri. 
No,  we  cannot  divorce  ourselves,  gentlemen,  we  are  here  as  a  great 
nation  and  here  to  cooperate.  I  am  not  a  touring  man  nor  an  auto- 
mobile owner,  directly  or  indirectly.  I  welcome  to  this  movement 
in  favor  of  good  roads  every  element,  every  class,  if  it  chooses  to 
call  itself  a  class,  though  I  don't  recognize  classes.  I  recognize 
every  class  of  citizens  who  are  willing  to  aid  in  pushing  forward  a 
common  object  in  which  we  are  all  interested.  I  have  no  desire  to 
kick  any  class  or  interest  in  the  face.  As  long  as  we  are  going  along 
in  the  same  direction,  we  ought  all  to  pull  together  as  far  as  we  can. 
Now,  the  question  of  federal  aid  has  assumed  a  critical  point  in  the 
history  of  our  government.  We  voted,  as  you  recall,  at  one  time, 
to  pay  $15  a  mile  for  dirt  roads,  $20  a  mile  for  gravel  and  sand  roads, 
$25  a  mile  for  rock  roads  for  carrying  the  mail  over  those  roads 
of  ours.  That  was  a  mere  pretence;  those  of  us  who  voted  for  that 
proposition,  who  didn't  believe  in  it,  voted  for  it  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  a  declaration  of  the  principle  of  federal  aid  and  on  no  other 
ground.  We  knew  that  $15  a  mile  did  not  amount  to  anything, 
either  in  the  construction  or  the  maintenance  of  those  roads.  They 


ADDRESS   BY   WM.    P.    BORLAND  77 

might  possibly  maintain  a  dirt  road  after  a  fashion,  but,  of  course, 
we  understood,  as  you  understand,  that  a  dirt  road  is  the  highest 
priced  road  to  maintain  and  an  improved  road  is  the  cheapest  in  the 
long  run.  It's  like  the  difference  between  a  wood  and  tin  bridge  and  a 
stone  arch  bridge.  Out  in  our  country  the  commissioners  used  to  be 
very  fond  of  putting  up  what  we  call  tin  bridges,  these  rattling  iron 
structures  that  rattle  themselves  to  pieces  in  a  few  years.  We  had  the 
wooden  bridge  idea  first,  then  the  tin  bridge,  and  now  we  have  got 
clear  past  it  and  have  quit  wasting  our  money  that  way.  Men  will 
quit  wasting  their  money  on  unimproved  roads  when  they  see  that 
they  are  no  better  off  this  spring  than  last  and  no  better  off  this 
year  than  a  hundred  years  ago.  I  believe  in  the  higher  type  of 
road,  in  the  better  class  of  road,  and  I  won't  vote  for  any  federal 
appropriation  that  does  not  promise  the  people,  not  a  division  of  the 
federal  money  into  a  pork  barrel  in  every  congressional  district,  but  a 
scientific,  permanent,  better  class  of  roads  than  we  have  today.  Now, 
mark  you,  my  friends,  I've  got  300  miles  of  fine  roads  in  my  county, 
the  best  class  of  roads  that  are  mentioned  in  that  road  bill  that 
went  through  the  lower  House  of  Congress.  Twenty-five  dollars 
a  mile  was  the  price  that  was  going  to  be  paid.  I  would  have  taken 
that  home  to  my  people,  $7500  out  of  the  federal  treasury,  the 
amount  of  my  annual  salary  as  congressman,  taken  off  my  coat, 
unbuttoned  my  collar,  and  got  out  on  a  hot  day  and  told  the  people, 
"I  brought  back  $7500  of  federal  money."  Some  might  have 
been  interested  in  that,  but  lots  of  them  would  have  looked  on  me 
with  a  good  deal  of  pity.  "What  do  we  want  with  $7500  of  federal 
money,  when  our  county  is  spending  between  $500,000  and  $600,000 
every  year?  We  don't  want  your  $7500  and  if  you  are  a  pork  barrel 
Congressman  we  don't  want  you."  That  is  the  way  the  business 
men  in  my  district  would  have  acted.  They  would  have  said' 
"If  you  don't  go  down  there  and  solve  that  road  problem,  we  don't 
want  you  tackling  it  at  all;  let  it  alone."  We  spend  half  a  million 
dollars  in  that  county  on  roads  now  and  although  I  would  have 
gotten  the  biggest  sum  of  money  out  of  that  bill  of  any  congress- 
man in  the  State  of  Missouri,  I  would  not  have  dared  to  offer  it  to 
my  people.  Last  session  we  created  a  committee  on  roads;  that 
shows  that  the  interest  is  gaining  ground.  In  the  post-office  and 
post-roads  bill  they  put  an  appropriation  of  $500,000  to  be  expended, 
as  the  secretary  of  agriculture  told  you,  by  him  and  the  postmaster 
general  jointly.  That  was  to  be  spent  in  cooperation  with  the  State, 
the  State  contributing  twice  as  much  as  the  federal  government. 
The  fact  that  it  resulted  in  a  glittering  failure  was  not  the  fault  of 
the  secretary  of  agriculture  or  the  postmaster  general  or  the  spirit 
in  which  they  approached  it,  for  no  man  could  have  approached  it 
with  more  sympathetic  diligence  than  those  two.  They  were 
facing  difficulties;  they  found  that  $500,000  divided  among  the  States 
equally  would  mean  about  $10,000  for  a  State.  Then  they  sent  out 
word  to  the  governors  of  the  forty-eight  States  and  asked  them 


78  AMERICAN  ROAD    CONGRESS 

to  select  a  road  and  to  contribute  $20,000  from  the  State  funds  or  the 
local  funds  to  the  improvement  of  that  section  of  road.  Of  the 
forty-eight  governors  who  were  invited  to  select,  only  twelve  under- 
took to  do  so.  I  don't  know  how  many  they  actually  heard  from, 
but  those  that  didn't  undertake  to  select  their  roads  said  it  was 
because  their  State  constitutions  or  laws  of  their  State  were  in  such 
condition  that  they  could  not  cooperate  with  anybody  on  any  sub- 
ject and  it  was  useless  to  talk  to  them  until  they  had  a  reform  in 
their  local  procedure.  Twelve  governors  undertook  to  designate 
roads,  among  them  the  governor  of  my  own  State  of  Missouri, 
who  designated  a  stretch  of  road  and  had  the  nerve  to  go  con- 
trary to  somebody's  opinion  here,  because  he  designated  a  por- 
tion of  the  cross-State  highway  in  the  county  of  Lafayette,  ad- 
joining my  county  of  Jackson  on  the  east,  a  smaller  and  less  wealthy 
county.  He  designated  that  little  strip  of  road  there.  I  don't 
know  what  was  the  matter,  whether  those  road  districts  had  ex- 
hausted their  taxing  power  or  their  local  powers  were  insufficient, 
but  for  some  reason  or  other,  that  $10,000  lay  there  for  sixteen  months 
and  Lafayette  County  was  unable  to  take  it.  After  it  had  laid  there 
a  reasonable  time,  the  federal  government  withdrew  it,  and  so  we 
did  not  get  any  $10,000  at  all.  Then  we  found  there  were  only 
three  States  in  the  Union  that  could  take  advantage  of  that  con- 
tributory offer — Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Oregon;  all  the  other 
forty-five  States  were  compelled  to  refuse  it.  This  gets  right  back 
to  your  State  duties,  which  are  just  as  necessary  as  the  duties  of  the 
federal  government.  Then  these  officers,  in  their  wisdom,  still  in- 
tending to  carry  out  the  spirit,  if  not  the  letter  of  the  law  of  Con- 
gress, selected,  arbitrarily,  certain  roads  in  the  United  States  to  be 
improved  with  the  balance  of  the  money.  They  selected  one  in 
Iowa,  that  is  the  nearest  to  me,  in  the  northern  part  of  Iowa.  That 
information  is  valuable  from  this  standpoint,  that  it  throws  a  strong 
ray  of  light  into  this  legal  jungle  that  must  be  cleared  away.  We 
have  got  to  put  our  axe  right  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  get  right  down 
to  the  place  where  the  secretary  of  agriculture  says  the  federal 
government  can  deal  only  with  the  State  as  a  unit,  then  let  the  State 
perform  the  high  function  of  a  State  to  deal  with  its  counties  and 
local  districts,  and  there  comes  in  the  preservation  of  the  dignity 
and  power  of  the  State,  but  when  those  roads  have  been  selected  and 
are  to  be  improved  by  the  federal  and  State  government,  the  ini- 
tiative, the  secretary  says,  should  be  with  the  authorities  of  the  State 
and  should  be  submitted,  also,  to  the  federal  government.  I  am 
not  one  of  those  who  fear  the  action  of  the  federal  government 
or  are  willing  to  take  the  federal  government's  money  without 
allowing  it  a  joint  supervision  over  the  expenditure  of  the  money. 
I  see  no  objection  to  this  whatever.  One  of  the  most  vicious  things, 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  things,  to  the  cause  of  good  roads  in  this 
country  was  the  pork  barrel  idea  that  we  will  put  our  hands  into 


ADDRESS   BY   WM.    P.    BORLAND  79 

the  federal  treasury,  take  out  as  much  as  we  can  hold  in  both  hands, 
take  it  back  to  our  congressional  districts  and  say,  "Here,  this 
money  comes  from  the  federal  government,  there's  no  strings  tied 
to  it,  you  can  do  with  it  as  you  please."  That  kind  of  a  proposi- 
tion would  be  the  greatest  detriment  and  setback  to  the  cause  of 
good  roads  that  could  possibly  be  imagined,  in  my  judgment.  No, 
if  you  are  going  to  have  good  roads  in  this  country,  we  need  not 
talk  about  good  roads,  that's  a  matter  of  opinion;  if  you  are  going 
to  have  better  roads  in  this  country  (that  is  the  word  I  like),  a  higher 
grade  of  roads;  if  we  are  going  to  employ  the  scientific  research  of 
this  office  of  public  roads  that  Mr.  Page  heads;  if  we  are  going  to 
make  use  of  the  money  the  federal  government  has  already  ex- 
pended in  acquiring  scientific  knowledge  about  road  material  and 
drainage  and  engineering  and  construction  of  drainage  and  the 
proper  kinds  of  soil;  if  we  are  going  to  get  that  knowledge  that  has 
been  acquired  at  public  expense  to  put  into  the  hands  of  the  people, 
then  we  have  got  to  have  some  form  of  federal  aid  by  which  there 
will  be  an  active  cooperation  between  the  officials  of  the  federal 
government  and  the  local  district.  You  cannot  expect  the  officials 
of  the  local  district  to  have  within  their  power  or  financial  reach 
all  the  technical  knowledge  that  is  resting  unused  in  the  archives 
of  the  bureau  of  roads  at  Washington,  and  that  information  belongs 
to  you,  it  was  paid  for  with  your  money.  But  if  you  want  to  build  a 
Chinese  wall  around  your  road  district,  let  your  little  road  boss 
find  out  for  himself  what  are  the  scientific  requirements  for  main- 
taining permanently  and  efficiently  good  roads  in  your  neighbor- 
hood. We  want  better  roads  and  the  only  way  to  get  them  is  to 
get  economy  and  efficiency  in  the  management.  This  road  convention 
is  a  convention  of  business  men.  If  you  believed  that  your  road  dis- 
trict was  solving  the  problem,  you  would  not  be  here,  not  a  man  of 
you ;  you  are  business  men  and  if  you  believed  that  the  road  district 
ought  to  solve  the  problem,  not  a  man  of  you  would  have  been  here. 
You  believe  that  the  problem  is  too  big  for  any  one  road  district  and 
that  the  wealth  of  the  nation  tends  to  accumulate  in  the  cities  of 
the  nation,  in  the  centers  of  population,  and  you  desire,  very  prop- 
erly, that  a  part  of  that  wealth  that  accumulates  there,  the  original 
product  of  the  farm,  shall  be  returned  to  the  source  of  the  wealth, 
the  country,  for  the  development  of  the  country  and  the  city  and 
make  this  a  greater,  grander  and  richer  nation  and  a  nation  of  in- 
telligence, a  nation  of  high  social  activity,  a  nation  of  high  develop- 
ment, a  nation  of  good  schools,  a  nation  of  good  churches,  a  nation 
where  country  life  is  just  as  comfortable  and  just  as  social  and  just 
as  attractive  as  city  life;  then,  when  you  have  done  all  of  that,  you 
will  find  that  the  old  Stars  and  Stripes  will  wave  from  ocean  to 
ocean,  over  the  grandest,  best  civilization  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  I  thank  you. 


80  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  speaker  is  the  chairman  of  the  legis- 
lative committee  of  the  American  Automobile  Association.  We  feel 
that  we  have  one  of  the  best  lawyers  in  the  country  representing 
us  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  introduce  the  Hon.  Charles  Thaddeus 
Terry. 

ADDRESS  BY  CHARLES  T.  TERRY 

As  I  look  into  your  faces  I  know  it  is  an  audience  which  is  familiar 
with  the  historical  incidents  of  the  Bible.  I  am  going  to  refer  you 
to  one  of  them.  You  know  the  story  of  Jonah  and  the  whale, 
but  probably  you  have  never  come  across  the  full  account  of  it. 
It  you  have,  you  have  read  that  prior  to  the  cataclysm  which  re- 
stored Jonah  back  to  terra  firma,  the  whale  said  to  him,  "I  have 
inside  information  of  the  proposition  that  there  is  something  which 
I  must  get  out  of  my  system."  And  accordingly,  Jonah  was 
raised  a  "perfectly  good  man,"  but  as  he  lay  upon  the  beach  where 
he  had  been  cast,  you  will  realize  that  he  had  suffered  some  damage 
and  was  not  exactly  in  the  best  condition;  and  accordingly  help 
was  called  and  a  physician  approaching  him,  stood  in  a  brown  study 
looking  at  him,  and  Jonah  partially  came  to  and  looked  up  at  the 
physician  and  said,  "Are  you  a  doctor?"  The  physician  said,  "I 
am."  "Well,"  said  he,  "why  don't  you  do  something  for  me?" 
"Well,"  said  the  doctor,  "there  are  seven  methods  of  first  aid  to 
the  injured  and  I  am  trying  to  think  which  one  to  apply."  And 
Jonah  said,  "Is  there  anything  in  any  of  them  about  whiskey?" 
He  said,  "Yes,  that  is  an  ingredient  in  one  of  them."  "Well," 
Jonah  said,  "forget  the  others."  Now,  we  have  had  this  matter  of 
good  roads  and  federal  aid  for  roads  in  our  system  for  a  long  while. 
I  submit  to  you,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  that  it  is  about  time  we 
got  rid  of  it.  We  have  talked,  we  have  had  a  superabundance  of 
superheated  atmosphere  about  it  and  it  is  about  time  that  there 
was  some  action;  it  is  about  time  that  the  talk  ripened  into  some 
concrete  thing.  If  it  does  not  ripen  it  will  rot.  We  must  eventually 
apply  some  one  remedy  and  forget  the  others.  Now,  there  are  various 
and  sundry  suggestions  of  various  and  sundry  ways  of  producing 
federal  aid  for  good  roads.  Mr.  Shackleford  has  a  theory;  Mr. 
Borland  has  another  one,  which  is  a  little  different,  and  A,  B,  C 
and  p  each  has  a  particular  pet  theory.  I  asked  somebody  on  an 
occasion  what  he  thought  of  Mr.  Shackleford's  plan,  and  he  said, 
"I  like  it."  " Have  you  heard  of  any  other  plans?"  "  Yes."  "  What 
do  you  think  of  them?"  "I  like  them."  "Well,  what  is  your  idea 
of  what  a  national  system  of  good  roads  should  do?"  "Why," 
he  said,  "I  only  have  one  requirement  for  a  national  system  of 
good  roads  and  that  is  that  it  shall  build  a  road  in  front  of  my  door." 
Now,  the  issue  is  between  selfishness  and  provincialism  on  the  one 
hand  and  a  broad  liberality  and  nationalism  on  the  other  hand. 
A  house  divided  against  itself  certainly  will  not  stand.  I  have 


ADDRESS  BY  CHARLES  T.  TERRY  81 

heard  no  one  in  the  last  six  or  seven  years,  during  which  this  ques- 
tion has  been  mooted,  who  is  not  for  good  roads,  heartily  for  them, 
and  who  is  not  for  federal  aid  to  good  roads,  and  the  question  only 
remains  now,  "What  shall  be  the  method,  how  shall  the  technical 
feature  of  it  be  worked  out?  What  plans  shall  be  followed?  How 
shall  federal  moneys  be  applied  to  the  improvement  of  the  highways 
of  the  nation?"  You  will  recall  that  a  celebrated  ex-president  of 
this  country  has  a  daughter  who  sometimes  indulges  in  amusement, 
not  wisely,  but  too  well,  and  who,  sitting  in  one  of  the  galleries  in 
one  of  the  halls  of  Congress,  to  which  resort  was  had  from  time 
to  time  by  various  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  put 
a  tack  on  the  seat  next  to  her,  and  one  of  the  Congressmen,  taking 
the  seat  presently,  was  moved  to  sudden  action,  and  she  was  up- 
braided. She  was  told  that  it  was  cruel  to  cause  needless  pain  to 
others.  "Oh,"  she  said,  "I  take  no  pleasure  in  the  pain  of  others. 
I  did  that  thing  because  it  is  the  only  way  to  see  a  Congressman 
doing  anything  in  a  hurry."  With  the  sentiment  of  this  country 
in  favor  of  good  roads  and  of  federal  aid  to  good  roads,  powerful, 
widespread,  almost  irresistible  as  it  is,  going  to  the  halls  of  Con- 
gress and  knocking  and  demanding  that  action  be  taken,  that  action 
cannot  be  refused;  but  before  that  is  done  there  must  be  something 
concrete  about  the  demand.  It  will  not  do  simply  to  say,  as  we  have 
heard  said  so  many  times  during  the  past  years,  "We  want  good 
roads,  we  want  federal  aid  to  good  roads."  Everybody  agrees  that 
those  things  are  sound,  that  those  demands  are  sound;  the  point 
now  is  to  go  to  Congress  and  say,  "Here  is  the  plan  which  we  ask 
you  to  put  in  operation  through  statutory  provision.  It  does  not 
satisfy  everybody.  If  we  wait  until  we  get  a  bill  satisfactory  to 
everybody,  this  thing  never  will  be  done.  It  must  be  a  matter 
of  concession,  it  must  be  a  matter  of  compromise,  it  must  be  a 
matter  of  broadmindedness.  Selfishness  and  provincialism  must 
give  way  to  nationalism,  because  if  we  are  really  a  nation  we  must 
have  roads  national  in  character  and  national  in  usefulness.  Hence 
we  come  to  Congress.  Now,  what  shall  be  the  plan?  We  have 
listened  to  an  inspiring  and  enthusiastic  address  by  Mr.  Shackleford, 
member  of  Congress,  and  a  most  eloquent  one  by  another  member 
of  Congress,  Mr.  Borland,  and  a  delightfully,  polished  interesting 
address  from  the  editor.  I  call  you  to  witness  that  there  must  be 
a  difference  between  the  intelligence  of  Mr.  Shackleford's  constit- 
uency and  that  represented  by  Mr.  Borland,  because  they  spoke 
about  the  farmer  in  an  entirely  different  way;  but,  Gentlemen,  I 
am  not  in  politics,  I  do  not  want  anything  of  politics;  I  am  not  in 
office  nor  do  I  want  office.  I  am  not  running  a  newspaper,  there- 
fore I  cannot  speak  in  headlines,  but  I  can  speak,  those  being  the 
circumstances,  and  say  just  what  I  mean,  and  I  mean  that  every- 
body is  agreed  that  this  country  is  entitled  to  better  roads.  I  say 
and  I  mean  that  everybody  is  agreed  that  the  federal  government 
must  and  should  have  a  hand  in  their  construction,  because,  as  a 


82  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

nation,  it  must  have  a  national  system  of  highways.  I  say  and  I 
mean  that  the  time  has  come  for  Congress  to  act.  The  thing  has 
been  thoroughly  discussed,  exhaustively  considered,  and  it  is  time 
now  for  concrete  action.  The  question  whether  the  States  should 
control  the  expenditures  within  their  borders  or  whether  the  federal 
government  should  control  them,  the  question  of  how  much  and 
in  what  proportion  the  federal  government  should  contribute  moneys 
for  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  roads  inside  the  limits  of 
separate  States,  those  things  have  been  now  so  threshed  out  that 
we  know  where  we  stand;  if  we  don't,  we  ought  to  know,  and  I  say 
to  you  that  some  legislation  on  the  subject  is  better  than  no  legis- 
lation. Let  us  avail  ourselves  now  of  the  conclusions  which  have 
been  reached  after  intelligent  study  of  the  question,  let  us  take  the 
intelligent  view  of  a  substantial  majority  of  all  the  people  on  this 
subject.  Now,  what  is  it?  I  submit  to  you  a  plan  and  I  submit 
to  you  a  bill  and  I  will  offer,  in  a  moment,  a  resolution  with  regard 
to  it,  which  I  believe  should  have  the  approval  of  every  man  who 
has  given  any  thought  to  this  subject,  a  bill  and  a  plan  which  I 
believe  should  be  and  will  be  adopted  by  Congress  and  made  the 
law;  a  plan  and  a  bill  which  may  need,  from  time  to  time,  as  experi- 
ence teaches,  amendment  and  improvement,  but  which,  in  their 
substantial,  general  features,  solve  the  problem  and  answer  the 
difficulties  which  have  so  far  arisen.  The  plan  is  not  my  own,  the 
bill  is  not  my  own;  the  plan  and  the  bill  are  the  plan  and  bill  of 
Senator  Jonathan  Bourne,  Jr.  He  has  evolved  a  plan  and  drafted 
a  bill,  not  superficial,  not  out  of  his  inner  consciousness,  but  after 
the  mo$t  painstaking,  the  most  detailed,  the  most  microscopic  exam- 
ination of  the  whole  question,  and  after  the  gathering  of  statistics 
which  anyone  who  runs  may  read  and  understand  and  approve. 
May  I  take  your  time  for  a  second  to  give  you  the  essential  features 
of  that  plan?  The  distribution  of  the  moneys,  in  the  first  instance, 
which  are  to  consist  of  a  billion  dollars,  is  based  upon  a  logical, 
scientific  apportionment  among  the  States,  reached  upon  the  basis, 
not  of  area,  not  of  wealth,  not  of  population,  not  of  acreage,  but 
of  all  those  things.  The  State  which  is  large  does  not  get  an  undue 
proportion;  the  State  which  is  small  in  area,  but  great  in  popula- 
tion, does  not  get  an  undue  proportion;  the  State  which  is  wealthy 
does  not  get  an  undue  proportion,  but  all  those  factors  entering 
into  the  determination  of  the  percentage  to  which  that  State  is 
entitled,  give  to  each  State  as  near  as  human  intelligence  can  figure 
it  out,  just  the  amount  which,  all  things  considered,  it  should  have 
for  the  purpose.  I  am  going  to  take,  because  Mr.  Shackleford 
mentioned  it,  the  State  of  Ohio  for  an  illustration.  The  State  of 
Ohio,  for  example,  has  an  acreage  of  about  40,750  acres.  It  has 
taxable  property  or  wealth  in  the  amount  of  $6,200,000,000.  It 
has  a  population  of  4,767,000.  There  are  the  acreage,  the  wealth, 
the  population.  Then  it  has  of  public  roads  88,000  miles.  Now, 
there  have  been  objections  to  the  taking  of  any  one  of  those  things 


ADDRESS  BY  CHARLES  T.  TERRY  83 

as  the  basis  for  the  distribution  of  money  and  those  objections  have 
solid  foundations  and  reason  to  support  them,  but  this  plan  takes 
them  all,  the  four  percentages,  and  takes  the  average  of  the  four, 
so  that  while  the  wealth  of  Ohio  might  be  much  greater  than  of 
other  States,  which  were  entitled  to  as  much  mileage  of  good  roads 
as  Ohio,  another  State  might  show  disparity  on  another  one  of 
those  four  elements,  but  take  them  all  together,  population,  acreage, 
wealth  and  miles  of  public  roads,  and,  Gentlemen,  you  get  a  basis 
which  is  fair  and  equitable  to  very  State  in  the  Union;  and  taking 
the  average  of  those  four  bases  of  calculation,  Ohio's  percentage 
would  be  5.2  of  the  moneys  to  be  distributed,  of  the  billion  dollars 
which  is  the  fund,  and  that  gives  to  Ohio  $50,200,000  to  be  expended, 
20  per  cent  a  year.  How  is  the  money  to  be  raised?  The  money 
is  raised  in  this  way;  each  State,  having  a  highway  commission, 
makes  its  application  to  the  federal  government  for  its  quota  of 
the  billion  dollars  and  upon  its  application,  it  deposits  with  the 
federal  government  its  State  bonds  at  4  per  cent  for  the  amount. 
The  federal  government  issues  against  those  bonds  its  own  bonds 
at  3  per  cent,  leaving  a  margin  of  1  per  cent  in  the  federal  treasury, 
which,  compounded  from  year  to  year,  will  pay  off  all  the  State 
bonds  in  fifty  years.  The  plan  is  so  simple  that  it  challenges  our 
admiration.  That  sinking  fund  in  the  federal  treasury  pays  off 
the  State  bonds  in  fifty  years  and  discharges  them  and  the  federal 
government  returns  them  to  the  State  cancelled.  The  federal  gov- 
ernment sells  the  bonds  at  not  less  than  par,  its  3  per  cent  bonds, 
at  popular  bidding  throughout  the  country.  Now,  it  does  involve 
the  proposition  that  each  State  must  have  its  highway  commission, 
but  you  know  and  I  know  that  no  road  upbuilding  will  be  had  until 
each  State  goes  scientifically  to  work  at  it  and  has  its  highway  com- 
mission; the  thing  cannot  be  done  at  haphazard.  Then,  it  is  said, 
there  are  constitutional  objections  in  some  of  the  States  against 
issuing  the  bonds.  So  there  are,  but  no  State  can  have  any  good 
roads,  under  any  circumstances,  through  its  own  or  other  efforts, 
without  the  issuance  of  bonds;  therefore,  that  constitutional  defect 
may  be  remedied  at  this  time  and  in  this  way  as  well  as  at  any  other 
time  or  in  any  other  way.  All  this  I  say  for  the  plan  and  for  the 
bill,  which  is  simple  and  precise  and  clear  in  its  terms,  and  there  is 
less  objection  to  it  than  to  any  plan  which  has  ever  yet  been  devised. 
I  say  it  is  something  concrete  and  that  is  the  main  point.  I  say 
it  is  something  to  which  everyone  can  attach  his  influence  and  his 
name  and  for  which  we  may  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  pre- 
sentment of  it  to  Congress,  and  if  we  do,  if  we  have  reached  the 
conclusion  that  this  bill  in  its  general  features,  perhaps  subject  to 
some  modification,  is  what  we  want,  then  Congress  will  give  it  to 
us. 

Therefore,  if  you  will  indulge  me  I  will  offer  a  resolution,  which  I 
shall  ask  to  have  referred  to  the  committee  on  resolutions  which 
has  just  been  appointed,  for  their  consideration  and  report. 


ROAD     LEGISLATION     AND     ADMINISTRA- 
TION SESSION 

UNDER  AUSPICES  OF  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE  OF  AMERICAN  BAR 

ASSOCIATION 

September  30,  3.30  p.m. 
FREDERICK  D.  WADHAMS,  Chairman 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen  the  first  paper  on  our  program  this 
afternoon  is,  "The  Merit  System  in  Road  Administration,"  by 
Hon.  John  T.  Doyle,  Secretary  of  the  U.  S.  Civil  Service  Commission. 

THE  MERIT  SYSTEM  IN  ROAD  MANAGEMENT 

BY  JOHN  T.  DOYLE 

In  the  good  roads  movement  the  merit  system  is  essential.  The 
public  roads  constitute  a  series  of  great  transportation  systems  which 
should  be  administered  with  all  the  business  care  and  efficiency  and 
all  the  technical  skill  that  would  be  employed  if  they  were  owned 
by  private  corporations.  Instead  of  that  we  have  the  spectacle 
of  a  hundred  thousand  or  more  road  officials,  most  of  them  elective 
and  very  few  of  them  required,  under  existing  legislation,  to  have 
any  knowledge  of  road  construction  and  maintenance  or  to  give 
any  considerable  amount  of  their  time  to  the  management  of  the 
roads.  It  is  estimated  that  more  than  $150,000,000  a  year  is  being 
expended  for  the  construction  and  upkeep  of  our  public  roads.  It 
therefore  becomes  an  important  economic  essential  that  this  great 
outlay  be  expended  under  trained,  capable  and  honest  supervision. 

Emerson  has  said  that  the  beautiful  rests  on  the  foundations  of 
the  necessary.  There  may  be  abundant  appropriations  but  without 
skilled  engineers  and  freedom  from  the  abuses  of  the  spoils  system 
the  objects  of  your  movement  can  not  be  fully  attained.  There 
must  be  feasible  and  reasonable  ways  of  expending  the  many  mil- 
lions of  dollars  needed  for  good  roads.  There  must  be  intelligent 
supervision  by  trained  and  educated  road  engineers,  freed  from 
political  interference,  if  the  expenditure  of  these  millions  is  to  secure 
beneficial  results.  Men  are  essential  for  the  execution  of  measures. 
It  is  through  the  engineers  down  to  the  humblest  employees  that 
the  roads  are  built  and  that  the  government  serves  its  people. 
Practical  governing  is  administration,  and  administration  is  the  work 
of  the  civil  service.  Whatever  will  increase  the  integrity  and  effi- 

84 


MERIT   SYSTEM   IN   ROAD    MANAGEMENT  85 


ciency  of  the  body  of  employees  will  increase  the  administrative 
energy  of  government  and  further  the  attainment  of  the  ends  for 
which  government  is  instituted.  The  power  of  the  government  to 
carry  on  plans  for  the  public  good  depends  upon  the  intelligence 
and  efficiency  of  the  persons  whose  services  it  must  employ.  The 
efficiency  of  the  civil  service  therefore  touches  to  the  utmost  limits 
all  that  the  government  may  be  called  upon  to  do. 

Every  advocate  of  good  roads  should  be  an  advocate  of  the  merit 
system  as  the  vital  means  to  an  end.  The  need  for  an  adequate 
system  of  administration  such  as  will  insure  economy  and  efficiency 
in  the  highway  bureaus  needs  to  be  emphasized.  The  problem  is 
a  technical  one.  It  relates  to  securing  the  best  qualified  employees, 
their  systematic  training,  the  removal  of  those  who  do  not  measure 
up  to  a  proper  standard  of  efficiency,  the  correction  of  defects  in 
organization  and  conditions  of  employment,  the  comparison  of  results 
with  outlay,  the  measurement  of  service  and  its  correlation  with 
pay,  and  the  collection  of  information  concerning  the  service  for  the 
use  of  the  responsible  executive  officers.  The  part  that  the  civil 
service  reform  system  takes  in  this  problem  is  as  an  aid  to  the 
appointing  power  in  testing  the  character  and  fitness  of  candidates 
for  employment,  irrespective  of  their  politics;  seeing  to  it  that  em- 
ployees do  not  indulge  in  political  activity,  and  in  maintaining  an 
efficiency  system  upon  which  promotions  and  removals  will  be  based. 
The  main  essential  is  to  take  the  management  of  the  public  roads 
out  of  politics,  to  secure  skill,  honesty  and  efficiency  in  the  expendi- 
ture of  the  funds  for  their  maintenance,  and  to  ensure  stability  of 
administration  independent  of  changes  in  control  by  political  parties. 

In  the  classified  service  of  the  federal  government  great  advances 
have  been  made  under  the  merit  system.  About  300,000  positions 
in  that  service  and  as  many  more  in  nine  States  and  about  250 
cities  which  have  adopted  that  system,  are  taken  out  of  politics 
and  are  subject  to  competitive  examination.  As  governments  grow 
and  their  technical  activities  expand,  it  becomes  increasingly  neces- 
sary in  the  maintenance  of  free  institutions  to  guard  against  political 
abuses  and  to  procure  the  highest  grade  of  employees  who  are  will- 
ing to  work  for  the  salaries  paid. 

The  merit  system  of  appointments  was  adopted  in  the  federal 
government  and  in  the  State  and  city  services  of  New  York  and 
Massachusetts  nearly  thirty  years  ago.  The  beneficial  effects  of  its 
enforcement  and  of  its  continued  development  and  increasing  appli- 
cation are  now  more  than  ever  apparent.  Appointments  and  re- 
movals in  the  more  than  half  million  positions  in  the  parts  of  the 
service  under  the  merit  system  of  the  nation,  States  and  cities  are 
withdrawn  from  politics  and  made  with  increasing  regard  to  the 
interests  of  the  public  service,  and  a  higher  order  of  character  and 
efficiency  is  manifest  in  those  services.  The  popular  approval  of 
the  merit  system  as  a  means  of  securing  economy  and  efficiency  and 
of  suppressing  abuses  due  to  improper  political  influences  is  nearly 


86  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

universal  without  distinction  of  political  faith.  The  American  people 
are  satisfied  with  the  results  of  that  system  and  there  is  no  longer 
any  organized  opposition  to  it. 

The  merit  system  has  been  the  means  not  merely  of  supplying 
qualified  technical  experts  and  of  opening  a  worthy  career  of  public 
employment  to  them,  but  of  aiding  the  orderly  development  of 
technical  work  in  the  public  service  which  was  not  possible  under 
the  debasing  influences  of  the  spoils  system.  Since  the  adoption 
of  the  merit  system  there  has  been  an  enormous  expansion  of  tech- 
nical activities  in  the  Nation,  States  and  cities  and  a  wider  field  of 
usefulness  has  been  opened  to  persons  of  technical  education,  with 
tenure  based  solely  upon  fitness.  The  public  service  is  becoming 
more  inviting  as  a  field  of  employment,  and  on  its  technical  side 
offers  opportunity  for  research  and  broadening  of  training. 

Many  technical  positions  require  not  only  high  expert  knowledge, 
but  also  high  expert  administrative  ability;  and  the  examinations 
held  for  them  are  systematic  and  thorough  inquiry  into  the  edu- 
cation and  training  of  candidates,  their  achievements,  experience 
and  success  in  handling  men,  and  ability  in  executive  affairs.  These 
qualifications  are  considered  by  examiners  who  are  themselves  recog- 
nized authorities  in  the  subjects  embraced.  The  securing  of  com- 
petent experts  to  carry  out  the  details  of  administration  should  no 
longer  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  those  in  authority  to  be  affected  by 
personal  and  political  interests  and  prejudices,  log-rolling  and  par- 
tiality. It  was  this  uncontrolled  selection  that  led  to  the  spoils 
system.  The  time  and  efforts  of  those  directing  large  enterprises 
should  be  given  to  the  higher  problems  of  their  profession  and  should 
no  longer  be  expended  in  the  distribution  of  patronage  and  elections 
corrupted  by  seekers  for  public  office.  The  better  way  is  to  leave 
the  investigation  of  the  character  and  fitness  of  candidates  to  skilled 
experts  under  an  orderly  procedure. 

An  an  illustration  of  the  methods  of  testing  fitness  by  competitive 
examination  followed  by  a  period  of  probation,  let  us  take  the  exam- 
ination for  senior  highway  engineer  in  the  federal  service,  the  entrance 
salary  for  which  position  ranges  from  $2220  to  $2700  a  year.  The 
duties  of  this  position  involve  the  superintendence  of  the  construc- 
tion of  object-lesson  roads  of  various  types  throughout  the  United 
States.  In  addition  these  engineers  are  called  upon  to  inspect  roads 
and  investigate  road-building  material  in  counties  for  the  purpose 
of  reporting  upon  a  system  by  which  the  best  administration,  con- 
struction and  maintenance  of  county  roads  may  be  secured.  They 
are  also  expected  to  inspect  roads  locally  and  to  advise  in  regard 
to  their  improvement,  and  also  to  address  road  meetings.  Entrance 
to  this  examination  is  limited  to  technically  educated  men  who  have 
had  at  least  five  years'  actual  experience  in  practical  highway  engi- 
neering work.  Applicants  are  not  required  to  appear  at  any  place 
for  examination,  their  relative  qualifications  being  determined  from 
their  own  statements  under  oath  concerning  their  education,  experi- 


MERIT   SYSTEM   IN   ROAD   MANAGEMENT  87 

ence  in  highway  and  general  engineering  work  and  in  delivering 
lectures  and  addressing  meetings,  and  from  statements  concerning 
their  capabilities  secured  from  persons  acquainted  with  their  work. 
This  is  rather  an  investigation  into  the  qualificat;ons  of  applicants 
than  an  examination.  The  applicant  is  required  to  give  the  names 
and  addresses  of  five  persons  unrelated  to  him  who  have  personal 
knowledge  of  his  education  and  qualifications  and  who  will  answer 
questions  regarding  him.  Inquiries  are  made  of  these  persons.  He 
is  next  required  to  submit  a  statement  of  his  general  education  and 
technical  training,  the  institutions  where  he  has  studied,  the  time 
spent  and  dates,  courses  pursued,  and  degrees,  if  any,  conferred. 
He  must  state  the  material  facts  in  his  career,  telling  of  his  occupa- 
tions and  also  submit  a  statement  of  the  professional  and  technical 
experience  he  has  had  along  highway  engineering  lines,  and  when, 
by  whom,  and  the  class  or  character  of  work  upon  which  he  was 
employed  in  each  case.  He  must  also  state  what  experience  he 
has  had  in  executive  capacities,  giving  full  details  as  to  the  number 
of  men  under  his  supervision,  and  the  degree  of  personal  responsi- 
bility involved  in  each  case.  In  the  marking  his  education  and 
training  have  a  weight  of  4  in  10  points;  professional  and  technical 
experience  and  fitness,  5;  experience  in  delivering  lectures,  1.  For 
some  positions  oral  tests  are  also  required  to  give  the  examiners  a 
better  knowledge  of  the  personality  of  the  candidate  but  this  is 
not  required  of  the  engineers.  This  type  of  investigation  furnishes 
essentially  the  same  bases  of  judgment  as  those  which  an  ordinary 
employer  of  men  would  use  in  inquiring  into  the  fitness  of  applicants 
whom  he  does  not  personally  know. 

Appointing  officers  who  have  had  experience  in  employing  men 
through  these  examinations  recognize  that  competitive  tests  are 
better  than  those  heretofore  employed.  In  Philadelphia  the  chief 
of  the  bureau  of  highways  and  street  cleaning,  an  office  with  a  salary 
of  $6000,  and  nine  assistant  commissioners  of  highways,  have  been 
appointed  by  competitive  examination.  Experience  in  that  city, 
and  New  York,  Chicago,  and  other  municipalities  demonstrates  that 
the  competitive  system  is  adapted  to  the  highest  administrative 
and  expert  places  in  city  governments. 

Recently  Congress  has  authorized  the  expenditure  by  the  bureau 
of  public  roads  of  a  fund  for  the  building  and  maintenance  of  short 
stretches  of  typical  roads  in  the  various  States  of  the  Union,  and  the 
civil  service  commission  has  been  called  upon  to  hold  an  examina- 
tion to  provide  a  road  patrolman,  whose  duties  will  be  the  care  and 
maintenance  of  such  a  stretch  of  road.  This  being  practically  a 
skilled  laborer  position,  applicants  were  required  merely  to  submit 
to  a  physical  examination  and  their  relative  qualifications  were 
determined  from  the  results  of  this  physical  examination  and  a 
consideration  of  their  statements  of  training,  experience  and  gen- 
eral fitness.  Each  applicant  was  required  in  advance  to  show  that 
he  was  provided  with  proper  equipment,  including  horse,  cart  and 


88  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

implements  for  properly  caring  for  the  road.  Receipt  of  applica- 
tions for  this  examination  was  also  limited  to  persons  living  within 
half  a  mile  of  the  stretch  of  road  to  be  maintained.  The  compensa- 
tion for  this  position  was  $720. 

Early  in  the  current  year  the  commission  held  an  examination 
to  provide  eligibles  for  filling  a  position  of  lecturer  on  road  economics. 
This  examination  was  limited  to  women,  the  duties  of  the  position 
being  to  address  women's  and  children's  meetings  in  the  interests 
of  good  roads  with  the  object  of  producing  and  encouraging  an 
interest  in  the  good  roads  movement  among  women  and  children. 
An  effort  was  made  to  secure  the  services  of  women  who  have  had 
experience  in  lecturing,  teaching,  traveling  and  writing  for  publi- 
cations, and  special  emphasis  was  laid  upon  experience  in  teaching 
on  the  economical,  historical  and  social  side  of  road  improvement. 
This  examination  was  of  the  non-assembled  type,  the  relative  quali- 
fications of  the  applicants  being  determined  upon  their  statements 
concerning  their  education  and  experience,  together  with  copies  of 
their  publications  or  a  thesis  on  good  roads,  and  additional  infor- 
mation concerning  their  fitness  secured  from  persons  acquainted 
with  their  work. 

From  time  to  time  vacancies  occur  in  the  technical  and  scientific 
force  of  the  Office  of  Public  Roads,  requiring  an  examination  to 
fill  such  positions.  Among  such  examinations  in  recent  years  has 
been  one  for  expert  tracer  and  bridge  draftsman  at  entrance  salaries 
ranging  from  $1200  to  $1500,  and  one  for  assistant  chemist  at  sala- 
ries ranging  from  $1800  to  $2220  a  year.  In  the  former,  three  years' 
experience  in  engineering  work  or  drafting  was  required  for  admission 
to  the  examination,  unless  a  person  was  a  graduate  of  a  technical 
school,  in  which  case  one  and  one-half  years'  additional  experience 
was  required.  The  examination  consisted  of  methods  of  designing, 
lettering,  drawing  and  training  and  experience.  An  assistant  chem- 
ist examination  was  of  the  non-assembled  type,  covering  education, 
experience  and  publications  or  a  thesis.  For  this  examination  a 
chemical  or  chemical  engineering  education  was  required.  The  du- 
ties of  the  position  to  be  filled  consisted  in  the  testing  of  materials 
for  use  in  road  construction,  laboratory  and  field  research  upon  the 
behavior  of  these  materials  in  practice,  and  such  other  phases  of 
chemical  engineering  as  apply  to  the  construction  and  maintenance 
of  highways. 

In  connection  with  the  good  roads  exhibits  of  models  of  sections 
of  typical  roads,  which  exhibits  are  sent  by  the  Office  of  Public 
Roads  throughout  the  United  States,  the  commission  was  recently 
called  upon  to  provide  a  modelmaker,  capable  of  making  such  models 
of  roads,  culverts,  bridges,  etc.  The  salary  for  the  position  is  from 
$1500  to  $1800  a  year  and  the  relative  qualifications  of  the  appli- 
cants were  determined  from  their  training  and  the  work  which  they 
had  accomplished  of  a  similar  kind  to  that  required  in  the  position 
for  which  the  examination  was  held. 


MERIT   SYSTEM   IN   ROAD   MANAGEMENT  89 

Within  the  past  month  the  commission  held  an  examination  for 
mechanical  engineer  at  $3000  a  year  for  the  Office  of  Public  Roads. 
The  duties  of  this  position  will  be  to  initiate  and  carry  on  research 
in  the  field  of  engineering,  particularly  in  conducting  traction  tests 
on  highways.  Application  for  this  examination  was  limited  to  per- 
sons who  have  received  a  mechanical  engineering  education  and 
who,  in  addition,  have  had  at  least  five  years'  practical  experience 
in  mechanical  engineering,  including  some  practical  experience  in 
conducting  traction  tests.  Their  relative  qualifications  for  the  posi- 
tion will  be  determined  from  their  statements  of  education  and 
experience,  from  their  publications,  and  from  statements  secured 
from  third  parties  concerning  their  fitness  for  the  position. 

The  position  of  assistant  director  in  the  Office  of  Public  Roads 
has  recently  become  vacant  by  resignation  and  the  commission  has 
been  requested  to  hold  an  examination  to  fill  it.  An  examination 
will  be  announced  in  the  near  future  to  fill  this  position  at  $3500 
a  year.  The  duties  are  largely  administrative  and  supervisory  and 
entrance  to  the  examination  will  be  limited  to  persons  having  an 
engineering  education  who  in  addition  have  had  extended  experi- 
ence in  highway  engineering  work.  The  relative  qualifications  of 
the  applicants  will  be  determined  from  their  statements  of  education 
and  experience,  both  in  highway  engineering  and  in  supervisory 
positions,  and  from  a  consideration  of  their  publications  together 
with  statements  concerning  their  fitness  for  the  position  secured 
from  persons  acquainted  with  their  work. 

High  grade  experts  of  mature  experience  do  not  like  to  exchange 
steady  private  employment  for  State  and  municipal  service  as  con- 
ducted today,  with  short  or  uncertain  terms  of  office,  during  which 
they  are  subject  to  dictation  from  politicians.  They  cannot  afford 
to  give  up  a  certainty  for  an  uncertainty  and  to  exchange  a  repu- 
table engineering  practice  for  a  political  job.  Those  engineers  who 
do  accept  these  positions  are  under  strong  compulsion  to  be  poli- 
ticians rather  than  engineers.  They  are  forced  to  look  out  for  their 
own  selfish  interests  at  a  time  when  they  should  be  directing  their 
full  energies  toward  the  efficient  discharge  of  their  duties.  A  man 
may  be  a  good  politician  or  he  may  be  a  good  engineer  but  he  is 
rarely  both.  Where,  however,  positions  are  made  practically  secure 
and  where  successors  can  only  be  chosen  by  a  method  from  which 
favoritism  is  eliminated  and  sufficient  powers  are  granted  them, 
well  qualified  experts  do  not  hesitate  to  submit  to  an  inquiry  into 
their  fitness.  This  is  not  only  true  on  the  continent  of  Europe  but 
has  proved  true  in  this  country  as,  for  instance,  in  Chicago,  where 
the  city  engineer,  the  engineer  in  charge  of  bridges,  the  city  auditor, 
the  chief  street  engineer,  the  building  inspector  in  chief,  and  the 
chief  librarian,  with  salaries  ranging  from  $3000  to  $8000  a  year, 
have  been  appointed  under  civil  service  rules.  These  competitive 
tests  have  also  been  successfully  used  for  heads  of  bureaus  in  New 
York  State  and  City,  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  the  federal  service. 


90  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

These  tests  are  found  to  attract  men  of  the  highest  caliber  where 
the  salaries  are  on  a  commercial  basis.  Where  such  systems  have 
been  in  operation  for  a  number  of  years,  there  grows  up,  as  there 
has  in  England  and  Europe,  a  large  body  of  municipal  experts  in 
the  various  branches  of  governmental  activity,  who  begin  their 
careers  in  cities  of  moderate  size  or  as  assistants  in  large  cities  and 
by  promotion  from  one  city  to  another  or  within  the  same  city, 
reach  the  highest  positions. 

The  United  States  army  engineers  are  an  example  as  a  profession. 
They  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  initiation  of  their  work  except  in 
the  way  of  advice  or  of  the  appropriation  of  funds  and  all  their 
expenditures  are  carefully  scrutinized  by  an  auditor  and  a  comp- 
troller, who  disallow  any  item  not  strictly  within  the  appropriation 
and  law.  A  very  little  of  the  vast  sums  which  they  administer  has 
gone  for  corrupt  purposes.  The  Panama  Canal  and  our  great  water- 
ways of  commerce  are  splendid  tributes  to  the  genius  of  army  engineers. 

Public  attention  should  be  called  to  the  opportunities  for  youth 
in  the  profession  of  road  engineering  as  a  career.  Road  building 
should  be  a  career  and  not  a  mere  makeshift.  In  the  making  of 
surveys,  the  preparation  of  plans,  estimates  and  specifications  for 
bridges,  a  high  order  of  technical  ability  is  requisite.  In  providing 
adequate  drainage  systems,  in  the  selection  of  road  materials,  in 
making  the  dimensions  of  a  road  conform  to  a  given  standard,  a 
great  deal  of  practical  and  expert  knowledge  is  necessary.  There 
is  scant  provision  in  the  way  of  schools  for  training  such  engineers, 
except  as  is  carried  on  in  the  federal  bureau  of  public  roads  or  where 
courses  of  instruction  have  been  introduced  in  small  ways  in  uni- 
versities. Columbia  has  recently  introduced  a  graduate  school  of 
highway  engineering  and  if  there  is  a  public  demand  for  men  quali- 
fied in  this  profession  other  universities  will  supply  like  schools. 
The  Office  of  Public  Roads  under  the  federal  government  has  a 
corps  of  civil  engineer  students,  recruited  from  competitive  exami- 
nations held  by  the  United  States  civil  service  commission.  These 
positions  are  limited  to  young  men  who  have  received  a  technical 
education  and  who  desire  to  enter  road  engineering,  and  are  designed 
to  offer  practically  a  post-graduate  course  in  engineering  to  such 
students.  Part  of  their  time  is  devoted  to  office  and  laboratory 
work  and  the  remainder  to  practical  road  building  in  different  parts 
of  the  country.  The  position  pays  $720  a  year  and  from  among 
these  young  engineers  many  of  the  highest  places  in  the  Office  of 
Public  Roads  are  filled. 

A  standard  of  administration  will  be  developed  in  time  and  gen- 
erally adopted.  Such  a  standard  will  require  the  enactment  of  civil 
service  laws  by  the  remaining  States,  under  which  it  will  probably 
be  necessary  that  the  county  board  of  commissioners  or  supervisors 
should  retain  the  power  of  appointment  of  local  road  officials  but 
their  appointees  will  be  required  to  meet  the  tests  and  conform  to 
the  regulations  prescribed  by  the  proper  State  department.  The 


SIMPLIFYING   ROAD   LEGISLATION  91 

fact  that  there  existed  a  body  of  trained  experts  to  carry  on  the 
work  with  a  well-planned  system  of  administration  would  inspire 
the  public  with  confidence  that  the  vast  sums  necessary  for  appro- 

Eriation  will  be  wisely  expended  and  not  constitute  a  bribery  chest 
)r  political  spoils. 

The  State  and  city  governments  which  do  not  have  merit  laws 
should  be  urged  to  follow  the  example  of  the  national  government 
and  the  larger  States  and  cities  and  place  their  services  upon  a  merit 
basis.  Because  of  the  efficiency  and  stability  in  the  administration 
of  the  executive  civil  service  in  the  national  government  and  its 
freedom  from  political  abuses  the  public  is  looking  more  and  more 
to  the  national  government  to  do  things  which  under  our  scheme  of 
government  properly  should  be  done  by  local  authorities.  It  is 
urgently  necessary  that  the  local  governments  should  realize  their 
duties  and  responsibilities  in  this  regard.  The  demand  is  wide- 
spread that  the  people  shall  be  efficiently  served,  that  their  common 
affairs  shall  be  honestly  and  intelligently  administered,  and  if  the 
local  authorities  do  not  meet  this  demand  there  will  be  increasing 
centralization  in  the  government  of  the  nation. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  speaker  on  the  program  was  to  have 
been  the  Hon.  James  R.  Marker,  State  highway  commissioner  of 
Ohio,  but  he  is  unable  to  be  here  this  afternoon  and  we  will  move 
on  to  the  next  part  of  the  program.  It  has  been  my  experience  in 
various  organizations  that  the  secretary  is  a  very  important  mem- 
ber, and  in  the  language  which  prevails  in  this  town,  in  describing 
him  I  would  say  that  he  had  to  be  the  pitcher  and  the  catcher  and 
on  first  base  and  second  base  and  third  base  and  in  the  field  and 
stopping  everything  that  goes  wrong  and  seeing  that  everything 
goes  right.  I  am  sure  that  Mr.  Pennybacker,  if  his  services  and 
his  words  of  wisdom  were  to  be  expressed  in  dollars  and  cents  in 
his  name,  he  would  be  called  "Million  Dollar  Backer"  instead  of 
Pennybacker.  We  will  now  listen  to  Mr.  Pennybacker,  his  subject 
being  a  plan  for  simplifying  road  legislation  in  the  States.  Mr. 
Pennybacker. 

A  PLAN  FOR  SIMPLIFYING  ROAD  LEGISLATION  IN 
THE  STATES 

BY  J.  E.  PENNYBACKER 
Secretary  American  Highway  Association 

Some  years  ago  I  had  occasion  to  have  a  little  talk  with  a  book- 
keeper in  a  railroad  office,  and  while  I  was  talking  to  him,  a  man 
came  in  and  shook  hands  with  the  bookkeeper  and  said,  "  I  am  very 
glad  to  see  you,  General;"  and  after  the  man  left,  I  said,  "Why 
does  he  call  you  General?  I  didn't  know  you  had  such  a  title." 


92  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

"Yes,"  he  says,  "I'm  general  bookkeeper."  Now,  there  are  sec- 
retaries and  secretaries.  Yesterday  you  heard  a  secretary  who  has 
given  a  'great  deal  of  prestige  to  the  title  of  secretary,  and  then  there 
are  secretaries  who  bury  themselves  back  in  a  corner  somewhere 
behind  a  lot  of  papers  and  register  delegates  and  do  things  of  that 
sort,  but  who  do  not  aspire  to  the  dignity  of  appearing  before  the 
delegates  on  the  lecture  platform.  That  is  the  kind  of  a  secretary 
I  am.  I  am  not  going  to  attempt  to  make  a  speech;  I  am  going 
merely  to  make  a  suggestion  to  you  and,  following  the  rule  of  news- 
paper men  who  say,  "Tell  the  story  in  the  headlines."  I  am  going 
merely  to  give  you  the  headlines.  The  plan  I  have  to  suggest  is 
this;  that  this  American  Road  Congress  constitute  a  committee 
which  will  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  conveying  to  the  governors 
and  legislatures  of  the  several  States,  a  proposal  that  each  State 
designate  an  official  or  a  commission  to  codify  and  assemble  the 
road  laws  of  the  State.  That  is  the  first  step.  Second,  that  that 
official  or  commission  be  authorized  to  become  a  member  of  an 
official  interstate  commission  composed  of  similar  officials  or  com- 
missions and  that  these  men  proceed  with  this  great  mass  of  infor- 
mation which  they  have  gotten  together,  to  boil  it  down  and  to 
recommend  to  their  respective  States,  the  simplest,  most  clear-cut, 
most  politically  free  road  legislation  that  can  be  conceived.  Now 
we  all  know  that  for  over  a  hundred  years,  such  of  the  members 
of  State  legislatures  and  particularly  of  the  new  members,  who 
knew  little  of  parliamentary  law  and  less  probably  about  roads, 
would  introduce  road  bills  as  a  last  resort  when  they  could  think 
of  nothing  else  to  attract  attention  from  their  fellow  citizens.  The 
result  has  been  that  the  road  legislation  in  all  of  the  States  has 
grown  piece  by  piece,  just  as  you  see  some  old  houses  that  have  been 
built,  first  one  room  and  then  two  and  then  three  and  then  a  second 
story  and  then  another  story,  until  you  have  a  ramshackle  building 
that  presents  all  the  styles  of  architecture  from  Queen  Anne,  as  they 
say,  to  Mary  Anne.  Now  it  is  almost  impossible  for  the  men  who 
are  actually  students  of  road  legislation  in  their  own  States  to  keep 
up  with  what  laws  are  in  actual  effect  in  the  State.  I  talked  to  a 
prominent  road  man  some  time  ago  who  said  that  road  contracts 
were  held  up  in  his  county  because  they  could  not  tell  under  which 
of  three  classifications  the  road  came  and  a  different  financial  plan 
applied  to  each  one.  We  all  know  that  the  greatest  bane  of  road 
administration  in  this  country  is  politics,  and  the  only  way  we  can 
remove  it  from  politics  is  to  have  a  plan  suggested  by  this  non-par- 
tisan, unbiased,  interstate  commission  which  will  combine  the  best 
features  of  every  State  law  and  recommend  to  their  respective  States 
that  which  is  applicable  to  them.  In  the  first  place,  they  will  find 
that  there  are  certain  features  which  are  common  to  all  the  States. 
They  can  lay  that  down  as  a  foundation,  basic  principle.  They 
will  then  get  on  up  with  their  structure  until  they  come  to  a  point 
where  the  conditions  in  the  States  are  dissimilar  and  they  must 


SIMPLIFYING   ROAD    LEGISLATION  93 

change,  have  this  sort  of  a  law  for  Massachusetts  and  this  sort  of  a 
law  for  Mississippi.  For  example,  Massachusetts  might  say,  when 
it  comes  to  legislation  for  working  convicts  on  roads,  "That  will 
not  apply  to  conditions  in  our  State;  we  don't  have  the  climatic 
conditions,  and  we  don't  have  the  same  type  of  labor  you  have  in 
Mississippi."  On  the  other  hand,  Mississippi  might  say,  "  Convict 
labor  on  road  work  is  for  us  the  most  effective,  equitable  and  prac- 
tical use  of  the  convicts,"  and  so  there  you  come  to  the  lines  of 
diversion.  Now  the  man  from  Massachusetts  will  proceed  along 
his  own  lines  to  write  in  the  legislation  which  is  applicable  to  his 
State;  the  man  from  Mississippi  will  write  in  the  legislation  which 
is  applicable  to  his  State,  but  the  man  from  Massachusetts  may 
find  that  the  man  from  New  Hampshire  and  the  man  from  New 
York  can  give  him  some  very  valuable  points  in  framing  the  law 
for  Massachusetts.  The  man  from  Mississippi  may  find  that  the 
man  from  Georgia  and  the  man  from  Alabama  can  give  him  some 
excellent  points  for  inclusion  in  his  law,  and  so,  with  this  unbiased, 
non-partisan  commission  recommending  a  system  of  legislation  free 
from  politics,  you  will  have  the  best  possible  chance  of  putting  through 
the  legislature  of  the  State  the  laws  for  which  we  have  been  waiting 
for  over  a  hundred  years.  Now,  the  American  Bar  Association, 
under  whose  auspices  this  meeting  is  held  this  afternoon — if  I  am 
incorrect  in  this,  please  correct  me — has  a  committee  on  uniform 
legislation,  hasn't  it? 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    Yes,  Mr.  Terry  is  chairman  of  the  committee. 

MR.  PENNYB ACKER:  Therefore  we  know  it  must  be  a  good  com- 
mittee. When  such  a  commission  has  completed  its  labors  and 
recommended  to  the  State  the  legislation  that  should  be  enacted,  I 
have  no  doubt  that  the  entire  power  and  force  of  the  American 
Bar  Association  will  be  thrown  back  of  that  legislation  and  put  it 
through  in  spite  of  all  the  obstacles  that  petty  local  politicians  may 
oppose  to  it.  I  am  not  going  to  make  a  speech.  I  think  I  have 
given  you  clearly  what  I  have  in  mind.  It  may  not  be  worth  while. 
I  had  a  friend  in  Washington,  a  newspaper  man,  who  would  always, 
after  talking  for  hours  and  talking  everybody  to  death,  wind  up  by 
saying,  "Well,  boys,  I  guess  I'll  go  up  to  my  room  and  write  a  little 
rot."  He  was  asked,  "Why  do  you  say  that?  Why  don't  you  say, 
'I  am  going  to  write  a  little,'  we  all  know  what  you  are  going  to 
write."  I  will  give  you  the  suggestion  for  what  it  is  worth  and 
Mr.  Huston,  who  is  chairman  of  the  Ohio  commission  for  State  road 
laws,  is  here  prepared  to  tell  you  how  they  are  going  about  it  in  Ohio, 
and  I  earnestly  hope  that  this  session  will  take  steps  to  get  some 
such  plan  under  way,  because,  after  all,  the  problem  is  not  merely 
to  solve  the  problem  of  national  legislation,  but  it  is  equally  impor- 
tant to  solve  the  problem  of  State  legislation. 


94  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Ohio  has  produced  two  of  the  greatest  men 
this  country  has  ever  seen.  I  am  proud  to  say  that  one  of  them 
is  today  president  of  the  Association  I  represent.  We  will  be  very 
glad  to  listen  to  Mr.  Archibald  H.  Huston,  of  Columbus. 

ADDRESS  BY  ARCHIBALD  H.   HUSTON 

Mr.  Pennybacker  rather  misstated  the  facts  when  he  stated  that 
I  was  here  prepared  to  say  what  the  Ohio  commission,  appointed  to 
revise  the  road  laws,  is  going  to  do.  His  story  about  the  house 
built  of  many  rooms,  many  sizes,  many  shapes  and  many  colors 
might  apply  to  the  road  laws  of  Ohio.  I  have  said  on  two  or  three 
occasions  that  Ohio  is  a  prolific  State.  Among  things  we  raise  are 
pickles,  and  a  gentlemen  from  an  adjoining  State  is  advertising  fifty- 
seven  varieties  of  Ohio  grown  pickles.  We  in  Ohio  have  fifty-seven 
varieties  of  road  laws  and  it  takes  one  lawyer  to  interpret  them  and 
four  judges  to  decide  which  law  is  applicable  to  any  particular  piece 
of  road  that  the  people  may  undertake  to  construct.  Now,  the 
commission  appointed  by  the  governor,  in  accordance  with  a  legis- 
lative act,  has  merely  begun  its  labor.  They  are  seeking  informa- 
tion. They  come  here  to  Detroit  in  a  body  to  seek  information; 
to  listen  to  what  may  be  said,  and  with  the  desire  to  take  home  with 
them  valuable  suggestions.  The  commission  has  gone,  I  might  say, 
just  this  far;  it  has  decided  unanimously  that,  so  far  as  possible, 
the  various  road  laws  of  the  township,  the  road  district,  the  county 
and  the  State  shall  be  uniform  in  their  plans  of  construction  and 
in  their  plans  of  operation.  In  that  part  of  the  law  providing  for 
State-aid  or  State  construction,  will  be  extended  a  hand  to  the 
federal  government  seeking  federal  aid  for  federal  roads.  Further 
than  that  we  have  not  been  able  to  decide  just  what  plans  or  what 
course  to  pursue.  We  have  sought  information  from  every  State 
in  the  Union.  Ohio,  while  one  of  the  oldest  States  in  the  Union, 
has  gotten  its  road  laws  into  a  very  chaotic  state.  As  Mr.  Penny- 
backer  has  properly  said,  a  great  many  legislators,  lacking  something 
else  to  present,  would  present  a  road  bill  applicable  to  their  particu- 
lar district  and  suited  to  the  wishes  of  their  constituency  and  I  can- 
not help  but  say,  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Pennybacker,  that  there 
is  a  great  need  of  uniformity.  There  is  that  same  need  of  uniform- 
ity of  State  laws  applicable  to  reconstruction  and  maintenance  of 
roads  that  there  is  to  other  laws.  There  is  a  commission  in  existence, 
of  which  Mr.  Terry  here  is  chairman,  on  uniform  laws  and  uniform 
legislation,  and  I  believe  that  I  can  say  truthfully  that  some  of  the 
best  laws  for  the  citizens  of  Ohio  that  have  been  enacted  in  recent 
years  are  those  laws  recommended  by  Mr.  Terry's  commission.  I 
do  not  know  of  but  one  or  two  States,  for  example,  that  turned 
down  one  very  important  law  (that  is  the  warehouse  receipt  act, 
so-called  in  which  I  happened  to  be  personally  interested)  that  was 
recommended  by  this  commission  on  uniform  laws.  It  is  reason- 


ADDRESS  BY  CHARLES  T.  TERRY  95 

able  to  suppose  that  the  same  is  true  of  road  legislation,  and  I  most 
heartily  endorse,  and  am  sure  the  commission  will  stand  with  me 
in  endorsing  Mr.  Pennybacker's  suggestion  of  a  joint  commission, 
an  interstate  commission,  to  undertake  to  codify  and  rewrite  the 
laws  of  the  various  States  and  get  them  on  a  uniform  basis.  Gentle- 
men, permit  me  to  take  this  opportunity  to  extend  to  you  all  an 
invitation  to  offer,  and  we  beg  of  you  to  give  us,  any  suggestion 
that  you  may  have  looking  to  the  betterment  of  the  road  law  situa- 
tion in  the  State  of  Ohio.  Our  room  is  No.  318  at  the  Pontchatrain 
Hotel  and  we  will  be  glad  to  welcome  any  of  you  there  and  hear 
any  suggestions  you  may  have  to  offer.  I  thank  you. 

MR.  PENNYBACKER:  Mr.  Chairman  I  don't  like  to  inflict  myself 
upon  this  audience  twice  in  so  short  a  space  of  time,  but  one  of  our 
troubles  has  been  that  frequently  if  an  idea  is  either  good  or  bad, 
it  dies  in  the  meeting.  Now  I  want  to  make  a  motion  that  the  chair 
be  authorized  to  appoint  a  committee  of  five  to  confer  with  the 
committee  on  uniform  State  laws  of  the  American  Bar  Association, 
for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  if  any  feasible  plan  can  be  worked 
out  in  a  cooperative  way  with  this  committee  on  uniform  laws, 
looking  to  the  submission  of  some  plan  to  the  governors  of  the  States 
and  the  legislatures  of  the  States.  Therefore  I  move  that  the  chair- 
man be  authorized  to  appoint  such  a  committee.  (Motion  seconded.) 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  you  have  heard  the  motion.  I 
would  suggest  that  it  might  interest  you,  I  am  sure  it  will,  to  listen 
to  a  few  words  from  my  brother  and  friend,  Mr.  Terry,  who  is  chair- 
man of  our  commission  on  uniform  State  laws.  Mr.  Terry. 

ADDRESS  BY  CHARLES  T.  TERRY 

This  makes  me  distinctly  a  repeater.  You  had  to  listen  to  me 
this  morning,  those  of  you  who  were  here,  but  I  am  always  and 
everywhere  glad  to  speak  on  the  subject  of  uniform  State  laws.  I 
am  going  to  be  very  brief  and  I  am  going  to  make  my  points  and 
then  I  am  going  to  stop.  I  don't  know  much  about  public  speak- 
ing, but  there  are  three  cardinal  rules  which  I  do  know  are  good 
rules,  and  one  is  that  a  speaker  should  stand  up  so  that  he  may  be 
seen,  and  the  next  is  that  he  should  speak  up  so  that  he  may  be 
heard,  and  the  third  is  that  he  should  shut  up  after  he  has  finished. 
Now  there  is  one  trouble  recognized  everywhere  I  think  in  our 
country,  about  our  system  of  government,  our  dual  system  of  gov- 
ernment, whereby  the  federal  legislature,  called  Congress,  is  enact- 
ing laws  applicable  throughout  the  whole  country  on  various  sub- 
jects, and  each  separate  sovereign  State  is  at  the  same  time  enacting 
laws  for  that  particular  State,  which  laws  may  be  at  variance  with 
the  laws  on  the  same  subject  of  every  other  State  and  also  at  variance 
with  the  laws  enacted  by  Congress  on  pretty  much  the  same  subject, 


96  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

so  that  at  times  no  individual  can  know  where  he  stands  with  refer- 
ence to  any  particular  right  or  any  particular  crime  which  may 
have  been  defined  by  statute.  I  find  that  confusion  nowhere  in 
clearer  form  than  in  reference  to  automobile  laws  and  road  laws. 
Any  man  who  happens  to  pass  over  the  imaginary  line  between  two 
States  in  this  day  is  more  than  likely  to  become  a  criminal  without 
the  slightest  consciousness  on  his  part  that  he  is  becoming  such. 
Now,  that  is  an  absurd  situation.  It  is  not  consonant  with  common 
sense;  it  contravenes  all  reason,  because  I  submit  to  you  that  there 
is  no  such  distinction  between  one  community  of  this  country  and 
any  other  community  of  this  country,  no  distinction  arising  from 
geographical  positions  or  climate  or  social  situation,  which  would 
justify  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of  different  laws,  different 
jurisdictions,  regulating  the  use  of  the  highways  by  the  automobile, 
for  example.  What  is  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  highways 
in  California  is  equally  necessary  for  their  protection  in  Michigan, 
and  vice  versa,  and  yet  you  put  the  various  laws  of  this  country  in 
parallel  columns  and  see  what  you  will  find.  No  man  possibly  could 
know  them  all;  no  one  possibly  could  obey  them  all,  because  if  he 
kept  in  mind  and  obeyed  implicitly  one  law,  he  would  be  violating 
another  law,  the  law  of  another  State  when  he  has  passed  the  imagi- 
nary line  which  divides  two  States,  and  there  you  are.  I  say  it  is 
an  unreasonable,  an  outrageous,  an  absurd  situation.  Now  that 
situation  has  got  to  be  cured  in  some  way.  There  is  no  argument 
for  any  but  a  uniform  law  governing  that  same  subject  in  all  of  the 
States  of  this  country.  That  applies  not  only  to  automobile  laws, 
that  is  to  say,  laws  regulating  the  automobile;  it  applies  to  many 
other  subjects.  It  applies  particularly,  as  has  been  suggested  this 
afternoon,  to  the  road  laws,  I  mean  the  laws  not  regulating  the  use 
of  the  roads,  but  regulating  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  a 
system  of  roads,  and  that  is  the  topic  upon  which  we  are  at  the 
present  moment.  What  would  be  said,  for  example,  if  every  State 
by  statutes  required  a  different  gauge  for  the  steam  railroads  or  the 
electric  railroads  of  the  country,  so  that  the  gauge  in  one  State 
would  be  4  feet,  in  another  State  4J  feet,  in  another  State  3|  feet, 
in  another  State  5  feet,  and  so  on.  It  would  simply  mean  that 
there  could  be  no  interstate  traffic  on  railroads,  which  use  rails,  at 
all,  because  the  locomotive  and  cars  coming  to  the  border  of  New 
York  and  intending  to  go  into  Pennsylvania,  could  not  go  on  because 
there  would  be  a  difference  of  several  inches  between  the  gauge  of 
the  two  roads.  The  commerce  of  the  country  would  be  strangled; 
there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  national  commercial  transactions 
and  yet  that  situation  would  be  no  more  ridicuous  than  to  have  laws 
governing  matters  of  interstate  interests,  variously  and  divergently 
providing  for  the  other  operations  or  transactions  of  citizens  of  the 
country.  Now  we  talk  about  States'  rights  which  could  interfere 
with  the  enactment  of  uniform  laws.  If  they  did,  they  would  not 
be  any  longer  States'  rights,  they  would  be  States'  wrongs.  It  is 


ADDRESS  BY  CLARENCE  A.  KENYON  97 

a  matter  of  common  sense  that  things  which  are  of  general  appli- 
cation should  be  governed  by  general,  uniform  State  laws.  Well 
now,  there  is  a  way  of  obviating  this  difficulty.  It  so  happens  that 
not  only  the  American  Bar  Association  has  at  the  present  time  a 
committee  whose  duties  are  concerned  exclusively  with  the  making 
uniform  of  the  laws  of  the  various  States  on  subjects  which  common 
sense  indicates  should  be  uniform,  but  the  American  Bar  Association 
twenty-five  years  ago  gave  birth,  through  its  committee  on  uniform 
State  laws,  to  a  separate  body,  a  body  composed  of  the  official  repre- 
sentatives of  the  States,  appointed  by  the  Governors  of  the  States 
to  devote  their  time  and  energies  and  what  capacity  they  have — 
let  me  say,  in  parentheses,  without  compensation — to  the  unification 
of  the  laws  of  the  States  on  matters  of  interstate  interest.  It  so 
happens  that  I  have  been  for  some  years  the  representative  of  the 
State  of  New  York  in  the  general  national  body  which  is  called  the 
Conference  of  Commissioners  on  Uniform  State  Laws.  We  have 
taken  hold  of  many  subjects,  ranging  from  marriage  and  divorce 
to  the  subject  which  was  referred  to  by  the  last  speaker,  warehouse 
receipts.  Our  uniform  negotiable  instruments  act,  for  example,  has 
been  enacted  in  every  State,  territory  and  federal  district  of  this 
country  except  one.  I  mention  that  simply  to  demonstrate  that 
the  thing  can  be  done,  because  it  has  been  done.  Now  it  only 
remains  for  me  to  say  that  the  committee  of  the  American  Bar 
Association  on  uniform  State  laws  and  the  Conference  of  Commis- 
sioners on  uniform  State  laws  will  be  very  glad  indeed  to  cooperate 
with  your  committee  to  secure,  as  far  as  may  be,  uniform  laws  on 
this  subject  of  road  building,  road  maintenance  and  road  legislation 
and  regulation  and  all  the  incidents  which  go  to  make  up  the  details 
of  this  movement  which  is  so  powerfully  backed  and  so  powerfully 
carried  forward  today  as  illustrated  by  this  convention.  Thank 
you,  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen. 

(Mr.  Pennybacker's  motion  was  then  unanimously  adopted.) 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  Kenyon,  the  President  of  the  Indiana  Road 
Association  has  given  great  thought  to  the  subject  of  road  legisla- 
tion, and  I  am  sure  will  interest  you. 

ADDRESS  BY  CLARENCE  A.  KENYON 

President  Indiana  Road  Association 

I  had  no  expectation  of  being  called  upon,  but  road  legislation  is 
a  matter  that  I  am  very  much  interested  in  and  I  am  sure  that 
you  are,  and  that  anything  I  might  say  that  would  be  in  the  nature 
of  information  or  suggestion  that  will  help  you,  will  help  the  cause. 
If  this  commission  has  or  will  recommend  a  bill  or  a  series  of  bills 
that  they  can  send  to  the  various  States  recommending  such  bills 


98  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

as  legislation  that  would  be  suitable  for  the  various  States,  I  am 
sure  that  we  will  be  very  glad  to  receive  it  in  Indiana.  I  was 
recently  in  London  attending  the  International  Road  Congress. 
There  were  thirty-nine  countries  of  the  world  represented  there. 
Everyone  was  asking  what  are  we  going  to  do  with  our  roads,  they 
are  wearing  out,  what  kind  of  legislation  shall  we  enact,  and  what 
kind  of  construction  shall  we  adopt?  What  is  the  best?  And  so 
this  great  congress  of  experts,  consisting  of  over  three  thousand 
members,  were  devoting  their  attention  to  these  questions.  I  will 
give  you  an  idea  of  how  they  proceeded.  They  started  out  months 
before  the  congress  met,  and  said  to  each  country,  "Select  your 
best  man  upon  the  matter  of  legislation  or  organization  for  roads 
as  well  as  on  other  road  questions,  and  let  him  submit  a  paper;" 
these  papers  were  sent  in  and  translated  into  the  three  languages 
that  would  be  used.  All  the  papers  on  any  one  subject  were  given 
over  to  a  reporter  or  a  series  of  reporters,  to  go  through  them,  and 
report  what  was  the  consensus  of  opinion  from  those  papers.  Those 
conclusions  were  then  presented  to  the  congress  and  were  open  for 
acceptance,  amendment  or  rejection.  This  one  question  of  organ- 
ization and  legislation  took  more  time  and  attention  of  that  big 
congress  than  almost  all  the  rest  of  the  questions  put  together. 
The  engineers  could  solve  the  question  of  construction,  material 
and  maintenance,  in  a  way,  but  when  it  came  up  to  the  question  of 
organization,  laws,  the  raising  of  money  to  pay  for  roads  and  so  on, 
they  were  at  sea.  Some  thought  one  way,  some  thought  another, 
just  as  we  here,  as  was  apparent  this  morning.  Here  is  Mr.  Shackle- 
ford  with  one  idea,  here  is  Mr.  Borland  with  another  idea,  and  when 
we  were  at  Washington  two  or  three  years  ago  we  found  sixty-two 
bills  in  Congress  on  national  aid,  each  with  a  different  idea.  To 
get  the  minds  of  the  people  concentrated  on  any  particular  plan 
seems  to  be  difficult,  so  in  each  State  we  have  the  same  trouble, 
and  I  think  if  this  committee  that  these  gentlemen  are  working 
with,  can  outline  a  law  or  laws  that  they  can  recommend  as  uniform 
for  all  the  States,  it  will  be  very  acceptable,  and  the  quicker  the 
better.  One  principle  that  I  might  say,  they  were  united  on  over 
there  in  Europe  was  this  first,  that  the  unit  of  organization  should 
be  large  enough,  in  every  instance,  to  properly  finance  a  road  and 
provide  for  an  adequate  staff  of  expert  men  to  properly  construct 
and  maintain  it.  The  very  statement  of  it  seems  to  be  true,  doesn't 
it?  All  the  laws  should  be  built  upon  that  idea.  The  next  prop- 
osition was,  that  no  road  should  be  built  where  there  was  none 
needed,  and,  as  a  corollary  to  that,  no  roads  should  be  built  that 
costs  more  than  the  necessities  of  the  road  demand,  and  as  a  part 
of  that  same  thing,  this  proposition,  that  no  road  should  be  con- 
structed when  the  unit  can  not  afford  to  construct  it  well  enough, 
to  bear  the  traffic  that  is  going  to  pass  over  the  road  without  exces- 
sive maintenance  charges.  These  seem  to  be  very  simple  things, 
don't  they?  They  appeal  to  everyone  as  being  true,  and  yet,  are 


ADDRESS  BY  CLARENCE  A.  KENYON  99 

we  in  this  country,  not  building  thousands  of  miles  of  road  just 
simply  because  of  its  cheapness,  $1500  a  mile,  and  $2000  a  mile 
roads,  that  will  be  destroyed  in  a  few  years,  before  the  bonds,  that 
are  issued  to  pay  for  them,  are  paid.  Why,  in  Indiana,  where  we 
have  the  idea  of  extreme  localization,  each  township  has  the  power 
of  issuing  bonds  to  build  roads.  The  county  cannot  issue  a  single 
bond  or  appropriate  any  money  to  build  a  road,  the  State  cannot 
issue  a  single  bond  or  appropriate  any  money  for  building  a  road, 
under  our  law,  so  that  every  road  that  is  built  must  be  paid  for  by 
the  township.  The  large  cities  are  exempt.  See  what  it  has  done. 
Take  the  little  county  of  Park  over  in  the  western  part  of  the  State; 
I  think  the  largest  place  in  it  is  the  county  seat,  Rockville,  which 
has  about  4500  people,  and  yet  they  have  over  650  miles  of  roads 
that  have  been  built,  and  paid  for  by  mortgage  and  bond  issue 
running  from  ten  to  twenty  years  against  the  land  in  the  townships 
of  that  county.  They  don't  need  all  that  road,  built  at  the  cost 
it  was  built,  any  more  than  a  dog  needs  two  tails.  In  my  opinion 
they  could  get  along  with  very  much  less  road;  in  other  words,  they 
violated  one  of  the  cardinal  principles  that  the  London  congress 
adopted  which  I  was  speaking  about  a  minute  ago;  they  had  the 
very  small  unit  of  organization,  a  township.  The  unit  was  so  small 
that  they  had  to  look  to  the  casual  man  that  was  elected  as  road 
supervisor,  or  county  commissioner  every  two  or  four  years,  to 
administer  it.  How  could  they  get  an  adequate  force  of  experts, 
or  how  could  they  properly  and  economically  finance  with  those 
small  units?  They  can  not  do  it.  They  have  issued  the  bonds, 
and  do  not  properly  keep  up  the  roads.  The  result  is  that  the 
roads  are  being  destroyed,  and  before  those  bonds  are  all  paid,  the 
roads  will  be  worn  out.  A  demand  for  new  roads  comes  along,  and 
they  cannot  issue  any  more  bonds,  because  the  bonds  issued  for 
those  that  have  been  destroyed,  have  not  been  paid.  That  is  the 
difficulty  we  meet  with  in  this  country,  so  I  say  we  will  hail  with  a 
great  deal  of  delight  and  pleasure  the  report  of  a  committee  that 
will  recommend  such  laws  for  general  adoption  by  the  States  as  will 
answer  these  problems.  If  we  follow  the  idea,  that  a  road  should 
be  so  well  built  that  it  will  answer  the  demands  of  the  traffic  that 
may  be  put  upon  it  we  will  get  somewhere.  I  saw  an  instance  in 
England;  there  was  a  road  running  down  in  Shrewsbury,  which  had 
a  very  enthusiastic  local  community,  a  very  competent  civil  engi- 
neer; those  people  wanted  the  road  maintained;  it  was  merely  a 
macadam  road;  it  cost  $750  per  mile  per  annum  to  maintain  that 
road,  and  yet  those  people  permitted  themselves  to  be  taxed  suffi- 
ciently to  maintain  that  road,  rather  than  not  have  it,  They  wanted 
the  autobus  service  that  a  farmer  had  started  where  the  people 
could  pay  as  you  do  in  a  street  car,  and  ride  backwards  and  forward 
through  that  county.  Of  course  there  was  plenty  of  land  in  that 
county,  that  is  not  anywhere  near  the  road,  but  still  they  could 
go  a  mile  or  two  to  the  road  and  then  go  a  long  way  by  just  getting 


100  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

into  an  autobus,  for  5  or  10  cents.  On  another  road  running  to 
Maidenhead,  another  engineer,  than  whom  they  said  there  was  none 
more  competent,  as  engineers  go,  but  who  had  the  advantage  of  a 
larger  unit,  a  general  road  board.  He  said  there  was  no  use  doing 
the  uneconomical  thing  of  trying  to  maintain  the  road  at  the  big 
cost  of  $500  to  S700  a  mile,  we  must  reconstruct  the  road  and  put 
a  surface  on  that  will  be  adequate.  They  followed  his  advice  and 
did  it,  and  the  general  road  board,  like  the  national  government, 
contributed  to  the  construction  of  that  road.  After  the  road  was 
finished,  they  found  it  was  only  costing  £5  or  $25  per  mile  per 
annum  to  keep  it  up,  instead  of  $750  a  mile.  That  is  the  thing 
I  say  we  need  in  this  country.  We  must  balance  the  cost  against 
the  maintenance,  to  make  the  road  economical  to  maintain,  and 
our  system  of  administration  should  be  so  timed,  that  the  tax  is 
properly  and  equitably  distributed,  then  you  will  find  the  people 
in  this  country  just  as  enthusiastic,  patriotic  and  anxious  to  have 
good  roads  and  willing  to  pay  for  them  as  they  are  in  England  or 
any  other  country.  I  think  this  conveys  the  idea  that  I  have  upon 
this  subject,  and  I  again  repeat  that  we,  in  Indiana,  will  certainly 
welcome  the  report  of  the  committee,  and  I  hope  we  will  get  copies 
of  it  at  the  very  earliest  date  possible.  Let  me  tell  you  another 
thing:  just  for  a  moment;  many  of  you  are  not  from  Indiana  and 
don't  have  the  troubles  we  have  there.  We  have  92  counties  and 
1017  townships  in  the  State,  which  has  an  area  of  35,000  square 
miles,  in  round  numbers.  Can  you  think  it  possible  that,  with  that 
area,  we  would  have  6500  road  officers,  men  concerned  with  the 
building  and  maintenance  of  roads?  Well,  we  have.  It  does  not 
seem  possible  that  you  could  get  such  a  force  in  our  country  that 
would  be  competent.  You  know  we  could  not.  We  haven't,  and 
yet  they  are  men  that  are  anxious  and  willing  to  do  their  duty,  but 
they  don't  know;  the  unit  of  administration  is  so  small,  that  it 
cannot  be  properly  financed  and  they  get  no  aid  from  the  State, 
and  while  they  get  aid  from  the  county  in  the  way  of  maintenance, 
they  get  no  aid  from  the  county  in  the  way  of  construction.  Here 
are  three  commissioners  from  each  county — 92  counties,  276  officials 
right  there,  then  there's  92  county  surveyors,  and  the  county  sur- 
veyor does  not  have  to  have  any  other  qualifications  than  merely 
being  a  voter  and  a  citizen  of  the  county.  I  have  known  drug  clerks 
and  men  working  in  a  hardware  store  to  be  elected  county  sur- 
veyors. The  unit  of  administration  is  so  small  that  you  do  not  get 
competent  men,  you  do  not  get  the  thing  that  the  London  Congress 
was  insisting  upon,  a  competent  staff.  Then  each  county  divides 
their  roads,  they  call  them  improved  roads,  up  into  districts  and 
allows  the  county  commissioners  to  employ  a  man  for  each  10  miles 
of  road,  as  a  sort  of  a  foreman  to  look  after  them  in  the  spring  and 
fall,  and  then  we  have  this  1017  townships  with  one  trustee  for 
each  township;  each  township  then  can  have  from  two  to  six  super- 
visors, according  to  the  size  of  the  township;  there  are  2500  of  them. 


ADDRESS  BY  CLARENCE  A.  KENYO7*  -101 

They  get  $2  a  day  for  sixty  days,  there's  $120  each,  imagine  the 
large  sum  paid  out  in  salaries  to  this  6500  men  over  the  State.  Can 
you  imagine  them  as  a  competent  staff?  There's  no  direction,  no 
head,  no  harmonizing  of  effort,  and  such  are  the  troubles  we  have 
in  Indiana,  and  I  have  no  doubt  to  a  lesser  extent  they  have  that  same 
trouble  in  other  places,  and  when  I  told  that  to  the  London  Road 
Congress,  there  was  just  one  shout  of  "Ha!  Ha!  can  that  be  pos- 
sible?" No  country  in  the  world  has  any  such  extreme  localization 
as  we  have  in  Indiana  and  I  hope  no  other  States  have,  so  you  see 
the  necessity  of  wiser  laws.  Give  us  the  report  of  the  committee. 
Gentlemen,  I  thank  you. 


CONSTRUCTION  AND   MAINTENANCE 
SESSION 

October  1,  10  a.m. 

A.  N.  JOHNSON,  Chairman 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  come  to  order,  please.  We  regret 
that  we  received  a  telegram  from  Colonel  Stevens  stating  that  he 
will  be  unable  to  be  here,  and  Mr.  Page  asked  me  to  preside  in  Colonel 
Stevens's  place.  I  understand  that  most  of  you  have  received  copies 
of  the  papers.  If  you  have  not,  copies  will  be  furnished  to  those 
who  desire  them.  Owing  to  the  fullness  of  the  program  and  the 
limited  time,  it  seems  desirable  to  make  some  definite  provision  as 
to  the  time  to  be  consumed  by  each  speaker.  We  will  allow  the 
authors  ot  the  papers  five  minutes  in  which  to  summarize  and  explain 
their  respective  papers.  The  gentleman  who  makes  the  opening 
discussion  will  be  allowed  ten  minutes  and  two  minutes  discussion 
from  the  floor,  and  I  will  ask  all  of  you  to  please  observe  these  rules. 
The  first  paper  on  the  program  is  by  Mr.  W.  S.  Keller,  State  highway 
engineer  of  Alabama,  entitled  "Unsurfaced  Roads."  Mr.  Keller. 

UNSURFACED  ROADS 

BY  W.  S.  KELLER 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  Alabama 

When  I  was  notified  by  the  secretary  that  I  was  expected  to  pre- 
sent a  paper  to  this  Convention  on  the  subject  of  "UnsurfacedJRoads," 
I  was  considerably  worried  for  the  reason  that  I  read  a  paper  at 
the  Convention  at  Atlantic  City  last  year  on  earth  roads.  Now, 
the  difference  between  earth  roads  and  unsurfaced  roads  is  about 
the  same  as  the  difference  between  Tweedledee  and  Tweedledum, 
so  I  have  had  to  infringe  to  a  certain  extent  on  my  paper  of  last 
year  in  the  preparation  of  a  paper  for  this  year  and  I  hope  those 
of  you  who  have  read  that  paper  will  forgive  me  for  repeating  to  a 
very  great  extent  what  was  said  in  that  article.  I  believe  all  engi- 
neers are  prone  to  build  high  class  roads.  We  all  like  to  see  a  fin- 
ished product.  In  our  efforts  to  build  these  roads,  we  are  inclined 
to  overlook  the  little  man,  the  man  who  has  an  earth  road  leading 
to  his  home  and  will,  perhaps,  never  have  other  than  an  earth  road, 
so  my  paper  is  particularly  appealing  to  you  in  behalf  of  the  minor 
class  road.  Now,  in  our  efforts  to  build  earth  roads,  the  main 
work  we  have  to  do  in  the  South  is  to  locate  our  roads.  Our  roads 

102 


UNSURFACED   ROADS  103 

have  never  been  located.  We  are  still  following  in  many  places, 
the  trails  that  were  laid  out  by  Andrew  Jackson  and  even  the  trails 
that  were  made  during  the  Civil  War  by  the  armies  that  marched 
through  the  States.  The  trails,  of  course,  were  made  wherever  the 
armies  could  get  through.  They  avoided  marshes  that  possibly 
could  have  been  filled  over;  they  made  long  detours  where,  perhaps, 
by  a  little  work,  a  shorter  course  could  have  been  found. 

I  was  reminded  by  the  chairman  that  I  have  only  five  minutes 
to  discuss  my  paper.  That  is  a  right  hard  thing  to  do,  to  know 
just  what  particular  feature  of  a  paper  you  have  written  you  want 
to  discuss,  so  I  don't  know  anything  better  than  to  say  it  is  with 
you  and  I  hope  you  will  bear  in  mind  that  I  am  writing  from  an 
Alabamian's  standpoint,  from  a  Southerner's  standpoint,  you  might 
say,  about  earth  roads  in  Alabama.  I  do  not  propose  to  tell  you 
what  the  earth  roads  of  Michigan,  New  York  and  other  Northern 
States  are,  because  I  am  not  familiar  with  them,  but  I  am  writing 
of  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  earth  roads  in  the  South. 
Now,  we  all  know  that  the  greatest  thing  we  can  do  to  maintain 
earth  roads  is  to  constantly  use  the  drag.  The  greatest  trouble 
we  have  in  the  South  is  convincing  our  commissioners  that  the 
drag  is  of  value;  it  is  too  simple.  I  have  often  said  that  if  a  drag 
was  manufactured  and  beautifully  painted  by  some  machinery  con- 
cern just  exactly  like  the  old  wooden  drag  with  a  great  big  name  on 
it,  manufactured  by  "  Blank  Company"  and  $50  charged  for  it, 
commissioners  would  buy  them  and  use  them  freely,  but  because 
they  can  make  them  in  their  own  barnyard,  they  don't  believe  what 
you  tell  them.  We  have  got  fine  results  in  some  sections  of  our 
State  by  the  use  of  the  drag,  but  I  do  not  believe  the  drag  will  do 
everything.  I  do  not  believe  it  will  grade  a  road  or  remove  stumps 
or  remove  rocks,  as  some  over-zealous  advocates  claim,  but  I  do 
believe  we  can  do  wonders  if  we  properly  locate  and  grade  the  earth 
roads  and  keep  the  drag  on  them.  I  know  we  can  do  it  in  the  South 
because  we  do  not  have  the  heavy  freezes  that  you  have  and  we  can 
keep  our  roads  in  splendid  condition  if  we  will  only  adopt  and  use 
it,  but  we  must  keep  on  using  it.  I  am  reminded  of  a  story,  in  con- 
nection with  this,  of  a  young  lady  who  wrote  to  Laura  Jean  Libbey. 
You  know  Laura  Jean  Libbey  answers  lovesick  girls  and  boys  and 
gives  them  good  advice.  She  wrote,  "I  am  engaged  to  be  married 
to  a  telegraph  operator,  have  been  for  some  time;  he  lives  near 
where  I  do  and  we  live  about  a  mile  from  the  depot;  during  the 
afternoons  of  the  summer,  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  walking  with 
him  to  his  place  of  business  through  a  skirt  of  woods.  Now  fall 
has  come  on  and  it  is  rather  late  as  we  walk  to  the  depot  and  I  am 
afraid  that  I  will  be  criticized  by  people  who  are  inclined  to  criti- 
cize me  for  walking  through  the  woods  with  my  intended  husband. 
I  want  to  know  if  it  is  entirely  proper  for  me  to  walk  through  the 
woods  with  my  intended  husband?"  Miss  Libbey  answered:  "I 
have  received  your  letter  asking  my  opinion  as  to  whether  it  is 


104  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

proper  to  walk  to  the  depot  with  your  intended  husband  and  I  want 
to  say  to  you  that  it  is  all  right  to  walk  to  the  depot  with  your 
intended  husband,  but  keep  on  walking."  I  say  to  you  we  will 
have  to  keep  on  working  our  earth  roads  if  we  are  going  to  keep 
them  in  condition. 

There  are  2,100,000  miles  of  roads  in  the  United  States  that  are 
unsurfaced  or  rather  have  not  been  resurfaced  by  the  hand  of  man. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  ascertain  the  various  soils  or  natural  earths 
composing  the  wearing  surface  of  unsurfaced  roads.  From  the  finest 
silt  to  the  hardest  granite  these  roads  are  composed  of  and  the  treat- 
ment of  one  will  entirely  differ  from  the  treatment  of  the  other. 

Until  within  recent  years  it  was  considered  next  to  impossible  to 
make  a  good  road  of  ordinary  earth  without  surfacing  with  stone, 
gravel  or  other  hard  material.  The  absence  of  suitable  material  in 
vast  sections  of  the  country  and  the  high  cost  of  it  when  handled 
by  railroads  has  forced  attention  to  earth  or  unsurfaced  roads.  Un- 
surfaced roads  may  be  divided  into  three  classes : 

First,  the  ordinary  country  road  opened  when  this  country  was 
young,  leading  from  one  settlement  to  another  or  from  a  farmer's 
home  to  that  of  his  nearest  neighbor.  These  roads  were  not  opened 
through  any  process  of  law,  in  fact,  there  was  no  law  governing  roads 
in  those  early  days,  but  by  following  trails  of  least  resistance,  re- 
moving trees  and  such  rocks  as  would  not  permit  the  axles  of  wagons 
to  clear,  the  pioneers  of  this  country  made  it  possible  to  travel,  in  a 
way,  from  place  to  place.  We  have  many  roads  in  Alabama  now  in 
use  that  were  opened  and  traveled  by  General  Andrew  Jackson,  both 
on  his  march  to  fight  the  British  at  New  Orleans  and  the  Indians  in 
south  Alabama  and  Florida.  Of  course,  such  roads  were  opened  hur- 
riedly and  little  or  no  attention  was  given  to  grades  or  alignments. 
Settlers  taking  advantage  of  work  that  had  been  done  built  their 
homes  along  these  military  roads  or  traces  as  they  are  frequently 
called.  In  the  construction  now  of  more  modern  roads,  it  is  difficult 
to  better  the  alignment  of  these  roads  on  account  of  homes,  churches 
and  schools  which  have  been  built  close  to  these  highways.  However, 
in  many  places,  these  roads  have  been  and  are  being  changed  to 
meet  the  demand  of  traffic  of  today.  The  genuine  bad  roads  of  the 
South  belong  solely  to  this  class.  They  cannot  be  maintained  for 
the  reason  that  they  have  never  been  constructed  and  the  great  amount 
of  work  necessary  to  keep  them  in  passable  condition  disheartens 
the  man  who  by  law  is  compelled  to  work  them.  Until  these  roads 
are  relocated,  avoiding  heavy  grades  and  marshy  bottoms,  sharp 
angles  and  useless  twists  and  graded  so  that  they  will  have  good 
drainage,  we  may  expect  them  to  be  bad. 

The  second  class  of  unsurfaced  roads  are  the  ordinary  graded 
earth  roads  which  have  proper  alignment,  grade  and  drainage.  The 
construction  of  an  earth  road  is  simple,  but  sometimes  the  simplicity 
of  it  causes  the  average  county  commissioner  or  supervisor  to  over- 
estimate his  ability  as  a  road  builder.  The  proper  construction  of 
an  earth  road  consists  of: 


UNSURFACED    ROADS  105 

First — A  careful  inspection  by  the  proper  official  to  determine 
what  beneficial  changes  in  grade  and  alignment  can  be  made,  taking 
into  consideration  initial  cost  and  cost  of  maintenance.  The  center 
line  and  grade  of  the  road  should  be  estalished  by  an  engineer.  After 
the  center  line  has  been  established  and  width  of  road  bed  agreed 
on  and  grade  established,  construction  work  can  begin.  The  proper 
and  efficient  grading  force  for  the  work  should  consist  of  a  foreman, 
eight  or  ten  good  two-horse  teams  with  drivers,  one  wheel  and  one 
drag  scraper  for  each  team  and  one  extra  wheeler  and  drag  for  emer- 
gencies, one  good  railroad  grading  plow,  one  grading  machine,  one 
split-log  drag,  one  dump  man  and  one  loader  with  five  or  six  extra 
men  for  grubbing  and  other  work.  The  foreman  should  be  an  expe- 
rienced grading  man  who  understands  handling  earth  and  knows 
when  it  is  proper  to  use  drag  scrapers,  wheel  scrapers  or  wagons. 
The  road  should  be  so  graded  that  the  ditches  or  gutters  are  parallel 
with  the  center  line  of  the  road  and  uniform  distance  from  it.  When 
completed  the  road  should  be  uniform  in  width  and  surface  should 
be  smooth  and  even,  free  from  holes  and  high  places  with  a  uniform 
crown  with  a  fall  of  1  inch  to  1  foot  from  center  to  gutters.  On 
grades  this  ratio  of  fall  should  exceed  that  of  the  grade  to  such  an 
extent  that  water  will  readily  flow  to  the  ditches  instead  of  down  the 
road.  Drain  pipe  should  be  freely  used  and  no  water  should  be 
allowed  to  flow  over  the  road  if  it  can  be  avoided.  In  some  cases  it 
is  not  practical  to  build  the  road  above  high  water.  In  such  cases 
danger  signs  should  be  posted  showing  at  what  stage  the  water  be- 
comes too  high  to  ford  the  stream. 

We  have  in  the  South  nearly  every  kind  of  soil  from  sticky  gumbo 
on  the  one  hand  to  coarse  sand  on  the  other.  The  methods  used  for 
improvement  of  roads  through  a  section  of  one  will  not  do  altogether 
for  the  other.  The  worst  roads  by  far  that  we  have  in  the  South  are 
in  our  rich  and  fertile  prairie  lands,  where,  unfortunately,  there  is 
very  little  road  building  material  to  be  found.  This  soil  readily  ab- 
sorbs water  and  becomes  very  sticky  after  rains.  It  expands  freely 
and  dries  rapidly  when  the  sun  shines  and  becomes  very  hard  under 
the  tamping  effect  of  teams  and  vehicles.  From  observation  and 
experience  I  have  learned  that  these  roads  of  all  others  require  a  very 
high  crown  and  the  driving  surface  should  only  be  wide  enough  to 
allow  two  vehicles  to  pass.  If  a  road  is  narrow  with  a  fall  of  not 
less  than  1|  inches  to  the  foot,  water  will  shed  rapidly  to  the  ditches 
and  the  entire  surface  will  dry  out  rapidly.  A  road  of  this  kind  can 
be  constructed  quickly  and  at  little  expense,  except  where  grades 
are  to  be  reduced  or  bottoms  filled  with  a  grading  machine,  or  even 
with  a  split-log  drag.  The  latter  method  will  require  more  time, 
but  in  the  end  will  be  found  to  be  very  satisfactory.  No  earth  road 
can  be  maintained  in  good  condition  unless  it  is  so  constructed  as  to 
drain  well  and  unless  it  is  kept  free  from  ruts  and  holes. 

The  third  class  of  unsurfaced  road  which  we  frequently  have  to 
deal  with  are  those  in  sections  of  country  where  the  soil  or  earth  is 
really  road  building  material,  composed  either  of  gravel,  sand-clay  or 


106  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

top  soil  so  that  when  the  road  is  graded  it  is,  in  fact,  surfaced.  Where 
this  condition  exists,  splendid  roads  can  be  built  at  a  minimum  cost. 

The  maintenance  of  unsurfaced  roads  is  radically  different  from 
the  maintenance  of  surfaced  roads.  For  instance,  the  patrol  sys- 
tem used  on  macadam  roads  would  be  entirely  inadequate  for  earth 
roads.  One  man  can  keep  up  2  or  3  miles  of  macadam  road  where  he 
would  unquestionably  be  unable  to  keep  in  good  condition  a  like 
amount  of  unsurfaced  road.  With  the  use,  however,  of  a  team  and 
drag,  he  would  be  able  to  keep  in  good  condition  20  miles  of  ordinary 
graded  earth  road.  Some  very  zealous  advocates  of  the  drag  claim 
everything  for  it,  from  the  removal  of  stumps  and  rocks  to  the  ditch- 
ing of  roads.  I  am  a  great  believer  in  the  drag,  but  from  experience, 
I  know  that  obstructions  must  be  removed  and  proper  drainage  pro- 
vided for  before  it  is  effective.  It  has  been  difficult  with  the  road 
men  of  the  South  to  convince  county  authorities  that  this  little  ma- 
chine is  of  value.  The  writer  when  in  charge  of  road  work  in  a 
Tennessee  County  inaugurated  a  system  of  dragging  that  proved 
very  successful.  Ten  roads  were  graded  a  distance  of  3  miles  each. 
The  grading  was  completed  in  November.  With  surface  of  these 
roads  fresh  and  loose,  it  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that  the  winter 
rains  would  soften  them  to  the  extent  that  they  would  become  im- 
passable under  heavy  traffic.  Contracts  were  made  with  a  farmer 
on  each  of  these  roads  to  keep  them  dragged  during  the  months  of 
December,  January,  February  and  March  and  the  price  paid  was  30 
cents  an  hour  for  a  man  and  team.  The  county  furnished  the  drags. 
As  an  inducement  to  the  men  to  do  good  work,  the  county  offered 
prizes  of  $25,  $15  and  $10  for  the  best  kept  roads.  Specifications 
for  dragging  and  rules  governing  the  contest  were  furnished  each 
contestant.  One  important  rule  was  that  the  prizes  would  be 
awarded  to  the  men  who  kept  their  roads  in  the  best  condition  at 
the  least  cost.  In  order  that  the  engineer  might  keep  in  close  touch 
with  the  work,  postal  report  cards  were  furnished  each  man  and  they 
were  required  to  fill  them  out  every  Monday  showing  the  distance 
dragged,  hours  consumed  and  cost  for  the  previous  week  and  mail 
them  to  the  office  of  the  engineer.  In  this  way  it  was  practically 
impossible  for  a  dishonest  man  to  render  an  account  for  more  time 
than  he  really  consumed  without  it  being  detected  or  if  he  worked 
more  than  was  necessary,  the  reports  of  the  other  contestants  when 
compared  with  his  disclosed  it.  On  the  other  hand  if  one  should  be 
neglecting  his  work  by  not  dragging  sufficiently  it  was  likewise  de- 
tected. This  30  miles  of  road  was  kept  in  splendid  condition  despite 
the  fact  that  two  heavy  snows  fell  during  the  four  months.  The 
most  interesting  fact  connected  with  the  contest  was  the  road  that 
was  awarded  first  prize  cost  the  county  only  $15  or  $5  per  mile. 

In  many  southern  States  the  roads  are  maintained  or  at  least  are 
supposed  to  be,  by  what  is  known  as  statute  labor,  which  means  a 
man  subject  to  road  tax  may  work  out  his  tax  under  the  direction  of 
a  beat  or  district  overseer.  Such  labor  is  practically  worthless  and 


UNSURFACED   ROADS  107 

few  men  are  required  to  work  out  the  stipulated  number  of  days. 
As  it  seems  to  be  impossible  to  entirely  abolish  statute  labor,  the 
question  that  confronts  us  now  is,  what  is  the  best  system  coupled 
with  this  labor  to  use  in  the  maintenance  of  our  roads.  Good  re- 
sults have  been  accomplished  in  several  counties  in  Alabama  by  put- 
ting the  work  in  the  hands  of  a  few  regularly  employed  foremen  who 
give  all  of  their  time  and  attention  to  the  work,  instead  of  leaving 
it  to  many  beat  overseers  who  work  when  it  suits  their  convenience, 
or  do  not  work  at  all  when  it  suits  them,  as  it  usually  does.  These 
foremen  are  furnished  with  two  or  three  teams  with  regular  drivers, 
wagons,  scrapers  and  grading  machines,  split-log  drag  and  necessary 
small  tools  and  as  many  beats  or  districts  assigned  to  each  as  he 
can  work.  A  census  is  taken  in  each  foreman's  territory  at  the  first 
of  the  year  of  all  men  subject  to  road  duty  and  he  is  furnished  with 
a  list  of  names  and  is  required  to  work  every  man  who  has  not  paid 
the  required  amount  of  cash  into  the  county  treasury  in  lieu  thereof. 
No  foreman  is  allowed,  under  penalty  of  dismissal,  to  receive  cash 
from  work  hands,  but  such  hands  as  desire  to  pay  must  make  their 
payments  to  the  proper  county  official  at  the  court  house.  This 
method  has  proven  good  in  most  cases,  but  as  a  general  thing  I  do 
not  think  the  best  results  can  be  accomplished  by  permitting  men 
to  work  out  their  road  tax. 

In  conclusion  I  desire  to  urge  that  in  your  effort  to  better  rural 
conditions  by  the  construction  of  the  main  thoroughfares  with  hard 
surfacing  material,  that  the  branch  roads  and  "side-tracks"  be  not 
entirely  overlooked. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  this  paper  will  be  opened  by 
Mr.  George  W.  Cooley,  State  highway  engineer  of  Minnesota.  Mr. 
Cooley. 

MR.  COOLEY:  Mr.  Keller  has  treated  the  subject  of  unsurfaced 
roads  so  generously,  even  though  he  had  to  draw  on  the  previous 
report,  that  there  doesn't  seem  to  be  anything  to  criticize.  I  would 
like,  however,  to  add  to  the  statements  he  has  made  in  his  paper 
by  quoting  something  from  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Minnesota.  You 
know,  just  as  well  as  I  do,  that  95  per  cent  of  the  roads  in  this  country 
that  will  be  in  use  for  the  next  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  are  the 
common,  ordinary  earth  roads,  and  that  is  the  problem  before  the 
people  of  the  South  and  the  people  of  the  West.  There  are  two  or 
three  questions  involved  in  the  construction,  or  maintenance  rather, 
of  earth  roads;  first,  location,  then  construction,  then  maintenance. 
We  will  assume  that  the  essential  part  of  the  work  has  already  been 
taken  care  of,  drainage  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  The  first  point 
of  importance  is  the  question  of  location,  and  that  came  to  me  very 
forcibly  a  few  years  ago  when  I  was  riding  over  the  western  part 
of  the  State  of  Minnesota  with  a  friend  of  mine  and  we  came  to  a 
road  that  seemed  to  be  crooked  without  any  reason  for  crooks,  and 


108  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

I  said,  "I  wonder  what  crazy  fool  located  this  road?"  And  he 
remarked,  "He  is  riding  now  in  the  buggy  with  me."  And  it  ap- 
pears that  that  road  was  developed  from  the  original  trail  made 
by  me  when  I  used  to  send  my  teams  back  from  the  prairie  camp 
to  the  timber  to  get  wood,  and  as  soon  as  the  farmers  came  into  that 
country,  they  took  this  trail  because  it  was  the  only  one  to  the 
timber.  Gradually  it  became  a  country  road  and  now  that  road 
has  developed  into  a  very  important  State  highway.  So  it  is  very 
important  that  we  should  take  care  and  see  that  the  location  is 
so  well  established  and  so  carefully  laid  that  we  won't  have  reason 
to  change  it  in  three  or  four  years,  because  that  is  one  of  the  most 
important  propostitions  we  have  in  connection  with  earth  roads,  the 
proper  location,  the  construction  of  the  roads.  I  found  in  my  experi- 
ence that  every  man  in  the  West  and  South  that  has  ever  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  roads  knows  more  about  them  than  anybody  else. 
I  found  that  they  all  had  the  best  system  of  roads  and  understood 
the  question  better  than  anybody  else,  but  in  the  construction  of 
the  common  earth  roads,  one  thing  is  insisted  upon  in  the  State 
of  Minnesota,  and  that  is  the  elimination  of  everything  in  the  nature 
of  perishable  material.  I  have  noticed  in  different  parts  of  the 
States  some  of  the  good  roads  States  particularly,  where  dumps 
are  built  up  from  sods  placed  on  the  side  of  the  bank  to  prevent  the 
wash  of  the  slope.  That  is  something  we  absolutely  forbid.  We 
aim  to  get  the  material  of  which  our  roads  are  built  from  the  natu- 
ral soil,  discarding  anything  in  the  way  of  perishable  material.  A 
gentleman  spoke  yesterday  about  the  great  army  of  men  who  had 
charge  of  road  construction  in  his  State,  I  think  about  six  thousand, 
but  Minnesota  can  go  that  one  or  two  better.  We  have  about 
two  thousand  towns  in  our  State;  every  one  of  those  towns  has  a 
road  overseer  and  three  road  supervisors,  so  we  have  altogether, 
including  county  commissioners  and  surveyors,  an  army  of  ten 
thousand  men  to  look  after  our  road  business.  That  is  the  way 
it  has  been  up  to  the  present  time.  The  legislature  passed  a  law 
at  the  last  session  providing,  among  other  things,  for  the  abolition 
of  the  statute  labor  tax;  we  have  abolished  that  and  the  system  of 
road  overseers,  so  that  now,  instead  of  having  three  overseers  or 
four  or  sometimes  ten  or  twenty  in  a  town,  we  have  just  one.  We 
have  concentrated  the  authority  in  road  construction  in  the  follow- 
ing manner;  towns  appoint  one  road  overseer  who  works  under  the 
direction  of  the  assistant  engineer.  The  assistant  engineer  is  em- 
ployed by  the  highway  commissioner  and  works  under  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  State  engineer  and  we  have  divided  the  State  up  into 
sixty  districts  and  in  those  we  have  located  the  assistant  engineer 
to  look  after  all  of  the  road  construction  and  bridge  construction  in 
that  district.  Under  him  works  the  county  superintendent  of  high- 
ways, when  they  have  them,  and  the  town  road  inspector,  so  we  have 
a  uniform  system  there  by  which  we  are  achieving  the  very  best 
results.  We  have  another  clause  in  our  law  that  provides  for  a 


UNSURFACED   ROADS  109 

tax  of  one  mill  on  all  the  taxable  property  of  the  towns  for  the  purpose 
of  dragging;  that  can  only  be  used  for  dragging  purposes.  Then 
we  have  in  our  law  another  clause  which  I  consider  of  the  greatest 
importance,  with  regard  to  the  subject  of  maintenance;  that  is,  we 
have  a  fund  for  distribution  next  year  of  a  million  dollars  and  a 
half,  divided  up  among  eighty-three  counties.  No  county  is  receiv- 
ing less  than  1  per  cent  of  that  money,  and  20  per  cent  of  the  total 
fund  is  supplied  for  maintenance;  that  is  compulsory.  The  law 
provides  a  fund  of  over  $500,000  for  the  continuance  and  mainte- 
nance of  our  roads.  As  I  said,  there  is  nothing  to  criticize  in  Mr. 
Keller's  paper  and  I  thank  you  for  your  attention. 

MR.  CLARKSON  (of  Missouri):  I  did  not  expect  for  a  moment 
to  have  anything  to  say  with  reference  to  unsurfaced  roads,  because 
I  supposed  there  would  be  a  number  of  other  gentlemen  who  would 
take  up  this  subject,  but  inasmuch  as  there  doesn't  seem  to  be  any 
disposition  on  the  part  of  the  others  to  speak  I  wish  to  make  one  or 
two  entries.  The  first  entry  I  would  make  is  that  it  is  a  subject 
of  importance  for  the  reason  that  this  is  the  road  that  many  of  us 
have  to  travel  and  will  have  to  travel  as  long  as  we  live,  and  I 
believe  that  these  conventions  should  give  more  importance  to  the 
unsurfaced  roads  than  has  been  given  in  the  past,  because  of  that 
fact  and  because  of  another  fact,  which  is  that  when  too  much 
attention  is  given  to  the  surfaced  or  hard  road,  it  has  a  tendency 
to  discourage  people  who  must  build  and  must  travel  dirt  roads  from 
doing  anything,  because  there  seems  to  be  no  attention  given  to 
the  unsurfaced  road;  so  I  feel  that  it  is  a  fortunate  thing  that  this 
subject  is  put  on  the  program  and  trust  that  some  importance  may 
be  given  to  it. 

MR.  HOWER  (of  Maine):  As  the  gentleman  has  just  said,  un- 
surfaced roads  or  dirt  roads  are  by  far  the  most  important  we  have 
to  consider  in  this  country,  and  I,  for  one,  would  like  to  see  some 
uniform  steps  taken  toward  having  better  dirt  roads.  I  believe 
myself  that  one  of  the  greatest  aids  in  making  our  dirt  roads  better 
roads — we  cannot  make  them  good  roads — is  to  have  a  uniform  law 
throughout  our  States  compelling  the  use  of  the  road  drag.  This 
subject  of  course  has  been  brought  up  before,  but  I  find  in  traveling 
over  the  country,  that  there  are  less  roads  not  dragged  than  they 
are  dragged,  and  there  is  no  doubt  to  my  mind  that  if  the  delegates 
here  would  take  home  the  value  of  the  drag  in  connection  with  dirt 
roads,  that  we  would  have  better  dirt  roads  throughout  the  whole 
country.  I,  for  one,  would  like  to  see  a  resolution  put  through  by 
this  congress  asking  the  various  road  commissioners,  asking  the  va- 
rious legislatures  of  our  States  to  pass  laws  somewhat  similar  to  that 
passed  during  the  past  year  by  the  State  of  Iowa  which  compelled 
the  dragging  of  dirt  roads,  and  if  it  is  not  out  of  place,  I  would  move 
that  this  convention,  this  congress,  go  on  record  as  favoring  road 


110  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

drags  and  that  we  ask  the  committee  that  was  appointed  yesterday 
to  take  up  the  subject  of  uniform  road  laws  for  the  various  States, 
to  incorporate  this,  if  possible,  in  their  report. 

MR.  CARPENTER  (of  Wyoming):  I  wish  to  say,  Gentlemen  of 
the  Convention,  that  that  is  the  one  thing  that  impressed  me  all 
the  time  during  the  sessions  of  this  Convention,  that  we  are  not 
paying  enough  attention  to  the  matter  of  getting  our  dirt  roads  in 
shape.  We  cannot  build  hard  roads  everywhere.  There  are  parts 
of  this  country  where  a  dirt  road,  properly  built  and  maintained,  is 
as  good  a  road  as  we  want  and  as  good  as  we  can  get  for  the  next 
hundred  years,  even  if  we  want  a  better  road.  It  seems  to  me  that 
the  thing  we  are  neglecting  is  the  proper  dragging  of  roads  that  must 
have  a  dirt  surface,  that  we  cannot  get  a  hard  surface  on,  that  is, 
an  artificial  surface.  It  seems  to  me  that  we  should  lay  more  stress 
on  wide  tired  wagon  wheels,  because  you  can  put  your  roads  in  the 
very  best  possible  condition,  and  after  they  are  put  in  condition 
for  the  automobile,  the  heavy  wagons  with  narrow  tires  will  run 
over  the  road  and  cut  it  all  to  pieces.  By  using  this  drag  and  some 
means  to  keep  the  low  places  out  so  that  the  water  won't  stand  in 
the  road,  I  am  speaking  particularly  of  our  Wyoming  roads,  by 
keeping  that  water  from  standing  there,  we  keep  the  road  good, 
while,  if  we  leave  low  places  so  that  a  wide  automobile  tire  runs 
through  that  water,  the  dirt  is  soft  and  it  oozes  out  to  the  side  and 
each  time  an  automobile  passes,  the  rut  is  made  deeper.  Until  we 
can  get  hard  roads  over  the  United  States,  we  should  lay  particular 
stress  on  this  feature  of  haying  our  roads  properly  olrained  and 
properly  surfaced,  worked  with  King  drags  or  something  of  that 
sort.  If  we  do  that,  we  are  going  to  have  passable  roads  all  over 
the  country.  If  we  do  not,  we  will  only  have  a  few  expensive  roads 
constructed  along  some  of  the  main  thoroughfares  from  one  city  to 
another.  Let  us  put  more  stress  on  that.  I  would  like  to  hear 
suggestions;  I  would  like  for  our  engineers  to  take  more  interest  in 
studying  that  feature.  While  that  does  not  appeal  particularly  to 
the  manufacturers  of  road  machinery  or  the  manufacturers  of  con- 
crete and  all  those  things,  it  does  appeal  to  the  man  who  has  to 
run  his  automobile  over  the  clirt  roads  of  the  United  States. 

MR.  GASH  (of  Illinois) :  I  was  just  going  to  make  this  suggestion, 
that  I  have  heard  a  number  of  experts  talk  upon  this  question  of 
the  dirt  road,  and  in  addition  they  lay  particular  stress  upon  proper 
drainage  and  proper  grading  of  the  dirt  road,  but  in  addition  to  that, 
one  of  the  greatest  things  you  can  do  for  the  dirt  roads  is  to  work 
them  at  the  proper  season  of  the  year.  I  daresay,  as  was  said  by 
a  man  in  LaSalle  township,  in  LaSalle  County,  Illinois,  a  few  years 
ago  when  we  dedicated  a  mile  of  concrete  road,  he  said,  "I  have 
lived  in  this  township  fifty-two  years,  ever  since  I  was  born,  and 
there  has  been  enough  work  done  on  the  roads  of  this  township 


UNSURFACED   ROADS  111 

to  have  paved  them  with  gold  if  it  had  been  properly  applied." 
Now,  the  trouble  has  been  in  the  past  that  they  have  worked  the 
roads  at  convenient  seasons  for  the  farmer.  We,  in  the  State  of 
Illinois,  have  established  a  tax  to  be  paid  and  to  work  the  roads  at 
the  proper  seasons  of  the  year  and  that  is  while  the  soil  is  wet;  so 
that  it  forms  a  hard  surface  over  the  dirt  roads,  if  you  work  the 
soil  while  it  is  wet.  Every  farmer  in  the  land  will  tell  you  that 
he  won't  work  his  soil  in  the  field  and  cultivate  it  while  the  soil  is 
too  wet.  Why?  Because  it  will  become  dry  and  hard  and  crisp 
when  the  dry  season  comes,  but  the  trouble  has  been,  like  in  LaSalle 
County,  all  over  the  land,  that  the  roads  have  been  worked  when 
the  soil  was  dry  and  when  the  rain  comes,  it  all  washed  away  and  the 
work  was  destroyed.  A  proper  working,  a  proper  grading,  a  work- 
ing at  the  proper  season  of  the  year  and  a  proper  grading  will  make 
better  dirt  roads  all  over  the  country  in  every  soil  of  this  land. 

MR.  MYERS  (of  Ohio) :  I  would  like  to  say  a  few  words  in  refer- 
ence to  the  maintenance  of  roads,  both  dirt  roads  and  pikes.  I  am 
in  favor  of  legislation  that  will  require  proper  care  in  hauling  during 
the  springtime  or  at  periods  when  the  roads  are  soft.  Narrow  tired 
wagons  and  over-loaded  wagons  hauling,  as  they  do  in  our  county, 
large  engines  for  the  use  of  oil  drilling  and  gas  drilling,  those  injure 
our  roads  in  one  week  or  two  weeks  sufficiently  to  require  adjustment 
throughout  the  entire  balance  of  the  year.  It  seems  to  me  that 
there  ought  to  be  a  law  requiring  broad  tired  wagons,  and  that  this 
is  the  time  when  that  should  be  taken  up  and  considered  very  thor- 
oughly. It  seems  to  me  further  that  the  commissioners  should  be 
instructed  or  some  move  should  be  made  by  this  association  whereby 
the  commissioners  would  do  their  duty  in  protecting  roads  that  have 
been  paid  for  by  the  farmers  and  others.  We  were  very  careless  in 
Ohio  and  I  daresay  in  other  places,  in  allowing  them  to  be  destroyed 
because  of  non-attention  to  legislation  or  because  there  isn't  legisla- 
tion that  will  prevent  them  from  being  destroyed  after  they  are  made. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey):  I  would  like  to  call  attention  to 
this  wide-tired  wagon  business;  we  are  not  paying  enough  attention 
to  it.  Some  States  have  laws  compelling  wagons  to  have  wide  tires, 
others  taking  off  the  tax  if  they  do  have  them.  We  need  that  more 
than  anything  else  in  the  country.  In  England  they  have  wide 
tires,  the  back  wheels  wider  than  the  front,  and  you  don't  find  a 
rut  on  the  roads  anywhere.  There  is  no  use  spending  thousands  of 
dollars  making  good  roads  and  then  having  them  destroyed  by  nar- 
row tires.  The  little  narrow  tired  buggy  of  the  farmer's  son  some- 
times does  more  harm  than  an  automobile.  I  want  to  urge  that  the 
convention  take  up  this  subject,  because  the  time  has  come  when 
we  ought  to  have  broad  tires,  and  we  ought  to  take  the  matter  up 
and  have  a  national  law  that  will  preserve  the  country  roads  and 
prevent  their  being  destroyed  as  fast  as  they  are  made. 


112  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

MR.  STUCK  (of  Pennsylvania):  In  reference  to  the  remarks  of 
the  gentleman  from  New  Jersey — on  the  statute  books  of  Pennsyl- 
vania we  have  a  law  requiring  that  wide  tires  shall  be  used.  I  hap- 
pened to  be  very  closely  connected  with  the  legislature  at  the 
time  the  bill  was  enacted,  but,  as  all  bills  generally  are,  when  it 
came  to  the  question  of  a  penalty,  it  was  as  good  as  no  act  at  all. 
In  Pennsylvania  the  roads  are  spoiled  more  by  the  narrow  tire  than 
by  any  other  traffic  we  have  got.  If  the  tires  were  graduated  in 
proportion  to  the  loads  carried,  the  dirt  roads  throughout  the  State 
would  be  in  splendid  condition.  I  would  graduate  them  from  the 
buggy  tire  up,  and  for  each  additional  half  ton  or  ton,  I  would  add 
a  proportionate  size  to  the  tire.  I  have  seen  five  tons  carried  on 
a  less  than  4  inch  tire.  That  wagon  should  have  no  less  than  6 
inch  tire.  I  watch  these  things  very  closely,  having  been  identified 
with  roads  for  about  fifteen  years,  and  have  worked  them  part  of 
the  time  and  seen  our  work  partially  destroyed  by  one  wagon  passing 
over  the  road. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  shall  have  to  bring  this  discussion  to  a  close 
in  order  to  finish  our  program,  much  as  I  dislike  to  do  so,  and  pro- 
ceed with  the  next  subject,  which  is  "  Gravel  Roads,  Their  Construc- 
tion, Maintenance,  Cost  and  Special  Treatment/'  by  Hon.  S.  Percy 
Hooker,  State  superintendent  of  highways  of  New  Hampshire.  Mr. 
Hooker. 


GRAVEL  ROADS,  THEIR  CONSTRUCTION,  MAINTE- 
NANCE, COST  AND  SPECIAL  TREATMENT 

BY  HON.  S.  PERCY  HOOKER 
State  Superintendent  of  Highways  of  New  Hampshire 

What  is  the  province  of  a  gravel  road?  To  what  extent  are  they 
to  be  built.  What  is  their  economic  value  and  how  much  credit 
should  be  given  them  as  improved  roads? 

I  know  that  the  attitude  of  heads  of  departments  in  States  where 
large  sums  are  available  is  that  of  contemptuous  indifference  to  the 
cheaper  forms  of  road  construction.  In  road  building  they  are  in  the 
class  of  multi-millionaires,  who  smile  contemptuously  in  their  motor 
driven  vehicles  at  the  efforts  of  the  country  boy  upon  his  bicycle. 

Time  was  when  I  had  the  same  view,  when  it  seemed  to  me  in 
looking  over  returns  from  various  States  that  it  was  somewhat  of  a 
travesty  to  put  gravel  roads  under  the  heading,  improved.  It  is 
only  a  short  time  since  I  began  to  see  that  in  certain  localities  and 
certain  states  they  were  almost  imperative. 

Where  the  mileage  of  a  State  was  large  and  the  assessed  valuation 
small,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  wiser  to  build  this  type 
of  road  than  the  more  expensive  ones. 


GRAVEL   ROADS  113 

In  the  evolution  of  thought  I  am  now  willing  to  go  much  farther 
and  to  say  that  no  matter  how  rich  the  State,  if  it  has  a  large  mileage 
of  roads,  it  is  advantageous  in  many  places  to  use  this  type  of 
construction. 

In  the  present,  the  people  seeing  the  benefits  of  good  roads,  realizing 
the  inconveniences  of  bad  ones  and  fully  comprehending  that  it  is 
possible  by  the  use  of  long  term  bonds  to  postpone  the  payment  of 
such  improvement,  it  is  comparatively  easy  to  procure  large  sums  of 
money  in  any  of  the  richer  states. 

Whose  example  are  you  going  to  follow,  Mr.  Commissioner,  when  a 
large  sum  of  money  becomes  available? 

Are  you  going  to  build  a  limited  mileage  of  expensive  road,  where 
the  cost  of  maintenance  will  run  from  $800  to  $1000  a  mile  a  year? 

Is  your  bitumen  bill  for  your  road  improvement  during  the  year 
going  to  approximate  in  amount  the  total  cost  of  your  metal  and  your 
grading? 

Are  you  going  to  be  satisfied  to  resurface  it  at  a  cost  of  from  $1000 
to  $5000  a  mile? 

Are  you  going  to  build  such  roads  in  sections  where  the  cost  of  the 
road  itself  is  five  times  the  assessed  valuation  of  all  the  land  abutting 
on  the  roadway? 

Are  you  going  to  place  a  bond  debt  which  will  approximate  1J  to  2 
per  cent  of  the  entire  valuation  of  your  State  and  then  be  satisfied 
with  an  improvement  of  one  mile  in  five  of  your  highways? 

Will  you  be  satisfied  with  a  maintenance  bill  which  entails  from 
1J  to  2  mills  per  annum  on  your  entire  assessed  valuation  and  then 
leave  four-fifths  of  your  highways  unimproved  and  without  any 
assistance  from  the  State  in  maintaining? 

This  is  in  general  the  attitude  of  the  State  authorities  who  have 
sufficient  money  available  to  class  them  in  the  "Four  Hundred"  of 
road  building. 

From  their  point  of  view  there  is  absolutely  no  value  in  a  gravel 
roadway,  so  far  as  the  State  departments  are  concerned. 

Where  they  can  get  the  various  towns,  or  counties,  or  boroughs, 
or  whatever  the  unit  of  recognition  may  be,  to  build  this  class  of 
road  without  expense  to  the  State  the  "Four  Hundred"  may  advise 
it,  but  it  is  contemptuously  brushed  aside  as  being  of  no  value  to  the 
department.  This  attitude  leads  me  to  ask  the  question,  what  is  the 
economic  value  of  a  gravel  road? 

I  personally  belong  to  the  class  of  the  meek  and  lowly.  The  class 
of  which  the  Bible  says,  "The  poor  ye  shall  always  have  with  ye," 
and  it  is  an  impossibility  for  the  State  which  I  represent  to  consider 
for  a  moment  the  question  of  average  expenditure  per  mile  of  road, 
which  is  considered  and  accepted  in  many  of  the  richer  States. 

We  are  obliged  to  turn  to  the  cheaper  class  of  roads  and  this 
necessity  has  changed  my  attitude  as  to  the  general  proposition. 
I  formerly  had  the  same  feeling  that  I  know  now  maintains  of  the 
"big  fellows,"  as  to  any  talk  about  the  use  of  gravel,  unless  the 


114  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

gravel  is  mixed  with  such  a  volume  of  bitumen  as  to  take  it  from  the 
cheaper  class  and  make  it  practically  a  bituminous  road.  I  do  so  no 
longer. 

No  matter  what  the  financial  condition  of  the  State,  no  matter 
how  much  money  is  available,  I  think  there  is  a  large  per  cent  of  the 
road  mileage  of  the  State  that  should  be  improved  and  maintained 
as  earth  or  gravel  roads. 

When  the  initiative  for  the  construction  of  a  roadway  lay  with  the 
local  sub-division,  town  or  county,  the  weakness  of  the  law  requiring 
this  was  shown  by  the  lack  of  continuity  and  the  short  pieces  of 
highway,  or  any  through  route,  which  were  interspersed  among  the 
bad  sections.  The  local  interest  called  for  sections  which  were  no  part 
of  a  continuous  highway  and  it  seemed  that  the  State  must  select 
certain  routes  which  practically  must  be  paid  for  by  the  State  or  at 
any  rate  only  a  small  percentage  by  the  locality.  This  provision 
temporarily  seemed  to  fit  the  situation.  You  had  provided  for  ready 
access  from  one  center  of  population  to  another,  so  that  the  tourist, 
who,  through  the  advent  of  the  motor  vehicle  was  becoming  a  large 
factor  in  the  road  traffic,  was  able  to  travel  upon  an  improved  high- 
way wherever  he  was  likely  to  desire  to. 

Right  at  this  point  is  where  the  executive  heads  of  the  depart- 
ments failed  to  comprehend  their  opportunities  for  the  general  good. 
Here  was  the  opportunity  for  estimating  the  value  of  the  road  as  an 
economic  proposition  as  compared  with  its  value  as  a  pleasure  route. 
So  far  as  I  know,  every  executive  confronted  with  this  situation 
made  the  same  error.  They  all  failed  to  consider  that  a  road  which 
was  practically  little  used  except  for  the  summer  season  could  be  made 
satisfactory  during  that  season  with  an  expenditure  of  only  one- 
quarter  of  what  would  be  necessary  upon  a  road  with  heavy  local 
traffic,  which  would  be  used  as  much  in  the  spring  and  late  fall 
months  as  in  the  summer. 

Roads  were  built  in  thinly  inhabited  sections  of  the  same  class  and 
quality  as  where  the  traffic  was  through  a  thickly  inhabited  section. 

One-quarter  of  a  million  dollars  was  spent  in  a  section  of  a  cer- 
tain State  for  building  a  highway,  95  per  cent  of  the  traffic  on  which 
was  comprised  within  four  months  in  summer.  In  another  State  a 
2-mile  section  of  road  was  built  at  a  cost  of  not  less  than  $25,000, 
in  the  middle  of  a  swamp  8  or  10  miles  long  and  which  was  practi- 
cally impassable  to  traffic. 

From  a  casual  inspection,  I  believe,  to  make  it  available  over 
$100,000  more  would  have  to  be  expended  and  then  on  its  entire 
length  there  were  not  more  than  ten  residents.  The  local  traffic 
on  this  road  would  not  justify  the  expenditure  of  any  State  money. 
I  do  not  believe  that  all  the  produce  hauled  over  the  road  would  sell 
for  enough  to  pay  the  interest  on  its  cost,  leaving  aside  the  cost  of  the 
maintenance  of  the  road  which  I  do  not  think  could  average  less  than 
$500  per  year,  per  mile. 

The  only  justification  for  this  road  was  through  traffic  and  I 
personally  think  that  had  the  amount  of  money  expended  on  this 


GRAVEL   ROADS  115 

2  miles  been  spent  on  cheaper  construction  on  the  entire  roadway 
it  would  have  been  an  equally  satisfactory  road  for  tourists  and  the 
money  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  2  miles  would  have 
kept  up  the  entire  10  miles  if  built  of  the  cheaper  construction. 

We  all  of  us  know  that  the  automobile  is  the  chief  factor  in  the 
creation  of  the  sentiment  for  good  roads.  We  appreciate  what  they 
have  done  for  the  general  system  but  among  the  automobilists  them- 
selves there  is  a  constantly  increasing  demand  for  more  roads  which 
are  satisfactory  to  drive  upon  and  they  are  no  longer  satisfied  with 
one  route  between  two  points.  They  must  be  able  to  go  by  one  route 
and  return  by  another.  They  do  not  want  the  sameness  of  continu- 
ously driving  over  one  road.  This  being  so,  why  not  combine  the 
desires  and  wishes  of  the  local  people,  who  wish  to  use  the  roads  for 
business  and  of  the  autoists,  who  wish  to  use  them  for  pleasure. 

Had  the  heads  of  the  highway  departments  at  the  time  when  the 
large  sums  of  money  began  to  be  available  adopted  the  policy  of 
providing  more  miles  of  reasonably  good  road,  rather  than  the 
limited  mileage  of  the  highest  class  road  there  would  certainly  have 
been  little  or  no  difficulty  with  the  motor  vehicle  driver. 

A  road  maintained  so  that  it  was  a  smooth,  easy  driving  road  would 
have  fully  satisfied  him. 

Have  you  educated  him  to  the  idea  of  such  expensive  roads  that 
he  will  not  be  satisfied  unless  he  gets  them?  This  is  a  question  I  am 
unable  to  answer. 

Build  your  road  for  the  local  and  wheel  traffic  primarily,  build  it  as 
expensively  as  you  desire,  build  it  substantially  and  then  connect 
this  piece  of  road  with  the  next  piece  which  requires  the  same  sort  of 
construction  by  the  cheapest  methods  in  which  it  may  be  satisfac- 
torily maintained  as  a  summer  road. 

A  permanent  highway  in  any  place  where  your  local  traffic  de- 
mands the  high  and  expensive  type  of  construction  must  be  a  pave- 
ment. It  may  be  brick,  it  may  be  concrete,  but  it  must  of  necessity 
be  of  a  greater  efficiency  than  most  of  the  types  of  roadway,  which  we 
are  now  building. 

The  question  of  financing  road  building  up  to  the  present  time  has 
been  largely  a  question  of  borrowing  money  enough  upon  long  time 
obligations  to  complete  the  road,  but  we  are  rapidly  approaching  the 
point  where,  from  the  multitude  of  obligations  assumed,  the  question 
will  be,  how  can  these  obligations  be  paid,  rather  than  how  obtained. 

My  general  conclusion,  therefore,  about  gravel  roads  is  that  their 
economic  value  is  such  that  four-fifths  of  all  the  road  work  of  a  State 
should  consist  of  the  class  of  roads,  which  we  call — gravel. 

I  know  the  answer  which  so  many  department  heads  make  to  me. 
"You  have  gravel  and  can  build  such  roads,  but  how  are  we  to  do 
so?" 

When  I  use  the  word,  gravel,  I  do  not  necessarily  mean  a  combi- 
nation of  sand  and  water  washed  stone,  which  is  commonly  and 
generally  considered  as  gravel.  I  mean  any  combination  of  material 
which  contains  not  less  than  60  per  cent  of  metal,  in  shape  and  size 


116  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

so  that  it  need  not  be  crushed,  whether  the  binder  be  true  sand,  clay 
or  marl. 

If  the  binder  is  of  the  latter,  it  must  contain  a  larger  percentage 
of  metal  than  if  composed  of  either  sand  or  clay.  The  question  of 
gravel  to  me  means  that  you  have  an  aggregate  containing  stone 
which  will  from  its  own  disintegration  form  a  binder  or  one  to  which 
some  material  must  be  added  which  is  adhesive  in  wet  weather  and 
in  drying  forms  a  covering  or  shell  firmly  binding  the  metal  together. 

I  believe  there  are  few  localities  east  of  the  Mississippi  River 
which  do  not  contain  large  quantities  of  such  material.  The  sandy 
gravel  may  be  some  little  distance  from  the  necessary  clay  binder 
but  I  believe  within  a  reasonable  distance  it  may  be  found,  at  least 
in  all  the  eastern  States. 

CONSTRUCTION 

Whatever  road  is  built  the  fundamental  proposition  is  the  drain- 
age. If  you  are  building  on  a  sand  foundation,  this  is  not  so  vital  a 
point  as  where  you  have  an  impervious  clay  subsoil,  but  even  with 
the  sand  the  water  must  be  provided  with  channels  to  keep  your 
road  dry  or  it  may  develop  that  the  fine  sand  which  in  dry  weather 
you  were  obliged  to  fairly  plough  through  in  wet  weather  may  act 
as  a  sort  of  quick  sand  with  as  bad  a  bottom  as  that  of  a  clay  road. 

The  width  of  your  road  should  be  the  same  whether  built  of  gravel 
or  of  bituminous  macadam.  The  quality  of  your  gravel,  as  I  have 
said,  may  vary  to  a  certain  extent.  You  must  determine  from  its 
character  whether  it  needs  an  additional  binder.  In  the  run  of  most 
gravel  pits  there  is  a  percentage  of  stone  which  is  too  large  in  size 
to  use  in  the  surfacing  proper.  This  may  be  used  as  a  foundation 
either  on  sand  or  in  wet  clay  holes.  It  is  really  required  under  either 
of  these  conditions. 

It  is  not  as  requisite  to  use  a  telford  specification  where  the  sur- 
facing is  to  be  of  gravel  as  it  is  under  a  macadam  but  when  these 
larger  stones  are  used  they  should  be  laid  with  some  regularity  and 
telfordising.  That  is,  brought  up  to  a  comparative  grade.  The  same 
specifications  as  regards  embankment  and  fill  should  be  used  as 
would  be  with  the  macadam  or  bituminous  road,  except  that  much 
less  care  need  be  used  in  shaping  your  shoulders  prior  to  putting 
on  the  gravel.  If  your  gravel  pit  is  particularly  "bony"  it  may  be 
necessary  to  screen  the  same  but  except  for  the  top  surface  I  do  not 
consider  it  usually  imperative.  Stone  up  to  the  size  of  3  inches  in 
diameter  may  be  used  in  the  bottom  course. 

The  road  should  be  graded  so  that  your  final  cross  section  will  show 
an  inch  to  the  foot  grade  from  your  ditch  line.  Two  methods  are 
perfectly  practical  and  in  general  use  in  starting  the  construction. 
One  is  to  build  the  shoulders  of  other  material  and  place  the  gravel 
so  that  when  rolled  it  is  8  inches  in  depth  over  the  metalled  surface 
of  the  road.  The  sub-grade  of  the  metalled  surface  will  then  be  same 
as  final  section,  1  inch  to  the  foot. 


GRAVEL  ROADS  117 

I  prefer  to  leave  the  rough  grading  on  a  section  showing  3  inches 
rise  on  10  J  feet,  as  the  roads  we  build  are  largely  21 -foot  roads,  and 
the  gravel  showing  10 \  inches  in  the  center  and  3  inches  on  the  out- 
side edge  of  the  road.  This  reduces  the  average  thickness  of  your 
road  on  the  metal  part  but  gives  a  gravel  shoulder  which  is  invaluable 
in  the  maintenance.  It  also  gives  the  5  feet  in  the  center,  upon 
which  the  major  portion  of  the  travel  always  is,  a  depth  of  about 
10  inches,  instead  of  8.  In  the  maintenance,  also,  it  prevents  the 
growing  of  grass  on  the  shoulders  and  makes  the  effect  of  the  road 
much  better. 

The  gravel  should  be  laid  in  two  courses.  This  is  especially  neces- 
sary on  the  first  section  spoken  of  in  order  to  get  proper  compaction, 
though  in  the  second  section  it  is  not  so  imperative  provided  the 
gravel  is  self  binding  and  is  all  shovelled  over  on  a  dumping  board 
or  the  load  dumped  far  enough  ahead  of  the  work  so  that  it  must 
needs  be  completely  forked  and  shovelled  over.  Where  laid  in  one 
course  it  is  very  easy  to  spread  the  gravel  so  that  the  larger  stones 
are  all  in  the  bottom  of  the  road,  keeping  ahead  of  the  work  in  this 
way  and  leaving  the  surface  composed  of  your  finer  material. 

If  a  binder  is  to  be  used  consisting  of  clay  or  marl  you  must  lay 
in  two  courses  besides  the  binder  or  an  equivalent  of  three  courses 
as  the  bottom  course  of  about  six  inches  loose  should  be  covered  with 
an  inch  or  so  of  your  clay  and  then  a  top  course  applied. 

Sometimes  it  is  possible  by  the  use  of  a  harrow  to  work  this  clay 
course  thoroughly  through  the  top  surface  and  where  this  can  be 
done  it  should  be.  •  In  practical  construction  it  sometimes  works  out 
better  to  have  your  bottom  course  somewhat  thicker  and  your  top 
course  somewhat  less  with  the  clay  binder  in  between. 

The  adjustment  as  to  the  amount  of  the  clay  is  largely  a  matter  of 
experience.  No  exact  rule  can  be  given  as  to  the  amount  of  clay  to 
be  used,  but  a  man  familiar  with  the  building  of  roads  can  usually 
tell  in  most  cases  how  much  is  necessary  to  thoroughly  bind  it. 

When  there  is  water  available  and  the  road  can  be  kept  wet  before 
being  rolled  it  is  easier  to  adjust  the  quantities.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  sprinkling  the  road  in  many  places  is  an  expen- 
sive proposition  and  as  the  whole  theory  is  to  obtain  a  road  which 
shall  be  built  at  a  small  cost  it  is  frequently  possible  to  obtain  rain 
enough  on  the  road  so  that  it  may  be  built  without  the  use  of  the 
sprinkler. 

This  summer  has  been  extremely  dry  and  it  has  been  very  diffi- 
cult without  the  use  of  additional  water  to  compact  the  road  suffi- 
ciently. For  a  considerable  time  after  completion  the  roads  upon 
which  no  water  has  been  used  have  failed  to  "come  together."  I 
find,  however,  that  a  good  soaking  rain  will  in  many  instances  allow 
a  considerable  section  of  soft  road  to  compact  very  readily  and  where 
the  water  for  wetting  the  road  must  be  drawn  a  long  distance  it  is 
practically  wiser  to  build  the  road  without  such  water. 


118  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

You  will  understand  that  I  am  talking  the  gravel  road  as  a  cheap 
road  and  that  anything  that  tends  to  make  it  approximate  in  cost,  a 
broken  stone  road  is  to  be  avoided. 

The  quantity  of  gravel  which  is  used  in  the  construction  of  these 
two  types  of  gravel  road  figures  as  37.04  yards  per  100  feet  com- 
pacted which  will  require  from  42  to  45  yards  of  loose  gravel  in 
building  a  one  course  road  and  something  more  hi  a  two  course, 
the  amount  necessary  to  haul  upon  the  road  depending  to  a  consid- 
erable extent  on  the  quality  and  constituent  parts. 

COST 

The  cost  of  gravel  roads  will  vary  to  a  greater  degree  than  that  of 
either  bituminous  or  water  bound  macadam.  The  reason  is  that  the 
actual  cost -of  your  material  in  the  higher  types  of  construction  is 
fixed,  while  in  the  gravel  road  the  cost  in  the  pit  compared  to  the  cost 
in  the  furnished  roadway  is  almost  negligible. 

The  price  of  your  gravel  may  be  only  5  cents  per  cubic  yard  and 
its  cost  is  fixed  by  the  average  haul.  With  the  material  situated  on  or 
very  near  your  roadway  the  cost  of  your  gravel  construction  may  not 
exceed  from  $1600  to  $2000  a  mile,  while  with  the  material  compelling 
a  2-mile  haul  it  may  run  up  from  $3000  to  $3500. 

Assuming  that  your  grading  and  drainage  is  upon  an  average  $1200 
per  mile,  you  have  your  total  cost  of  the  road  per  mile  running  from 
$2800  to  $4800.  The  average  of  all  the  gravel  roads  built,  in  the 
State  which  I  now  represent,  has  approximated  $3900,  including  the 
grading. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  a  considerable  per  cent  of 
these  roads  are  in  sections  absolutely  remote  from  any  railroad  facili- 
ties and  the  cost  of  the  more  expensive  class  of  road  would  be  far 
higher  than  the  average  in  states  where  the  railroad  facilities  are 
better. 

For  instance,  in  one  town,  where  we  are  building,  the  railroad 
station  is  about  40  miles  and  the  cost  of  delivering  bituminous  ma- 
terial upon  that  road  would  be  almost  as  much  as  the  cost  of  the 
material  itself  at  the  railroad  station. 

The  rock  in  this  particular  town,  while  available  in  quantity  all 
along  the  road  is  of  such  a  quality  that  in  crushing  the  native  stone 
you  would  practically  procure  50  per  cent  of  unavailable  dust  to 
say  nothing  of  the  probability  that  under  a  roller  your  grades  of 
stone  would  crush  down  into  dust.  I  do  not  think  that  a  bituminous 
road  with  imported  stone  could  be  built  for  less  than  $30,000  a  mile 
in  this  particular  town  through  which  one  of  our  trunk  lines  runs 
and  95  per  cent  of  the  traffic  is  summer  traffic.  The  total  population 
of  the  town  is  only  211  people  and  the  total  mileage  of  our  trunk  line 
through  the  town  is  13  miles. 

This  13-mile  road  when  finished  will  not  cost  to  exceed  $40,000. 
WouFd  the  heads  of  departments  who  look  with  supercilious  scorn  at 


GRAVEL   ROADS  119 

calling  gravel  roads,  improved  roads,  think  that  the  expenditure  for 
other  types  of  roads  was  warranted? 

SPECIAL   TREATMENT 

From  my  point  of  view  when  the  ferment  for  good  roads,  that  is 
now  agitating  the  road  builders  and  the  general  public  has  subsided 
and  the  resultant  wine  has  been  carefully  quaffed  there  will  be  little 
or  no  special  treatment  for  gravel  roads.  The  road  will  be  kept  as  a 
gravel  road  with  no  masquerading  as  a  different  type.  It  will  only 
be  used  in  sections  where  the  dust  nuisance  is  not  intolerable  and  the 
attempt  by  treating  the  road  to  make  it  an  actual  competitor  of  its 
higher  priced  neighbors  will  cease. 

I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  possible  to  convert  a  cheap  road  into  an 
actual  competitor  of  pavement  by  any  treatment.  Two  forms  of 
such  treatment  have  been  experimented  with  with  more  or  less 
success. 

Naturally  with  the  coming  of  bituminous  roads  of  the  macadam 
class  it  was  hoped  that  by  the  use  of  the  same  bituminous  materials 
equally  as  good  results  might  be  obtained  on  gravel  roads. 

It  was  soon  evident,  however,  that  very  little  was  saved  by  the 
attempt  to  use  gravel  in  place  of  crushed  stone  in  combination  with 
bitumen.  In  order  to  make  a  satisfactory  aggregate  the  gravel  must 
be  screened  into  several  sizes  and  the  natural  binder  must  be  elimi- 
nated. 

The  cost  of  handling  the  gravel  and  combining  it  in  proper  propor- 
tion was  such  that  there  was  no  lesser  cost  than  in  using  macadam. 
The  roads  as  a  whole  were  not  as  satisfactory  for  two  or  three  reasons. 

First,  it  was  almost  impossible  to  get  your  aggregate  clean  enough 
so  that  the  substituted  binder  in  the  way  of  bitumen  adhered  closely 
to  your  metal.  The  metal  used  was  without  clean  cut  breaks  and 
fractures  and  did  not  as  readily  ally  itself  with  the  bitumen. 

In  certain  cases  where  a  clean  sandy  gravel  could  be  obtained  there 
were  good  results  so  far  as  the  construction  of  the  road  was  concerned 
but  little  saved  in  cost. 

Naturally  the  next  step  was  to  attempt  to  apply  the  blanket  treat- 
ment, using  the  bitumen  on  top  of  a  gravel  road.  I  think  one  of  the 
faults  of  this  treatment  is  that  the  untreated  road  if  constructed 
properly  contains  the  same  native  binder,  which  interferes  with  the 
construction  of  a  bituminous  road.  This  treatment,  has  in  many 
instances,  been  a  satisfactory  one.  I  think  it  is  impractical  to  treat 
with  as  heavy  an  oil  or  tar  as  can  be  used  on  a  macadam  road  but  the 
bitumen  known  generally  as  from  50  to  60  per  cent  class,  applied 
hot  and  requiring  a  cover,  in  many  instances  proves  satisfactory. 

There  is  a  tendency,  however,  upon  these  roads  to  develop  holes 
and  pockets,  arising  probably  from  the  fact  that  a  gravel  road  is 
not  a  homogeneous  one  but  is  of  itself  composed  of  the  metal,  not 
properly  distributed,  mixed  with  a  fine  aggregate  which  we  generally 
know  as  sand. 


120  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

There  seems  to  be  a  peculiar  failing  of  these  roads  from  the  fact 
that  when  the  crust  which  you  have  applied  is  broken  it  rapidly 
disintegrates  around  the  hole.  There  is  only  one  method  of  treating 
such  a  hole.  It  must  be  immediately  attended  to  by  the  patrolman 
with  a  combination  of  bitumen  and  gravel  or  in  other  words  it  must 
be  "patched."  By  immediate  attention,  if  the  holes  as  they  appear 
are  filled  there  need  not  be  any  considerable  added  charge  to  your 
maintenance. 

One  great  objection  to  this  form  of  treatment  is,  however,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  use  the  road  drag  and  bring  your  road  back  into  sec- 
tion as  you  do  on  the  untreated  gravel  road.  The  distinct  tendency 
of  a  gravel  road  is  to  flatten  and  get  out  of  section  much  more  rapidly 
than  a  macadam  road  and  unless  you  continuously  and  after  every 
rain  bring  this  road  back  to  section  it  is  not  a  satisfactory  road. 
The  chief  objection  is  that  you  are  adding  materially  to  the  cost  of 
maintenance  as  it  will  cost  not  less  than  $400  per  mile  in  addition 
to  the  patrol  charge  which  will  of  itself  be  fully  as  large  as  an  un- 
treated road. 

Variations  of  this  same  idea  of  surface  treatment  are  made  by  the 
application  of  light  oils  and  tars  which  can  be  applied  cold  and 
without  the  addition  of  farther  material.  In  some  instances  these 
seem  to  be  effective  and  satisfactory.  The  surface  after  application 
and  under  automobile  traffic  has  in  certain  cases  "  rolled  out"  so 
that  you  have  a  fair  imitation  of  an  asphalt  road,  particularly  in  the 
wheel  tracks. 

The  tendency  is,  however,  that  where  there  is  considerable  horse 
traffic  the  action  of  the  horses  hoof  tends  to  "meal  up"  the  road. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  analyze  for  myself  the  exact  reason  for  the 
difference  hi  result  on  these  roads,  but  in  most  instances  I  think  that 
the  lighter  oils  on  gravel  roads  only  act  as  dust  alleviators.  The  cost 
is  cheaper  than  the  other  treatment  and  where  there  are  a  large 
number  of  people  living  along  the  road  it  is  imperative  that  some- 
thing be  done  to  render  life  liveable  and  the  dust  held  down  in  some 
manner. 

On  my  general  plan,  however,  of  building  gravel  roads  only  where 
the  local  traffic  of  itself  would  not  require  a  better  class  of  road,  I 
should  have  comparatively  few  residences  on  a  gravel  road. 

The  only  other  form  of  special  treatment  that  I  have  used  is  with 
the  by-product  of  certain  pulp  mills.  This  is  claimed  to  have  a 
chemical  effect  which  makes  practically  a  monolithic  stone  of  a 
gravel  road.  I  have  had  little  experience  with  this  treatment.  I 
have  in  mind  two  roads,  one  of  which  is  apparently  a  perfect  success 
and  the  other,  I  believe,  to  be  practically  valueless,  and  not  as  good 
as  though  the  product  had  been  omitted. 

Were  this  treatment  uniformly  successful,  however,  the  added 
cost  would  be  such  as  to  bring  it  in  the  high  cost  class,  rather  than 
the  cheap  gravel  road.  The  use  of  the  heavy  oils  or  this  treatment 
may  be  valuable  on  a  class  of  road  which  lies  between  the  class 


GRAVEL   ROADS  121 

indicated  for  a  permanent  pavement  and  the  summer  road  with  a 
cost  between  the  two  but  I  think  that  the  safer  way  at  present 
would  be  to  give  the  pavement  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  and  use 
your  sand  and  gravel  in  concrete  construction  and  thus  be  sure  that 
you  had  anticipated  the  future  building. 

In  this  talk  about  special  treatment  I  have  used  one  or  the  other 
of  these  methods  for  a  large  number  of  miles  of  gravel  road  and  the 
question  might  well  be  asked,  why  if  you  use  it  do  you  not  recom- 
mend it?  My  answer  is  that  the  gravel  roads,  which  are  thus  treated 
are  in  sections  upon  which  I  do  not  consider  the  gravel  construction 
advisable.  They  are  in  localities  which  have  a  considerable  amount 
of  local  traffic.  A  pavement  of  some  sort  is  evidently  required  in 
many  of  these  sections  but  the  gravel  road  is  there  and  we  have  not 
had  money  enough  to  replace  it  with  a  pavement.  It  is,  therefore, 
unquestionably  necessary  that  we  do  the  best  we  can  towards  making 
the  roads  so  treated  take  the  place,  so  far  as  possible,  of  the  better 
type  of  road,  which  should  have  been  built  in  the  first  place. 

MAINTENANCE 

A  year  ago  at  this  convention  I  talked  for  some  time  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  maintenance  of  gravel  roads.  Another  year's  experience 
has  confirmed  my  statement  that,  under  the  patrol  system,  a  gravel 
road  could  be  maintained  in  excellent  condition  at  a  cost  of  not  more 
than  25  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  the  maintenance  of  the  higher  types 
of  road. 

This  last  summer  has  been  an  extremely  dry  one,  the  precipita- 
tion being  only  three-fifths  the  normal  in  New  Hampshire.  In  the 
construction  of  gravel  roads  the  lack  of  moisture  is  a  very  serious 
thing,  and  I  must  concede  that  throughout  the  summer  this  class 
of  roads,  as  a  whole,  has  not  been  in  perfectly  satisfactory  condition. 

This  is  especially  true  where  the  material  used  contains  an  added 
binder  and  will  not  of  itself  bind  it.  Where  clay  or  marl  was  used 
as  such  a  binder  and  no  rain  fell  for  a  period  of  five  or  six  weeks  the 
tendency  of  the  binder  to  pulverize  and  become  a  very  fine  product 
on  the  surface  of  the  road  resulted  in  the  loss  of  a  considerable  per 
cent  of  this  binder  with  a  tendency  to  expose  the  metal  in  the  top 
course.  This  was  especially  noticeable  in  a  road  which  had  consid- 
erable wear  prior  to  this  year  where  the  finer  particles  of  metal  had 
been  worn  and  somewhat  disintegrated. 

Notwithstanding  this  fact,  the  roads  maintained  under  a  patrol 
system  were  in  comparatively  satisfactory  condition  during  the  entire 
summer.  The  roads  built  during  the  summer,  being  absolutely  new 
and  not  fully  compacted  before  the  summer  traffic  began,  lack  also 
the  finish  or  coating  which  makes  them  ideal  automobile  highways. 

The  heavy  rains  recently  have  made  it  possible,  however,  to  bring 
them  into  almost  perfect  shape  by  the  use  of  the  road  drag,  and  I 
have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  next  summer  under  proper  maintenance 
they  will  be  again  the  "  ideal"  motor  roads. 


122  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

Experience  showing  that  constant  patrol  is  absolutely  necessary 
also  confirmed  my  views  that  the  patrol  system  of  itself  is  not  enough 
to  properly  maintain  the  highways. 

I  suggested  that  the  ideal  system  of  maintenance  was  by  the  use 
of  a  repair  gang  or  a  flying  squadron  who  should  do  the  preliminary 
work  in  the  spring  necessary  to  put  the  road  in  good  condition  before 
it  was  turned  over  to  the  patrolman  for  his  exclusive  care. 

All  the  roads  which  were  handled  by  this  system  early  were  main- 
tained so  that  at  this  date  they  are  in  better  condition  than  when  the 
patrolman  started  the  care  of  them  in  May. 

On  the  contrary,  the  roads  which  were  not  in  first  class  condition 
when  the  patrolman  began  work  have  required  throughout  the  sum- 
mer more  or  less  extra  repairing. 

In  practice,  whenever  the  repair  gang  did  not  repair  the  road  and 
wherever  the  patrolman  was  not  able  to  show  an  improvement  in  his 
road  I  have  authorized  him  to  procure  for  a  given  number  of  days 
additional  assistance.  This  adds  somewhat  to  the  cost  of  main- 
tenance and  in  some  instances  we  have  not  been  able  to  secure  good 
men  for  such  temporary  work. 

In  almost  every  case  the  assistants  hired  have  no  special  knowl- 
edge of  the  work  required  and  therefore  are  not  as  efficient  as  though 
they  were  regularly  employed  in  a  repair  gang.  Their  efficiency  de- 
pends almost  entirely  upon  the  patrolman.  If  he  is  not  an  extra- 
ordinarily good  man  his  tendency  is  when  his  road  is  not  entirely 
satisfactory  to  ask  for  farther  assistance.  He  loses  somewhat  the 
pride  which  comes  from  having  maintained  his  road  by  his  own  efforts 
in  better  condition  that  that  of  the  adjacent  patrolman. 

The  patrolman,  himself,  is  the  key  to  the  system  and  you  must 
awaken  his  pride  as  to  the  condition  of  his  road  in  order  to  secure  the 
greatest  service.  There  is  a  vast  difference  in  the  capacity  and  the 
pride  of  the  different  patrolmen.  As  "Stars  differ  among  themselves 
in  magnitude,'7  so  do  the  patrolmen  differ  in  their  work.  If  upon 
him  alone  devolves  the  care  of  the  road  and  its  condition  he  works  far 
better  than  with  the  feeling  that  you  do  not  expect  him  alone  and 
unaided  to  do  the  work.  It  is  certainly  advisable  then  to  form  a 
repair  gang  under  a  foreman  whose  duty  it  is  to  do  the  heavier  work 
necessary  on  the  road. 

In  practice  we  used  the  repair  gang  during  the  middle  part  of  the 
season  as  an  oiling  gang,  so  that  their  work  at  the  beginning  and  end 
of  the  season  was  repair  work  pure  and  simple,  while  during  the  larger 
part  of  the  summer  it  was  engaged  in  oiling. 

Referring  again  to  the  subject  which  I  have  considered  under 
"Special  Treatment,"  wherever  a  gravel  road  has  been  previously 
built  on  a  section  of  road  which  from  the  development  of  traffic 
has  been  shown  to  be  inadequate.  I  have  used  the  repair  gang  in  the 
reconstruction  of  the  road  to  make  it  of  a  different  and  higher  type. 

I  do  not  think  there  is  any  better  foundation  for  a  semi-paved 
road  than  a  worn  gravel  road.  In  building  a  bituminous  top  for 


GRAVEL   ROADS  123 

such  a  road  the  quantity  of  metal  and  bitumen  to  be  used  need 
not  be  more  than  two-thirds  the  amount  required  in  ordinary  build- 
ing such  construction  and  your  foundation  having  "found  itself"  is 
much  less  likely  to  prove  deficient  in  anyway. 

This  is  a  strong  argument  for  the  use  of  the  gravel  construction 
in  cases  where  you  are  unable  to  determine  which  type  of  road  is 
actually  required.  You  may  find  that  you  require  the  pavement 
class  where  you  have  originally  thought  that  the  cheaper  construction 
would  do  and  if  so,  in  changing  the  construction,  you  are  not  adding 
materially  to  the  cost  of  the  road  when  reconstructed  and  are  thus 
able  to  correct  an  error  without  any  additional  expense. 

I  have  not  changed  my  mind  in  regard  to  the  organization  of  a 
maintenance  system.  Starting  with  the  "overhead"  the  division 
of  the  maintenance  into  units  of  about  100  miles  in  charge  of  an 
inspector,  the  sub-division  into  patrol  lengths  of  from  6  to  8  miles 
in  charge  of  the  patrolman  seems  to  me  to  be  the  only  practical 
system. 

I  have  not  changed  my  mind  as  to  the  advisability  of  separating 
construction  and  maintenance,  though  I  realize  that  the  concensus 
of  opinion  is  against  such  division.  It  is  easy  to  say  that  any  faults 
of  construction  developing  after  the  completion  of  the  road  should 
be  taken  care  of  by  the  same  man  who  superintends  the  construction. 
Practically,  however,  the  "faults  of  construction"  as  compared  to  the 
wear  of  a  road  are  infrequent. 

The  qualifications  for  an  engineer  of  construction  and  for  a  super- 
intendent of  maintenance  remain  in  my  mind  as  diverse  as  ever. 
The  construction  period  will  in  most  instances  not  be  exactly  the 
same  as  the  maintenance  period.  You  can  not  expect  that  one  man 
in  charge  of  both  construction  and  maintenance  will  have  the  same 
pride  in  the  latter  that  the  man  who  has  sole  charge  of  this  will  feel. 

I  have  said  nothing  as  yet  as  to  the  actual  maintenance  to  be  used 
on  gravel  roads  as  distinct  from  other  types  of  construction.  The 
special  advantage  consists  in  the  adaptability  of  the  road  drag  or 
hone  to  this  work,  the  availability  of  the  material  for  repair  and  the 
low  cost  of  resurfacing.  On  a  gravel  road  with  material  fairly  avail- 
able the  cost  of  4  or  5  inches  of  gravel  upon  the  road  will  not  exceed 
$500  and  with  a  patrolman  on  the  road  such  resurfacing  will  not  be 
required  for  eight  to  ten  years  after  construction.  The  yearly  resur- 
facing charge  as  distinct  from  patrol  maintenance  will  only  be  $50 
or  $60  per  mile,  while  the  resurfacing  of  other  types  of  roads  will 
probably  require  at  least  ten  times  that  amount.  The  patrol  cost 
will  not  be  more  than  $100  per  mile  and  the  repair  gang  will  not 
average  over  $50,  so  that  the  total  maintenance  charge  over  a  series 
of  ten  years  will  not  be  more  than  $200  per  mile. 

Compare  this  with  an  estimate  of  from  $800  to  $1000  per  mile 
and  then  compare  the  resultant  road  through  the  same  period  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  question  as  to  the  advantages  of  a  gravel  road 
has  been  answered. 


124  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

I  do  not  take  myself  seriously  enough  to  suppose  that  a  warning 
from  me  will  change  the  attitude  of  anyone  in  regard  to  the  building 
of  highways  in  the  respective  States. 

It  is,  however,  in  my  opinion  the  greatest  menace  to  the  good  roads 
movement  that  exists  today.  With  the  average  cost  of  improved 
roads  $11,000  to  $15,000  a  mile,  with  an  average  charge  for  interest 
on  the  investment  of  not  less  than  $600  per  mile,  with  the  main- 
tenance estimated  at  $800  per  mile,  when  the  day  of  reckoning 
comes  and  the  small  tax  payer  realizes  the  cost  to  him,  how  can  you 
persuade  him  that  economically  he  can  afford  to  encourage  the  expen- 
diture of  such  sums  upon  a  limited  mileage  in  each  State? 

He  may  never  ride  or  drive  upon  an  improved  highway.  He 
may  still  convey  his  produce  to  market  over  a  road  knee  deep  with 
mud  in  the  spring  time  and  yet  he  will  be  asked  to  add  to  his  tax 
bill  a  sum  which  he  figures  approximates  2  mills  for  such  highways. 
He  is  eventually  going  to  ask,  is  it  worth  it? 

The  slogan  of  "Good  Roads"  has  accomplished  much.  The  de- 
mand "  Better  Roads"  has  made  itself  felt,  but  before  the  movement 
attains  its  culmination  my  impression  is  the  cry  will  be,  "More  and 
Cheaper  Roads,"  rather  than  either  of  those  so  prominently  before 
the  public. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  this  paper  will  be  opened  by 
Mr.  Leonard  Tufts,  of  Pinehurst,  North  Carolina,  who  will  also 
explain  his  experience  in  the  construction  of  sand  clay  roads.  Mr. 
Tufts. 

MR.  TUFTS:  There  was  a  gentleman  here  from  Maine  who  made 
the  remark  that  you  can  make  good  roads  of  earth.  Mr.  Hooker 
says  that  the  gravel  roads  are  pretty  good.  For  our  section,  in  North 
Carolina,  the  earth  roads  are  the  best  roads.  But  where  they  are 
the  best  roads,  they  are  maintained  and  properly  maintained. 

Many  think  of  a  macadam  road  as  a  permanent  road.  The  harder 
the  surface,  the  more  expensive  a  road  is,  as  a  rule,  and  the  longer 
it  will  stand  in  good  condition  without  attention.  Eventually,  how- 
ever, it  will  have  to  have  attention,  and  when  this  time  comes,  the 
expense  of  repairing  is  a  great  deal  more  than  in  the  case  of  the  softer 
materials. 

The  majority  of  people  do  not  consider  the  sand  clay  top  soil, 
gravel  and  earth  roads  good  because  they  are  seldom  maintained. 
The  dirt  roads  must  receive  attention  every  day  in  the  year,  whereas 
the  harder  roads  can  be  left  for  a  year  or  more  and  be  fairly  satis- 
factory. The  cost  of  looking  out  for  the  dirt  roads  per  mile  is  very 
small,  but  repairs  must  be  made  as  soon  as  they  are  needed.  The 
250  miles  of  roads  in  my  vicinity  in  North  Carolina  that  Mr.  McQueen 
my  assistant,  and  I  are  maintaining,  are  not  looked  out  for  as  well 
as  they  should  be,  because  neither  of  us  devote  the  time  we  should 


GRAVEL   ROADS  125 

to  do  this  work  properly.  We  probably  do  not  devote  more  than  a 
day  a  month  to  this  work.  At  the  same  time  the  automobilists  who 
come  there  frequently  tell  me  that  they  are  the  best  roads  they  ever 
drove  a  car  over.  One  enthusiast  from  Massachusetts  told  me  that 
one  stretch  of  30  miles  was  better  than  the  Lynn  boulevard.  This 
particular  stretch  of  road  was  built  largely  by  contributions  from 
people  along  the  road  and  did  not  cost  over  $9000  for  the  30  miles, 
did  not  cost  over  $300  a  mile.  The  Lynn  boulevard  probably  cost 
$20,000  a  mile. 

Many  of  the  roads  are  poorly  located  and  the  grades  are  too  steep; 
they  do  not  even  look  like  roads,  and,  as  some  of  the  engineers  here 
who  hav^e  seen  them  will  tell  you,  they  exemplify  everything  that  is 
bad  in  road  construction.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  so  much  good 
roads  enthusiasm  in  our  section  that  the  road  supervisors,  although 
they  have  money  in  the  treasury,  never  consent  to  build  any  roads 
unless  the  people  will  subscribe  half  the  cost  of  building,  and  even 
with  this  stipulation  the  greatest  difficulty  we  have  in  that  section 
is  to  restrict  construction  of  roads. 

We  have  now  in  Mineral  Springs  township,  between  40  and  50 
miles  of  road  and  a  road  tax  of  25  cents  on  $100,  which  raises  about 
$2000  a  year.  From  this  you  can  see  that  the  section  is  poor  and 
is  sparsely  settled.  Automobilists  are  well  pleased  with  our  roads; 
the  farmers  and  the  merchants  of  the  section  are  proud  and  enthu- 
siastic over  them,  because  they  are  well  maintained,  and  these  roads 
are  maintained  at  an  expense  of  $30  per  mile  a  year. 

There  are  thousands  of  miles  of  roads  in  the  United  States  that 
can  be  made  equally  satisfactory,  and  I  claim  that  greater  attention 
should  be  given  to  this  subject.  With  us,  two  men  with  a  pair 
of  mules  are  given  a  section  of  road  varying  from  20  to  30  miles. 
They  keep  the  gutters  clean,  keep  the  bushes  cut  back,  haul  any 
surfacing  material  where  necessary  and  drag  the  roads  in  their  sec- 
tion after  a  rain  and  only  after  a  rain. 

Each  of  the  farmers  along  the  road  who  have  two  or  more  horses 
are  given  a  road  drag  which  costs  us  about  $2.50  a  piece.  We  select 
one  of  these  for  about  every  8  miles  to  attend  to  the  dragging  after 
a  rain,  and  if  the  roads  need  it,  these  men  are  instructed  to  drag 
their  section.  If  we  find  the  roads  need  it  badly  and  the  regular 
man  has  not  been  attending  to  it,  we  telephone  to  another  man  that 
has  a  drag  and  ask  him  to  drag  it.  Every  time  a  man  drags  the 
road,  he  sends  a  bill  to  my  office  and  receives  a  check  for  the  labor 
of  his  team  and  himself.  In  some  sections,  we  find  it  easy  to  get  a 
man  to  drag;  in  others,  there  is  considerable  difficulty,  but  we  are 
getting  to  look  out  more  and  more. 


126  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

THE  SAND-CLAY  ROADS  MAINTENANCE  IN 
NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA 

BY  LEONARD  TUFTS 

No  State  in  the  United  States  can  afford  to  have  all  roads  macadamed 
or  hard  surfaced.  I  know  that  this  is  not  the  opinion  of  many  road  en- 
thusiasts, but  if  you  will  look  at  the  mileage  of  highways  in  each  State 
and  compare  this  with  the  taxable  property  in  each  State,  and  then 
consider  the  interest  on  the  cost  of  these  roads  as  well  as  the  cost  of 
maintaining  them,  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  my  first  state- 
ment is  correct.  I  find,  from  a  bulletin  published  by  the  office  of 
public  roads  this  year,  entitled  "  Repair  and  Maintenance  of  High- 
ways," that  the  cost  of  repairs  and  maintenance  of  the  State  high- 
ways in  Massachusetts  in  1912  was  $676  a  mile,  and  that  the  average 
cost  of  repairing  and  maintaining  in  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  New 
Jersey,  New  York  and  Rhode  Island  for  the  last  eight  years  was  $608 
a  mile,  and  even  at  this  high  cost  the  State  highways  in  these  States 
are  not  maintained  as  well  as  they  should  be.  In  the  same  pamphlet  I 
find  that  the  cost  of  maintenance  in  England,  where  labor  is  cheaper 
than  here  was  $415  a  mile  in  1910.  In  France  the  cost  was  $347  in 
1909.  It  is  evident  from  these  figures  that  the  cost  of  maintaining  a 
first  class  macadam  highway  in  this  country  would  be  at  least  $600  a 
mile.  The  taxable  property  divided  by  miles  of  road  in  Massachu- 
setts and  Rhode  Island  gives  these  States  approximately  $250,000  of 
taxable  property  per  mile  of  road.  If  the  tax  rate  is  25  cents  on  $100 
this  will  raise  $625  a  mile  for  all  roads  which  is  hardly  enough  to  main- 
tain them  if  they  were  all  macadam,  to  say  nothing  of  the  interest  on 
the  investment,  which  would  be  at  least  $300  a  mile.  If  all  of  the 
roads  in  these  two  States  were  macadamed  the  interest  on  the  invest- 
ment and  maintenance  would  necessitate  a  tax  of  40  cents  on  $100. 
New  York  State  is  next  to  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  and 
there  they  have  about  $150,000  of  taxable  property  per  mile  of  road. 
There  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  a  tax  rate  of  60  cents  per  $100. 
The  other  States  have  so  little  taxable  property  per  mile  of  highways 
that  it  hardly  seems  possible  to  build  any  hard  roads.  Of  course,  if 
all  of  the  roads  in  the  different  States  were  as  fine  as  the  roads  in  Eng- 
land and  France  there  would  be  a  great  deal  more  taxable  property, 
but  I  can  hardly  conceive  of  any  State  in  the  United  States  increasing 
its  taxable  property  enough,  with  the  exception  possibly  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island  and  New  York  to  pay  for  the  maintenance  of 
their  roads  and  interest  charges.  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me, 
therefore,  that  for  years  to  come  the  roads  in  the  United  States,  with 
few  exceptions  will  necessarily  be  of  some  cheap  construction. 

I  wish  to  make  another  statement.  The  average  cost  of  repairing 
and  maintaining  a  road  is  approximately  10  per  cent  of  its  original  cost 
of  surfacing.  This  figure  is  an  average  figure,  and  an  approximate 
figure,  but  in  my  investigations  it  is  surprising  how  often  it  comes  out 


SAND-CLAY   ROADS  127 

right.  From  all  that  I  can  learn  the  surfacing  of  the  State  roads  in 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Rhode 
Island,  is  $6700  a  mile;  the  average  cost  of  maintaining — as  I  called 
to  your  attention  before — is  $608  a  mile,  and  if  properly  maintained 
would  cost  $670.  In  North  and  South  Carolina  Mr.  McQueen, 
my  assistant,  and  myself  have  the  maintaining  of  some  250  miles  of 
gravel  and  sand-clay  roads.  These  roads  cost  for  surfacing  approxi- 
mately $300  a  mile.  Labor  is  cheap  and  material  is  convenient.  The 
cost  of  maintaining  these  roads  is  within  a  few  cents  of  $30  a  mile. 
The  cost  of  surfacing  several  gravel  roads  that  I  know  of  has  been 
about  $1500  a  mile;  from  all  that  I  can  learn,  the  cost  of  maintaining 
has  been  approximately  $150  a  mile. 

Many  think  of  a  macadam  road  as  a  permanent  road.  The  harder 
the  surface,  the  more  expensive  as  a  rule,  and  the  longer  it  will  stay  in 
good  condition  without  attention.  Eventually,  however,  it  will  have 
to  have  attention  and  when  this  time  comes  the  expense  of  repairing 
is  a  great  deal  more  than  for  the  road  of  softer  material.  The  ma- 
jority of  people  do  not  consider  the  sand  clay,  top  soil,  gravel  and  other 
dirt  I  roads  good  because  they  are  seldom  maintained.  These  dirt 
roads  must  receive  attention  every  day  in  the  year,  whereas  the  harder 
roads  can  be  left  for  a  year  or  more,  and  be  fairly  satisfactory.  The 
cost  of  looking  out  for  the  dirt  roads  per  mile  is  very  small,  but  re- 
pairs must  be  made  as  soon  as  they  are  needed.  The  250  miles  of 
roads  in  the  vicinity  of  Pinehurst,  North  Carolina,  that  Mr.  McQueen 
and  I  are  maintaining  are  not  looked  out  for  as  well  as  they  should  be, 
because  neither  of  us  devotes  the  time  that  we  should  to  the  work; 
probably  not  more  than  one  day  a  month.  At  the  same  time  the 
automobilists  who  come  to  Pinehurst  frequently  tell  me  that  they  are 
the  best  roads  that  they  have  ever  driven  a  car  over.  One  enthusiast 
from  Massachusetts  told  me  that  one  stretch  of  30  miles  was  better 
than  the  Lynn  Boulevard.  This  particular  stretch  was  built  largely 
by  contribution  of  the  people  along  the  road,  and  did  not  cost  over 
$9000.  The  Lynn  Boulevard  probably  cost  $20,000  a  mile.  Many  of 
the  roads  are  poorly  located;  many  of  the  grades  are  too  steep — they 
do  not  even  look  like  roads — and  as  some  of  the  engineers  here  who 
have  seen  them  will  tell  you,  they  exemplify  everything  that  is  bad  in 
construction.  At  the  same  time  there  is  so  much  good  roads  enthu- 
siasm in  our  section  that  the  road  supervisors  although  they  have 
money  in  their  treasury  never  consent  now  to  build  any  roads  unless 
the  people  will  subscribe  half  the  cost  of  building,  and  even  with  this 
stipulation  the  great  difficulty  we  have  is  to  restrict  the  construction 
of  roads.  We  have  now  in  Mineral  Springs  Township  between  40  and 
50  miles  of  roads,  and  we  have  a  road  tax  of  25  cents  on  $100,  which 
raises  only  about  $2000,  a  year.  From  this  you  can  see  that  the  sec- 
tion is  a  poor  one  and  sparsely  settled. 

Automobilists  are  well  pleased  with  our  roads  there.  The  farmers 
and  merchants  of  the  section  are  proud  of  and  enthusiastic  over  the 
roads  because  they  are  well  maintained.  And  these  roads  are  main- 


128  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

tained  at  an  annual  expense  of  $30  a  mile.  There  are  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  miles  of  roads  in  the  United  States  that  can  be  made 
equally  satisfactory  and  I  claim  greater  attention  and  greater  study 
should  be  given  to  this  subject  by  people  who  are  interested  in  the 
road,  than  to  the  harder  surfaces. 

With  us  two  men  with  a  pair  of  mules  are  given  a  section  of  road 
varying  from  20  to  30  miles.  They  keep  the  gutters  clean,  keep  the 
bushes  cut  back,  haul  on  surfacing  material  where  it  is  necessary,  and 
drag  the  roads  in  the  section  where  they  happen  to  be  after  a  rain. 
Each  of  the  farmers  along  the  road  who  have  two  or  more  horses  are 
given  a  road  drag,  which  costs  us  about  $2.50.  We  select  one  of  these 
for  about  every  8  miles  to  attend  to  the  dragging.  After  a  rain,  if 
the  roads  need  it,  these  men  are  instructed  to  drag  their  section.  If 
we  find  that  the  road  needs  it  badly  and  the  regular  man  hasn't  been 
attending  to  it  we  telephone  another  man  that  has  a  drag  and  ask  him 
to  drag  it.  Every  time  a  man  drags  he  sends  in  a  bill  to  my  office  and 
receives  a  check  back  for  the  amount  of  labor  for  his  team  and  himself. 
In  some  sections  we  are  quite  successful  in  getting  men  to  drag  at  the 
proper  time,  and  in  other  sections  we  find  considerable  difficulty,  but 
we  are  gradually  getting  more  and  more  men  to  look  out  for  this  work 

In  many  sections  of  the  United  States  there  is  some  material  that 
makes  a  good  cheap  road,  and  if  a  competent  man  and  a  pair  of  horses 
are  kept  on  this  work  continuously  under  the  direction  of  some  intelli- 
gent citizen,  and  if  the  road  is  dragged  frequently,  you  will  find  that 
the  expense  on  these  earth  roads  is  very  small  per  mile,  and  that  they 
will  be  satisfactory  for  twelve  months  in  the  year  in  most  places,  and 
for  the  greater  Dart  of  the  year  in  others. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey):  We  are  not  paying  enough  atten- 
tion to  the  matter  of  cheaper  roads  in  this  country.  I  drove  from 
Miami,  Florida,  to  Philadelphia,  and  passed  over  every  kind  of  roads, 
and  it  is  possible  and  is  good  policy  for  us  to  take  up  and  give  more 
attention  to  the  cheaper  roads  in  the  country  and  see  how  they  can 
be  made  better  and  protected,  rather  than  spend  all  our  money 
on  these  high  priced  roads  of  cement  and  brick  and  asphalt  and 
water  bound  macadam  and  all  the  rest.  They  are  all  right  for  the 
cities  and  great  highways  but  not  for  the  country  roads  and  I  am 
sure  that  this  matter  of  gravel  and  sand  clay  roads  ought  to  be  taken 
up  more  thoroughly  by  the  Convention. 

A  MEMBER:  I  want  to  make  an  entry  for  competition,  in  Jaspar 
County,  Missouri,  we  have  600  miles  of  gravel  roads.  You  can  go 
there  with  your  automobile  today  and  break  the  speed  limit  with- 
out vibrating  your  springs.  They  are  kept  that  way  by  continual 
dragging  with  traction  engines  and  drags  weighing  two  or  three 
thousand  pounds.  We  drag  10  or  12  miles  a  day  with  those  engines. 

A  MEMBER:  I  would  like  to  ask  Mr.  Hooker  if  they  roll  gravel 
roads  in  New  Hampshire? 


TREATMENT   OF   WORNOUT   SURFACES  129 

MR.  HOOKER:  We  do  roll  them,  we  roll  them  with  regular  ten- 
ton  rollers,  where  we  have  them.  In  some  instances  we  have  got 
to  roll  them  with  a  corrugated  roller  drawn  by  oxen,  but  if  you 
haven't  got  a  corrugated  roll,  you  can  put  your  road  in  just  the  same 
condition  after  a  rain  by  the  use  of  a  drag. 

MR.  HILLIARD  (of  Michigan) :  I  want  to  say  that  the  experience 
of  the  road  builders  in  upper  Michigan  confirms  all  that  Mr.  Hooker 
and  Mr.  Tufts  have  said  regarding  gravel  and  dirt  roads. 

MR.  ATKINSON  (of  Louisiana) :    How  do  you  apply  your  gravel? 

MR.  HOOKER:  I  put  my  sub  grade  on  the  21  foot  road  3  inches 
higher  than  the  finished. 

MR.  ATKINSON:  Do  you  have  a  shoulder  or  apply  the  gravel  the 
entire  width  of  the  road? 

MR.  HOOKER:  I  prefer  it  without  the  earth  shoulder,  giving  the 
gravel  the  entire  width  of  the  road.  The  other  way,  we  build  a 
shoulder  and  15  feet  of  gravel  8  inches  thick,  11  inches  in  the  center 
and  8  inches  on  the  outside. 

MR.  EBERHARDT  (of  Pennsylvania):  We  take  the  road  machine 
first  and  grade  the  road,  then  haul  the  gravel  4  to  6  miles,  place  it 
6  to  8  inches  deep  with  the  dump  wagon,  spread  this  from  the  dump 
wagon,  use  rakes  and  thereby  get  at  the  lumps  and  make  an 
even  and  good  grade  of  road.  It  costs  $1600  to  $2000  a  mile  and  it 
can  be  maintained  three  to  four  years  at  an  average  expense  of 
$200  to  $300  a  mile. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  If  there  is  no  further  discussion,  we  will  proceed 
to  the  next  subject  on  our  program.  Colonel  Stevens  is  not  here, 
but  his  paper  on  "The  Treatment  of  Wornout  and  Ravelled  Mac- 
adam Surfaces"  will  be  discussed  by  Hon.  Robert  C.  Terrell,  State 
commissioner  of  public  roads  of  Kentucky. 

TREATMENT  OF  WORNOUT  AND  RAVELLED  MACADAM 

SURFACES 

BY  COL.  EDMUND  A.  STEVENS 
State  Highway  Commissioner  of  New  Jersey 

Before  discussing  the  cure  it  is  well  to  define  the  trouble,  and 
to  analyze  its  causes.  The  word  "  ravelling' '  is  used  rather  loosely. 
For  my  purpose  I  shall  consider  it  as  the  loosening  of  the  bond  of 
a  road  surface  until  the  macadam  stone  lies  loose  and  free  on  the 
road.  By  macadam  stone,  I  mean,  not  the  small  stone  used  to  fill 
voids  and  give  a  smooth  finish  to  the  surface,  but  the  stone  that  con- 


130  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

stitutes  the  body  of  the  road's  surface.  In  macadam  work  this 
stone  when  compressed  to  its  final  form  occupies  about  60  per  cent 
of  the  volume  of  the  road  surface.  The  40  per  cent  of  voids  is  filled  in 
varying  proportion  with  surface  stone,  screenings,  stone  dust,  sand, 
earthy  materials  and  any  chemical  binder  used  to  "hold  the  road." 
The  mixture  of  fine  stone,  sand  and  earth  filling  the  voids  has  no 
appreciable  tensile  strength.  Its  duty  is  to  wedge  the  macadam 
stone  in  place  and  prevent  internal  movement.  Such  a  structure  is 
called  on  to  carry  loads,  to  receive  and  absorb  propelling  thrusts. 
The  road  should  be  of  sufficient  depth  to  transfer  the  stresses  thus 
imposed  to  the  sub-base  without  serious  internal  movement  and  at 
unit  pressure  less  than  the  resisting  power  of  the  soil.  It  is  thus 
subjected  to  vertical  and  horizontal  forces  that  contribute  largely  to 
ravelling. 

Let  us  briefly  consider  these. 

A  draft  horse  weighing  1200  pounds  will  have  all  his  weight  at 

one  time  on  two  feet.    He  will  exert  say  1  h.p.  at  a  speed  of  4  miles. 

oo  nnn 

The  vertical  forces  at  the  foot  is  600  pounds,  the  horizontal 


=  47  pounds.  These  forces  are  or  may  well  be  concentrated  on  a 
toe  calk  2  inches  in  width;  the  resultant  force  slightly  exceeding  300 
pounds  per  linear  inch. 

A  motor  truck  weighing,  loaded,  16,000  pounds  and  exerting  at  the 
wheel  rims  say  30  h.p.  at  10  miles  an  hour,  will  with  60  per  cent  of 
load  on  rear  axle,  exert  a  vertical  force  of  4800  pounds  and  a  hori- 
zontal of  562.5  pounds  at  each  rear  rim,  the  resultant  being  about  800 
pounds  per  lineal  inch  for  6-inch  tire. 

For  a  pleasure  car  weighing  4000  pounds  with  60  per  cent  of  weight 
on  rear  axle  and  exerting  40  h.p.  at  the  wheel  rims  with  a  speed  of 
35  miles,  the  vertical  force  at  each  wheel  is  1200  and  the  horizontal 
214.  The  resultant  is  about  400  per  linear  inch  for  a  bearing  width 
of  3  inches. 

At  curves  with  high  speed  cars,  the  horizontal  force  is  consid- 
erably increased,  for  it  is  impossible  to  so  "bank"  a  curve  as  to 
suit  the  speed  of  all  classes  of  traffic. 

In  the  case  of  wheels  transmitting  vertical  loads  only,  observa- 
tion indicates  but  little  dust  raising  from  a  road  not  overlaid  with 
loose  dust.  Such  a  wheel  will  at  the  point  of  mathematical  tan- 
gency  have  no  velocity  relative  to  the  road;  a  vertical  velocity  is 
imparted  to  it  and  as  any  section  leaves  the  surface  it  will  raise 
with  it  any  of  the  lighter  particles  that  are  loose  and  may  come 
into  contact  with  it.  At  the  driving  wheel  there  is  a  slight  slip  which 
in  addition  to  lifting  will  throw  particles  backwards. 

These  are  the  forces  tearing  at  the  road  surface.  In  some  cases 
they  are  more  than  the  road  can  stand.  The  horse's  calk  acts  some- 
what like  a  chisel.  It  will  pry  out  the  binding  material  between 
the  stones  as  well  as  the  latter  themselves  when  the  bond  is  weak- 
ened. The  driving  wheels  of  motor  vehicles  push  or  suck  any  ma- 


TREATMENT   OF  WORNOUT  SURFACES  131 

terial  thus  loosened  out  of  place.  The  binder  loses  weight  as  it 
parts  with  moisture;  besides  this,  without  moisture  it  also  loses, 
not  only  its  property  of  recementing  itself  under  pressure  but  to  a 
great  extent,  its  binding  power  as  well.  The  real  work  of  trans- 
mitting the  stresses  due  to  traffic  must  be  borne  by  the  stone.  These 
are  merely  held  in  place  by  the  binder.  The  latter  is  gouged  out 
by  the  horse,  drawn  or  pushed  out  by  the  automobile  tire,  blown 
away  by  the  wind,  or  washed  off  by  the  rain  and  a  loosening  of  the 
upper  stone  results. 

Even  on  a  well  consolidated  road  climate  stresses  impose  a  heavy 
duty.  If,  however,  there  be  voids  the  risk  of  failure  increases.  Voids 
may  be  due  to  deficient  rolling  or  to  the  rise  of  too  much  clay  in  the 
earthy  binder.  Lumps  of  this  material  will  bridge  the  spaces  between 
stones  even  under  hard  rolling.  The  bridge  will  break  down  even- 
tually either  from  pressure  or  moisture  or  a  combination  of  them. 
A  void  forms  where  the  bridge  was  and  continues  rising  until  near 
the  surface  when  ravelling  results.  The  same  may  be  true  in  the 
cases  of  too  light  rolling. 

When  bituminous  material  is  used  as  binder  it  is  liable  to  dis- 
integration from  weathering,  from  overheating  or  from  admixture 
of  earthy  materials. 

An  ordinary  water  bound  macadam  may  lose  material  by  wear 
up  to  a  thickness  of  about  a  half  an  inch  a  year  without  being  over- 
loaded. The  thickness  that  can  thus  be  lost  will  vary  with  con- 
ditions, one  of  which  probably  is  the  ratio  of  the  maximum  wheel 
load  to  the  total  tonnage  borne  by  the  road. 

Whatever  the  rate  of  waste  it  must  be  replaced  if  the  road  is  to  be 
maintained. 

To  summarize  the  foregoing,  roads  ravel  from:  (1)  improper  con- 
struction, (2)  overload,  (3)  neglect.  In  all  cases  these  affect  the 
binder. 

Poor  workmanship  in  construction  can  only  be  cured  by  rem- 
edying the  original  defects.  These  generally  show  themselves  by 
small  local  depressions  in  the  surface  from  which  ravelling  spreads, 
in  certain  cases  at  an  almost  incredible  speed.  In  bituminous  sur- 
face faulty  material  and  thin  spots  generally  show  up  clearly.  In 
both  cases  the  only  remedy  is  to  rebuild  the  work  properly,  if  neces- 
sary, from  the  sub-base  up.  This  is  not  strictly  repair  work. 

In  considering  the  effect  of  overloading  and  neglect  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  any  given  type  of  construction  may  be  so  main- 
tained as  to  vastly  increase  its  carrying  capacity.  The  problem  is 
largely  one  of  economics  and  administration.  As  an  illustration, 
assume  in  two  cases  the  same  foundation — let  one  road  have  a  water 
bound  macadam  surface  dressed  with  a  heavy  bitumen  forming 
a  sheet  about  f-inch  in  thickness  and  the  other  a  bituminous  con- 
crete (mixed  method)  surface  of  say  2  inches.  The  former  will  cost 
about  40  cents  for  stone  and  15  cents  for  dressing,  or  55  cents  per 
square  yard,  and  the  latter  about  $1  (both  exclusive  of  the  founda- 


132  AMERICAN  ROAD    CONGRESS 

tions).  With  proper  care  the  lighter  surface  will  last  about  three 
years  under  fairly  heavy  traffic,  the  heavier  one  an  unknown  period, 
but  let  us  assume  twelve  years.  The  total  yearly  charges  against 
the  two  may  then  be  stated  about  as  follows: 

Dressed  macadam 

cents 

Interest  on  cost,  55  cents  at  4  per  cent 2.2 

Depreciation,  f  of  15  cents 5 .0 

Labor  (patrol  system) 1.9 

_,  ,     .  ,       /  Stone  f  cubic  foot  at  9  cents 3 .4 

Materials     ^  Bitumen  |  gallon  at  12  cents 1.5 

Total 14.0 

Bituminous  concrete 

cents 

Interest  on  cost,  $1  at  4  per  cent 4 .0 

Depreciation,  1.00/12 8.3 

Labor 0.9 

Material 0.8 

Total 14.0 

The  fixed  charges  are  7.2  cents  against  12.3  cents. 

The  operating  charges  6.8  cents  against  1.7  cents. 

I  do  not  claim  that  these  figures  are  more  than  illustrations  of  the 
principle  involved.  They  show  a  great  saving  in  operating  charges, 
those  that  show  up  in  the  yearly  tax  bill.  The  fixed  charges,  how- 
ever, are  just  as  real  and  must  be  met  at  some  date. 

For  a  road  with  9,500  sq.  yards  per  mile  the  costs  as  shown  in 
yearly  tax  charges,  where  depreciation  and  interest  are  not  visible, 
would  in  this  case  be, 

For  the  dressed  macadam,  per  mile $636 .50 

For  the  bituminous  concrete 161 .50 

yet  as  shown  above  the  real  cost  of  the  two  roads  is  the  same.  This 
case  affects  our  subject  because  the  treatment  of  a  ravelled  road 
surface  must  depend  on  the  system  of  maintenance. 

In  most  communities  the  great  consideration  is  the  next  yearly 
tax  bill.  If  that  can  be  kept  down  for  a  period  the  ultimate  economy 
of  such  a  policy  receives  but  slight  attention.  It  is  generally  easier 
to  get  money  for  a  new  road  than  for  repairs.  A  road  requiring  a 
large  yearly  repair  charge  is  condemned  without  a  hearing.  The 
road  calling  for  heavy  interest  and  depreciation  charges  may  be  an 
equally  or  even  more  expensive  solution;  but  the  interest  charge  is 
not  so  apparent  and  the  depreciation  charge  is  not  made.  This  is 
simply  putting  off  the  day  of  reckoning  which  is  sure  to  come.  How- 
ever, the  troubles  of  those  in  charge  ten  years  hence  are  usually 
lightly  borne  by  the  officials  of  today. 

If  we  consider  the  structure  of  the  road  surface  we  can  easily  see 
that  the  40  per  cent  of  voids  in  the  macadam  stone  will  be  filled 
somewhat  as  follows: 


TREATMENT   OF   WORNOUT   SURFACES  133 

Surface  stone  passing  1-inch  ring  and  caught  on  J-inch  ring, 

15  to  20  per  cent 
Screenings,  passing  £-inch  ring 15  to  10  per  cent 

When  dry  the  clay  is  driven  off  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  as  dust, 
washed  away  or  splashed  off  as  mud.  Its  place  is  supplied  to  some 
extent  by  detritus  the  result  of  the  wear  of  the  larger  and  heavier 
materials.  These  also  blow  or  wash  away  and  the  road  loses  its 
bond.  If  our  road  is  not  overloaded  we  can  retain  its  usefulness 
by  making  good  its  losses,  with  proper  materials  in  their  needed  pro- 
portion. It  is  here  that  the  trained  road  man  is  most  needed.  Noth- 
ing can  replace  his  experienced  judgment. 

In  the  case  of  a  ravelled  road  having  first  determined  that  the 
road  was  well  built  we  must  decide  whether  the  traffic  is  too  great  for 
the  type  of  surface,  or  whether  the  failure  was  due  to  neglect.  If 
the  former  we  must  resurface  with  some  better  type.  If  the  latter 
we  can  repair  the  old  surface. 

Resurfacing  should  always  be  preceded  by  scarifying  and  by 
bringing  the  road  up  to  the  necessary  depth  of  stone.  For  water 
bound  macadam  needing  greater  surface  strength  several  classes  of 
chemical  binder  may  be  used  of  which  I  shall  discuss  two,  bitumen 
and  lignin. 

The  bitumen  may  be  applied  either  by  penetration  or  mixing 
methods.  The  former  is  the  cheaper,  the  latter  the  more  trust- 
worthy. Which  method  is  to  be  used  will,  after  consideration  of  the 
care  the  road  will  receive,  depend  on  the  estimate  of  the  overload,  as 
will  also  the  depth  of  the  bituminous  sheet.  My  own  observation 
leads  me  to  question  the  wisdom  of  attempting  to  get  any  thickness 
exceeding  one  half  inch  by  penetration  methods.  It  also  leads  me 
for  this  class  of  work  to  prefer  tar  to  asphalt.  The  former  material 
appears  less  sensitive  to  injury  by  dirt  and  to  yield  better  results  in 
repair  work. 

The  lignin  binders  are  derived  from  the  waste  products  of  wood 
pulp  or  tanin  manufacture.  They  are  cements  being  also  used  to 
bind  core  sand  in  foundry  work  and  impart  a  tensile  strength  to  the 
binding  materials.  They  will  not  act  on  materials  soaked  in  the  so 
called  road  oils.  The  action  of  some  of  these  materials  on  slag  and 
red  shale  is  quite  remarkable.  They  are  slightly  soluble  in  water 
and  will  therefore  need  renewal.  Their  application,  however,  is  easy 
and  inexpensive  and  the  effect  of  successive  applications  seems  cumu- 
lative, increasing  not  only  the  depth  of  penetration  but  the  strength 
of  the  bond.  The  water  proofing  of  lignin  bound  roads  with  bitumi- 
nous tops  has  been  carried  out  in  Connecticut  but  I  am  unable  to 
give  any  facts  as  to  the  results. 

For  water  bound  macadam  roads  that  have  failed  through  neglect 
a  thin  coat  of  gravel  carrying  some  earthy  matter  or  of  screenings  or 
coarse  sand  mixed  with  earth  will  usually  cure  cases  that  have  not 
gone  too  far.  In  some  of  the  counties  of  New  Jersey  it  is  usual  to 
fill  all  ruts,  depressions,  etc.,  with  fine  stone  and  to  give  the  middle  of 


134  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

the  road  a  coat  of  the  same  mixed  with  a  little  clay.  Much  of  this 
material  is  wasted  by  being  thrown  off  the  road  by  the  traffic,  and 
old  ruts  almost  invariably  reappear.  This  method,  however,  is  very 
successful  in  preventing  ravelling.  It  seems  a  false  economy  to  omit 
rolling  and  wet  rolling,  at  that.  The  same  is  true  of  patching  holes 
with  anything  but  macadam  size  stone.  The  roads  treated  with 
small  stone  are  yearly  losing  depth.  The  moisture  for  wet  rolling 
is  usually  bountifully  supplied  by  nature  in  the  early  spring.  It  can 
also  be  had  by  the  use  of  hygroscopic  salts  where  water  is  hard  to  get. 
Traffic  will  usually  throw  off  from  the  road  surface  enough  stone  to 
pay  for  rolling. 

A  treatment  of  clay,  without  rolling,  will  often  give  astonishing 
results.  Such  treatment,  however,  seems  only  a  palliative  not  a 
cure.  Roads  thus  treated  become  dusty  or  muddy  according  to  the 
weather,  show  a  tendency  to  ravel  again  and  are  hard  to  properly 
treat  with  bitumens.  They  will,  however,  take  the  lignin  binders 
with  good  results,  if  the  dose  of  clay  has  not  been  excessive,  or  if 
the  excess  is  swept  off  before  treatment. 

In  closing  a  word  of  warning  as  to  the  use  of  the  so  called  cold 
oils  may  not  be  out  of  place.  Those  of  the  so  called  non-asphaltic 
class,  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  so  called  light  asphaltic  oils,  seem 
to  act  as  lubricant  on  road  materials  and  to  foster  pot  holes,  ravelling, 
and  other  failures.  It  may  be  possible  to  properly  apply  these  ma- 
terials but  if  so  it  is  rarely  done.  It  is  certain  that  even  slight  de- 
pressions will  cause  a  deep  penetration  of  the  road.  The  dust  laying 
qualities  of  the  material  thus  absorbed  are  lost  and  its  lubricating 
effect  given  the  best  possible  conditions  to  get  in  its  pernicious  work. 
Local  authorities  and  even  private  individuals  seem  to  select  roads 
with  uneven  surfaces  as  those  on  which  to  use  these  oils. 

MR.  ROBERT  C.  TERRELL:  In  discussing  this  excellent  paper  and 
this  very  important  subject,  I  wish  to  say  that  Colonel  Stevens' 
paper  shows  that  he  has  given  this  most  vexing  problem  a  good  deal 
of  time  and  thought  and  his  explanation  of  the  causes  of  the  ravelling 
of  the  macadam  road  is  beyond  question.  However,  I  disagree  with 
him,  hi  so  far  as  he  advocates  the  use  of  earthly  materials  as  a  binder, 
since  earthy  materials  not  only  render  the  surface  susceptible  to 
retaining  water  but  also  permits  the  percolating  of  water  into  the 
subgrade. 

The  discussion  in  this  paper  showing  the  effect  of  motor  trucks 
and  motor  driven  vehicles,  shows  conclusively  that  an  excess  of 
screening  or  the  use  of  earthy  materials  for  a  builder  are  objection- 
able. The  tendency  of  water  bound  macadam  roads  to  ravel  under 
heavy  motor  traffic,  may  be  largely  overcome  by  increasing  the  size 
of  the  stone  hi  the  top  course  and  using  only  a  sufficient  amount  of 
screening  and  stone  dust  to  cement  the  whole  together  after  being 
thoroughly  wet  and  rolled.  The  larger  stone  should  be  plainly  vis- 
ible on  the  surface  and  the  surface  should  have  the  appearance  of  a 
conglomerate  rock  that  has  been  cut  with  a  saw. 


TREATMENT   OF  WORNOUT  SURFACES  135 

Colonel  Stevens  says,  "  Whatever  the  rate  that  wastes,  it  must  be 
replaced  if  the  road  is  to  be  maintained."  This  is  very  true,  how- 
ever, if  the  road  be  worn  uniformly,  it  will  not  be  economical  to 
try  to  replace  the  amount  worn  off,  by  fine  stone  but  sufficient  time 
should  elapse  to  justify  the  placing  of  a  course  of  stone  sufficient  to 
bear  the  traffic  and  not  be  blown  away  by  rapidly  moving  vehicles. 
But  uniform  wear  is  rarely  the  case.  Where  ruts  and  large  holes 
occur  they  should  be  promptly  filled,  not  with  small  stone  but  stone 
of  the  same  size  and  character  as  that  in  the  surrounding  course  and 
well  tamped. 

The  discussion  of  the  bituminous  surfaces  is  carefully  worked  out 
and  I  shall  not  attempt  to  go  into  detail  on  the  discussion  of  figures 
for  bituminous  macadam  and  bituminous  concrete.     It  is  very  evi- 
dent that  the  following  statement  from  Colonel  Stevens'  paper  is  the 
correct  status  of  affairs  throughout  the  country,  "In  most  instances 
the  great  consideration  is  the  next  yearly  tax  bill.     If  that  can  be 
kept  down  for  a  period,  the  ultimate  economy  of  such  a  policy  re- 
ceives but  slight  attention.     It  is  generally  easier  to  get  money  for 
new  roads  than  for  repair."     In  order  to  properly  maintain  a  road 
must  of  necessity  have  been  properly  constructed  and  since  it  is 
generally  conceded  that  water  bound  macadam  road  is  not  satis- 
factory under  heavy  motor  traffic  and  it  is  necessary  to  employ  some 
sort  of  bituminous  treatment.     The  heavy  asphaltic  oils  have  been 
used  very  successfully  on  the  water  bound  macadam  roads  of  Ken- 
tucky, and  have  given  excellent  results.     However,  the  road  to  re- 
ceive this  oil  should  have  been  built  at  least  six  months  in  advance 
of  its  first  treatment,  in  order  to  give  the  stone  time  to  season  or  rid 
itself  of  the  quarry  sap.     All  the  excess  dust  and  foreign  material 
should  be  carefully  swept  from  the  surface  of  the  road  and  the  oil 
applied  evenly  over  the  entire  macadam  surface.     Traffic  should  be 
suspended  until  the  oil  has  had  time  to  penetrate.     This  can  be  ac- 
complished by  oiling  one  side  at  a  time,  thus  permitting  the  use 
of  the  other  side  of  the  road.     If  the  oil  is  not  applied  evenly,  the 
surface  will  generally  ravel  or  form  pot  holes  where  the  surface  fails 
to  receive  the  treatment.  The  road  should  receive  one  treatment  of 
the  oil  each  year,  in  the  early  spring.     If,  however  the  same  macadam 
on  which  oils  or  bituminous  concrete  are  used,  (a  surface  free  from  ruts 
or  depressions)  a  treatment  of  Kentucky  rock  asphalt  should  be 
placed  2  inches  in  thickness  and  properly  rolled.     The  maintenance 
charges  will  at  once  become  a  minimum.     This  Kentucky  rock  as- 
phalt may  be  applied  cold  after  having  been  prepared  by  grinding. 
It  is  not  only  efficient  but  easy  to  place  and  requires  but  little  atten- 
tion after  it  has  been  thoroughly  consolidated.     I  believe  that  this 
material  can  be  economically  used  for  surfacing  and  for  maintenance 
purposes  anywhere  within  a  radius  of  1000  miles  of  the  Kentucky  field. 
The  material  of  which  I  speak  is  a  sand  stone  pregnated  with  about 
ten  to  twelve  per  cent  of  asphalt  and  is  found  in  Edmonson  County, 
Kentucky,  there  being  about  80,000  acres  of  this  deposit  ranging 


136  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

in  thickness  from  12  to  50  feet.  In  1906,  or  about  that  time  the 
United  States  government  constructed  approximately  a  half  mile  of 
road  of  this  material,  near  Bowling  Green,  which  is  now  in  an  excel- 
lent state  of  preservation  and  shows  little  or  no  bad  results  from  its 
constant  and  heavy  use.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  this  material  would 
not  cost  more  than  50  cents  per  square  yard  in  place  anywhere 
within  a  radius  of  500  miles.  I  believe  that  that  price  can  materi- 
ally be  reduced  when  the  field  is  more  fully  developed. 

This  material  can  be  used  with  same  results  at  a  thickness  of  1-inch 
after  consolidation,  which  would  double  the  number  of  square  yards 
per  ton  of  material  but  of  course  cut  down  the  life  of  the  road. 

Under  the  advance  system  of  road  construction  and  the  heavy 
motor  traffic,  I  do  not  believe  it  economy  to  recommend  or  to  permit 
the  building  of  stone  roads  without  the  use  of  the  roller,  and  while 
Colonel  Stevens  says  "A  treatment  of  clay  without  rolling  will  give 
astonishing  results."  I  agree  with  him  and  also  his  latter  statement 
in  which  he  states,  "  Roads  thus  treated  become  dusty  or  muddy 
according  to  the  weather."  I  believe  such  treatment  of  our  roads 
should  be  discouraged  as  far  as  possible. 

MR.  UNDERWOOD:  I  want  to  say  to  you  gentlemen  of  the  Con- 
vention that  we  have  no  business  to  let  a  gravel  road  wear  out;  it 
is  absolute  foolishness.  What  in  the  name  of  common  sense  is  the 
use  of  building  a  thing  and  then  sitting  down  and  letting  it  wear 
out?  It  is  absolute  nonsense.  In  the  city  of  Battle  Creek,  where 
I  am  commissioner  of  public  works,  we  have  some  gravel  streets. 
In  the  surrounding  country  outside  of  Battle  Creek,  we  have  some 
gravel  roads.  Let  me  tell  you  the  difference  between  the  way  in 
which  these  gravel  roads  are  kept  up.  In  the  city  of  Battle  Creek, 
we  don't  drag  our  streets,  it  doesn't  amount  to  a  row  of  pins  to  put 
a  drag  onto  a  hard  graveled  street  that  has  got  holes  in  it;  what 
you  want  in  the  holes  is  some  more  gravel,  and  that  is  what  we 
put  into  the  holes  in  the  graveled  streets  of  Battle  Creek.  Every 
year  we  go  over  our  streets  and  fill  every  hole  with  gravel.  When 
that  hole  has  got  water  in  it,  we  know  where  the  hole  is  then  and 
plug  it  up  and  it  stays  plugged  up  for  a  year  and  possibly  for  more 
than  a  year.  Now,  the  way  they  do  out  in  the  country  surrounding 
Battle  Creek,  they  let  their  roads  go  until  they  are  so  full  of  holes 
that  when  it  rains  they  are  simply  a  continuous  streak  of  ponds  of 
water,  and  then  they  undertake  to  fill  those  holes  by  dragging  the 
roads,  and  that  is  absolutely  fooling  away  your  money.  I  want 
to  tell  you  gentlemen  of  this  Congress  that  if  you  want  to  keep  up 
a  gravel  road,  you  have  got  to  fill  the  holes.  Its  the  same  way  if 
I  want  to  keep  up  my  coat  and  a  hole  gets  in  it,  I  have  got  to  patch 
the  hole. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey) :  We  run  the  steam  roller  and  the 
disc  harrow  over  them  and  then  they  are  in  good  condition  to  spread 
again. 


DEVELOPMENT   AND    MAINTENANCE   OF   HIGHWAYS  137 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  John  S.  Gillespie  will  now  deliver  an  ad- 
dress on  "Development  and  Maintenance  of  Highways  in  Allegheny 
County,  Pennsylvania." 

DEVELOPMENT  AND  MAINTENANCE  OF  HIGHWAYS 
IN  ALLEGHENY  COUNTY,  PENNSYLVANIA 

BY  JOHN  S.  GILLESPIE 
Road  Commissioner 

Allegheny  County,  Pennsylvania,  was  created  by  an  act  of  the 
State  legislature  on  September  24,  1788,  being  formed  from  parts  of 
Westmoreland  and  Washington  Counties.  In  1789  an  additional  part 
of  Washington  County  was  annexed.  It  then  comprised  all  the  land 
north  and  west  of  the  Ohio  and  Allegheny  Rivers,  but  was  subse- 
quently reduced  by  the  creation  of  Armstrong,  Beaver,  Crawford, 
Erie,  Mercer,  Venango  and  Warren,  and  parts  of  Indiana  and  Clarion 
Counties.  Its  area  is  approximately  755  square  miles.  Its  popula- 
tion in  1860  was  178,831,  the  1910  census  showed  a  population  of 
1,018,000. 

Allegheny  County  derived  its  name  from  a  tribe  of  Indians  called 
the  "Allaghans,"  who  formerly  lived  along  the  Allegheny  River. 

The  surface  is  undulating  and  near  the  large  streams  hilly.  The 
lands  are  fertile  and  make  excellent  farms.  The  great  wealth  of  the 
county  lies  in  its  immense  mineral  resources.  Bituminous  coal  of 
the  finest  quality  abounds,  varying  in  thickness  from  5f  to  8|  feet. 

The  Allegheny  and  Monongahela  Rivers  join  at  Pittsburgh,  forming 
the  Ohio  River. 

Allegheny  County  is  so  situated  that  all  its  main  roads  lead  to  Pitts- 
burgh which  is  in  the  center.  These  main  roads  lead  to  the  outer 
borders  of  the  county,  connecting  up  with  Butler,  New  Castle,  Wash- 
ington, Freeport,  etc.,  with  many  cross  connections.  In  fact  its 
features  resemble  a  wheel,  Pittsburgh  being  the  hub. 

The  question  of  good  roads  evidently  was  given  careful  considera- 
tion in  years  gone  by,  as  in  going  over  the  court  records  we  secure  data 
pertaining  to  the  old  turnpikes  and  toll  roads.  These  in  the  majority 
of  instances  were  planked  roads,  having  a  plank  roadway  8  feet  in 
width  with  an  earthen  or  summer  road  alongside;  and,  I  might  state 
that  even  today  there  are  several  miles  of  such  roads  in  our  county. 
There  are,  however,  no  toll  roads  in  the  county,  the  same  having  been 
condemned  and  purchased  by  the  county,  and  then  dedicated  to  the 
public  as  free  roads. 

Sentiment  for  good  roads  continued  to  grow,  for  hi  the  early  part  of 
1895,  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania  approved  what  is  known  as  the 
"  Flinn  road  act. "  This  act  provided  for  the  laying  out,  straightening, 
widening,  altering  and  otherwise  improving  of  the  then  existing  high- 
ways. It  provided  for  the  issuing  of  road  bonds  or  a  direct  tax,  in 
payment  of  such  improvements;  also,  it  provided  for  the  levy  of  a 
road  tax  by  the  county  for  maintenance,  sinking  fund  charges,  etc. 


138  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

It  was  under  this  act  that  the  road  department  of  Allegheny  County 
was  created,  and  the  department  has  been  an  important  feature  of 
the  county  commissioners'  ever  since.  This  act  was  effective  until 
May  11,  1911,  when  a  new  act  was  approved.  This  new  act  provides 
for  the  improvement  of  routes  through  cities  and  boroughs  thereby 
connecting  up  with  the  road  system  in  general  as  laid  out  by  the 
county  commissioners.  This  new  act  also  increased  the  bonding 
power  of  the  county  for  road  improvement,  allowing  the  issuance  of 
2  per  cent  of  the  assessed  valuation,  without  being  compelled  to  sub- 
mit the  matter  to  the  voters  for  a  referendum  vote.  Under  this  act 
the  county  commissioners  are  permitted  to  issue  bonds  to  the  amount 
of  $22,000,000. 

The  present  commissioners  of  Allegheny  County  are  Irvin  K. 
Campbell,  J.  Denny  O'Neil  and  Stephen  J.  Toole,  the  present  term  be- 
ing their  second  term  in  office.  This  board  has  always  been  active 
in  road  improvement,  they  have  given  the  matters  of  construction  and 
maintenance  their  earnest  consideration,  and  the  present  excellent 
system  of  county  roads  is  the  result  of  their  earnest  efforts. 

The  road  department  commenced  building  roads  in  August,  1897, 
and  the  work  has  been  continued  ever  since.  We  feel  we  have  accom- 
plished a  little  in  the  way  of  road  improvement  but  we  have  lots  to 
learn  as  this  is  a  big  proposition.  It  is  important  and  cannot  be  solved 
in  a  day  or  a  year.  There  are  many  conditions  to  consider,  what  may 
be  a  good  road  for  one  section  will  not  answer  in  another.  We  first 
started  by  building  macadam  roads,  having  a  telford  foundation  8 
inches  in  depth  with  a  macadam  wearing  surface  4  inches  thick.  Our 
roads  are  all  graded  30  feet  wide  and  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  im- 
proved portion  is  constructed  16  feet  in  width,  in  a  few  cases  we  only 
improve  14  feet. 

Up  to  the  end  of  1905  we  had  153.7  miles  of  macadam  road,  today 
we  have  437  miles  of  improved  roads  of  various  kinds,  completed  and 
under  construction.  Aside  from  this  there  are  22  miles  of  plank  roads. 
The  two  remaining  planked  roads,  however,  have  been  taken  over 
by  the  highway  department  of  Pennsylvania,  being  a  part  of  the 
famous  Sproul  system.  Portions  of  these  plank  roads  have  been 
improved  with  brick  and  asphalt-macadam  construction  and  it  will 
be  but  a  short  time  until  they  are  a  thing  of  the  past,  the  remaining 
portions,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  replaced  with  a  permanent  road  in  a 
short  time. 

Under  the  acts  already  mentioned  the  County  of  Allegheny,  up 
to  the  end  of  1912,  issued  $10,250,000  in  road  bonds.  A  road  tax, 
varying  from  ^  of  a  mill  (this  being  the  tax  levy  in  1902)  to  J  of  a 
mill  (the  present  tax  levy),  has  yielded  $4,449,040.90,  this  having 
been  applied  to  maintenance  and  sinking  fund  charges.  The  sinking 
fund  charges  from  1902  to  1912  amounted  to  $3,904,791.10,  leaving 
$10,794,249.80  as  a  net  amount  for  road  purposes. 

At  the  time  we  commenced  building  macadam  roads,  they  were 
considered  the  "ideal  roads/'  Conditions  alter  cases,  however,  and 


DEVELOPMENT  AND   MAINTENANCE   OF   HIGHWAYS  139 

with  the  advent  of  the  automobile,  the  heavy  truck,  and  continued 
use  of  narrow  tires,  it  was  readily  seen  that  a  more  substantial  road 
would  have  to  be  considered.  Narrow  tires  play  an  important  part 
in  the  ruination  of  a  macadam  road.  Our  roads,  we  think,  are  con- 
structed right,  the  best  of  material  obtainable  is  used  for  the  surface 
and  still  the  macadam  road  cuts  into  ruts.  Our  board  of  commis- 
sioners at  once  realized  that  a  more  durable  road  would  have  to  be 
adopted,  so  in  1909,  after  a  careful  investigation  of  roads  in  and 
through  the  eastern  States,  they  awarded  contracts  for  the  first 
asphaltic-concrete  surfaces  in  Allegheny  County.  The  ease  with 
which  this  surface  is  laid,  the  slight  inconvenience  afforded  the 
travelling  public,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  a  dustless  road,  convinced  the 
commissioners  and  the  public  in  general  that  it  was  a  step  in  the 
right  direction,  towards  solving  the  road  question.  Since  construct- 
ing the  first  asphaltic-concrete  roads,  our  commissioners  have  re- 
ceived numerous  requests  for  this  class  of  pavement.  I  might  state 
right  here  that  the  roads  first  treated  with  this  asphaltic-concrete 
surface  were  those  that  were  subjected  to  the  heaviest  kind  of  travel. 
They  are  main  routes  to  Freeport,  Pa.,  and  to  Steubenvifle,  Ohio, 
and  are  subjected  to  all  kinds  of  automobile  travel,  hauling  of  heavy 
builders'  supplies,  etc.  Neither  of  the  roads  constructed  during  1910 
have  as  yet  required  one  penny  of  cost  for  maintenance,  and  present 
conditions  seem  to  be  improving  with  age. 

The  asphaltic-concrete  road  while  costing  more  than  the  old  style 
macadam  is  cheaper  in  the  end  when  one  considers  the  matter  of 
maintenance.  We  feel  that  we  will  not  be  required  to  do  anything 
in  the  way  of  repairs  for  eight  to  ten  years,  while  with  the  macadam 
road  our  conditions  require  resurfacing,  or  top  dressing,  every  two 
or  three  years  at  most.  The  macadam  road,  you  all  know,  is  a  dis- 
agreeable road  in  wet  Weather.  Mud  fron  the  side  roads  is  dragged 
on,  and  remains  there  until  dried  out  by  the  sun.  While  mud  is  also 
dragged  on  to  the  bituminous  road,  the  first  rain  washes  the  surface 
clean.  With  the  hot  mixed  material  no  delay  is  suffered  by  passing 
vehicles,  the  road  is  at  all  times  open  to  travel,  while  the  macadam 
road  suffers  more  or  less  during  the  time  of  resurfacing,  until  the 
same  has  thoroughly  bonded.  This  makes  an  ideal  road  through 
villages  and  in  residential  sections.  This  bitulithic  pavement  is 
made  of  crushed  stone,  sand  and  asphalt.  The  stone  is  mixed  in 
predetermined  proportions  as  regards  sizes,  to  provide  a  maximum 
density  and  minimum  of  voids,  so  that  when  rolled  in  place  it  is 
nearly  as  dense  as  a  block  of  solid  stone.  The  surface  offers  as  little 
resistance  to  traction  as  asphalt;  it  is  not  slippery.  The  small  stone 
used  provides  a  gritty  surface  somewhat  similar  to  macadam  and 
affords  a  secure  footing  for  horses  at  all  times.  The  application  of  the 
seal  coat  makes  the  road  practically  water-proof.  It  easily  supports 
the  passage  of  high  speed  vehicles,  and  heavy  travel,  without  loosen- 
ing the  bituminous  filler  and  therefore  does  not  affect  the  stone,  and 
no  dust  comes  from  the  pavement  or  its  material. 


140  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

In  using  the  term  "asphaltic  concrete"  I  wish  to  make  it  clear 
that  I  do  not  refer  to  the  form  of  construction  which  has  been  ex- 
ploited during  the  past  two  or  three  years  and  misnamed  "asphaltic 
concrete,"  being  merely  a  sheet  asphalt  or  mortar  pavement  (less 
the  essential  binder  course)  with  a  very  little  (the  specifications  say 
"less  than  10  per  cent"  which  may  be  none)  crusher  screenings 
coarser  than  J-inch  size.  The  presence  of  this  small  percentage  of 
fine  crushed  stone  surrounded  or  "floating"  in  mortar  hi  my  opinion 
makes  the  construction  weaker  than  a  pure  "asphaltic  mortar"  with- 
out the  screenings  for  the  reason  that  the  tendency  of  traffic  is  to 
dislode  any  of  the  other  detached  particles  of  stone  which  may  be 
near  the  surface. 

The  asphaltic  concrete  of  Allegheny  County  measures  well  up  to  the 
clear  concise  definition  adopted  by  the  American  Society  of  Municipal 
Improvements  for  true  asphaltic  concrete,  as  follows: 

Bituminous  concrete  is  a  pavement  consisting  of  a  combination  of  broken 
stone  and  sand,  or  fine  mineral  matter,  cemented  together  with  a  bituminous 
cement,  and  which  has  all  its  ingredients  mechanically  mixed  before  being  laid. 
To  be  termed  a  bituminous  concrete  it  must  partake  of  the  well  known  charac- 
teristics of  concrete,  that  is,  there  must  be  stone  enough  in  its  composition  to 
form  an  important  part  thereof  and  add  to  its  strength  and  durability ;  also, 
there  must  be  enough  of  the  mortar  constituent,  that  is,  the  sand  and  bitumi- 
nous cement,  to  properly  support  and  bond  together  the  largest  particles. 

This  differentiation  between  the  true,  real  and  the  spurious  mis- 
named "asphaltic  concrete"  is  most  important. 

The  maintenance  of  the  macadam  road  is  expensive  in  our  county. 
We  do  not  have  any  local  stone  that  will  answer,  it  is  all  shipped  in  by 
rail.  In  the  majority  of  cases  we  have  hauls  of  4  to  6,  and  in  some 
cases  8  and  9  miles  from  the  railroad  to  the  road.  This  material  must 
be  handled  a  couple  of  times  and  you  can  readily  appreciate  why  our 
macadam  roads  cost  so  much. 

While  we  have  paid  considerable  attention  to  the  asphaltic  con- 
crete road,  asphalt  penetration  work  also  was  carried  on.  Various 
grades  of  asphalt  were  used  for  this  work,  and  the  roads  laid  to  date 
all  seem  to  be  in  excellent  condition.  Close  on  to  45  miles  of  this 
class  of  road  has  been  laid.  This  pavement  has  been  laid  on  roads 
that  are  not  subjected  to  as  heavy  travel  as  the  ones  on  which  we 
place  asphaltic  concrete. 

The  brick  road  has  not  been  overlooked,  either.  Approximately 
42  miles  of  brick  roads  have  been  laid.  Probably  half  this  mileage 
has  been  laid  with  the  old  macadam  road  as  a  base.  This  work  is 
done  by  the  maintenance  branch  of  the  road  department.  Brick 
construction  costs  $22,000  to  $25,000  per  mile,  and  covers  13  feet 
6  inches  of  brick  pavement,  two  concrete  curbs  (flush  and  combination 
curb  and  gutter  types),  with  concrete  base  5  inches  in  depth.  It  also 
covers  grading,  drainage,  etc.  As  a  matter  of  general  information 
to  those  who  have  not  gone  over  any  of  our  roads  and  will  probably 
question  the  reason  of  our  high  costs,  would  say  that  our  grading 


DEVELOPMENT   AND   MAINTENANCE    OF   HIGHWAYS  141 

averages  11,000  to  12,500  cubic  yards  per  mile  of  road.  Many 
streams  are  encountered,  and  the  construction  of  culverts  and  bridges 
further  add  to  the  cost.  As  herein  stated,  a  large  part  of  our  brick 
work  has  been  done  by  our  maintenance  branch  using  the  old  maca- 
dam road  as  the  base.  The  surface  is  scarified  and  formed  to  a  true 
cross  section,  concrete  curbs  built,  sand  cushion  planed  and  the 
brick  laid.  The  surface  is  then  grouted  with  a  cement  and  sand 
mixture  of  equal  parts.  We  find  that  the  increased  life  of  the  road 
laid  on  this  old  macadam  base,  gives  us  a  road  much  cheaper  than 
with  the  concrete  base  and  we  get  a  solid  foundation.  One  of  the 
bad  features  in  connection  with  this  class  of  pavement  is  the  grind- 
ing off  of  the  brick  at  the  expansion  joints  alongside  the  curb,  and 
the  breaking  off  and  grinding  up  of  the  concrete  curb. 

A  large  percentage  of  the  asphaltic  concrete  roads  in  Allegheny 
County  have  been  laid  over  the  old  macadam  utilized  as  a  foundation 
after  levelling  up  and  scarifying  where  the  contour  or  depressions 
are  such  as  to  require  such  regulation  of  grade.  It  is  my  belief  based 
on  our  practical  experience  of  four  years'  use  in  Allegheny  County 
that  this  is  the  most  economical  and  successful  method  of  conserving 
the  macadam  on  country  thoroughfares  on  which  the  automobile 
traffic  has  become  so  great  as  to  make  it  impracticable  and  uneco- 
nomical to  longer  maintain  the  macadam  as  a  wearing  surface. 

The  macadam  road  has  not  been  entirely  eliminated  in  Allegheny 
County.  Where  traffic  is  light  and  particularly  in  the  outlying  sec- 
tions, this  class  of  surface  is  still  laid.  In  this  year's  reconstruction 
work  by  our  maintenance  department,  we  are  laying  about  8  or  9 
miles  of  water  bond  macadam.  In  order  to  prolong  the  life  of  our 
macadam  roads,  we  have  done  considerable  in  the  way  of  experiment- 
ing with  light  and  heavy  bodied  asphalt  oils,  using  screenings  and 
torpedo  gravel  in  connection  therewith.  The  light  oils  are  mostly 
used  for  dust  laying  purposes.  This  is  an  important  part  of  our 
season's  work,  the  passing  automobiles  and  even  the  slower  vehicles 
raise  immense  clouds  of  dust,  and  we  are  compelled  to  keep  a  force 
of  eight  tank  wagons  busy  applying  oil,  to  relieve  the  people  that 
reside  along  the  macadam  roads.  We  are  just  about  completing  our 
1913  oiling,  and  to  date  we  have  used  over  250,000  gallons  of  oil. 

Now,  as  you  can  see  we  have  been  endeavoring  to  find  the  ideal 
road;  our  roads  cost  a  lot  of  money.  We  endeavor  at  all  times  to 
build  them  right  and  to  keep  them  in  the  very  best  shape  possible. 
In  passing  from  the  waterbond  macadam  road  to  the  asphaltic  con- 
crete road,  we  feel  we  have  taken  a  step  in  the  right  direction.  Our 
experiments  have  demonstrated  that  it  is  the  ideal  road.  It  is  neces- 
sary however,  that  the  material  be  mixed  with  good  asphalt.  There 
are  many  many  kinds  of  asphalt  on  the  market  today,  and  to  take  and 
use  the  cheap  grades,  we  feel  it  is  a  mistake.  On  the  Freeport  Road 
which  was  the  first  road  we  reconstructed  with  this  kind  of  surface  in 
1910,  this  spring  a  huge  slip  occurred  carrying  part  of  our  road  away 
with  it.  Repairs  were  necessary  to  this  portion,  and  from  the  part 


142  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

that  slipped  away,  we  had  samples  cut  out  (I  have  a  sample  or  two 
with  me,  the  same  showing  its  vertical  cross  section  and  if  any  desire 
to  examine  the  same  will  be  glad  to  show  them).  This  sample  does 
not  show  any  wear  whatever.  The  asphalt  used  in  its  mixture  was 
the  best  that  could  be  obtained,  and  in  the  sample  taken  up  the 
asphalt  still  retained  plenty  of  life.  The  chief  chemist  of  the  New 
Jersey  highway  department  happened  to  be  in  Pittsburgh  at  the 
time  I  received  the  sample,  and  he  expressed  great  surprise  at  the 
condition  of  the  asphalt,  considering  length  of  time  in  use,  etc. 

Last,  but  not  least,  in  the  matter  of  highway  improvement,  Alle- 
gheny County  was  not  only  among  the  first  in  the  matter  of  road 
improvement,  but  at  the  same  time  we  inaugurated  a  "patrol  sys- 
tem." This  system  has  been  in  service  since  the  completion  of  our 
first  roads,  and  is  added  to  as  occasion  demands.  Today  we  have 
128  caretakers  on  our  various  roads.  We  endeavor  to  place  a  man 
on  each  road,  that  is,  we  give  each  of  our  caretakers  4  to  5  miles  of 
road  to  care  for.  It  is  the  duty  of  these  men  to  keep  the  roads  in 
good  shape  at  all  times,  that  is,  insofar  as  minor  repairs  are  con- 
cerned. They  are  required  to  look  after  the  drains,  the  earthen  road 
alongside  the  improved  portion  must  be  kept  free  from  grass  and 
weeds,  alll  oose  stones  must  be  removed  from  the  road,  and  they 
must  look  after  the  removal  of  all  small  slips  or  slides.  Also,  the 
matter  of  obstructions,  such  as  telephone  and  telegraph  poles,  sewer 
heads,  bridge  walls  and  copings,  etc.,  the  same  must  be  whitened  or 
whitewashed.  These  act  as  a  guide  to  the  traveling  public  and  are 
very  much  appreciated.  They  also  are  required  to  keep  the  depart- 
ment advised  of  any  and  all  accidents  that  might  occur,  making 
detailed  report  of  the  same. 

In  conclusion,  while  we  have  accomplished  something  in  the  way 
of  road  building,  we  feel  that  we  have  just  commenced.  Each  day 
presents  something  new.  The  records  furnished  you  deal  entirely 
with  the  County  of  Allegheny.  We  have  several  miles  of  road  im- 
proved by  the  highway  department  of  Pennsylvania.  No  aid  was 
extended  to  the  county  in  its  system  of  roads,  but  in  order  to  get 
additional  mileage  of  improved  roads,  the  county  has,  in  numerous 
cases,  joined  with  the  State  in  improving  of  State  roads  within  the 
limits  of  the  county,  paying  one-eighth  and  in  some  cases  one-fourth 
of  the  total  cost. 

While  our  county  occupies  a  foremost  place  in  the  movement  for 
"  better  roads/'  it  possibly  might  be  interesting  to  some  to  know  how 
this  proposition  is  financed.  As  before  stated,  road  improvements  in 
our  county  are  carried  on  by  the  issue  of  bonds.  The  assessed  valua- 
tion of  our  county  is  greater  than  that  of  the  States  of  Maine,  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont  combined,  totalling  $1,175,000,000.  By 
issuing  road  bonds,  and  thereby  allowing  future  generations  to  share 
in  the  cost,  we  are  able  to  operate  with  a  low  road  tax. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  chair  will  have  to  make  a  general  apology 
to  everyone  who  talks  here,  but  in  order  to  give  everyone  a  chance, 


BITUMINOUS   CONSTRUCTION  143 

we  have  got  to  limit  ourselves  rather  closely.  The  next  subject 
we  have  got  to  discuss  is  "Bituminous  Macadam,  Construction  and 
Maintenance,"  by  Mr.  S.  D.  Foster,  chief  engineer  of  the  State 
highway  department  of  Pennsylvania. 

BITUMINOUS  CONSTRUCTION 

BY  S.  D.  FOSTER 

Chief  Engineer  Pennsylvania  State  Highway  Commission 

The  subject  of  bituminous  construction,  the  one  upon  which  I 
have  been  invited  to  speak,  is  such  a  broad  one,  and  one  upon  which 
so  much  has  been  said  and  written,  that  I  will  not  attempt  to  dis- 
cuss its  merits,  compare  it  with  other  types  of  pavements,  or  take 
up  the  correct  method  of  maintenance  after  construction,  but  will 
deal  entirely  with  the  two  types  of  construction  most  commonly 
used  by  engineers  today,  viz:  The  bituminous  road  constructed  by 
penetration  method,  and  the  bituminous  road  constructed  by  mix- 
ing method. 

Speaking  generally  of  the  two  methods  of  construction,  and  taking 
into  account  the  hundreds  of  miles  of  bituminous  roads  already 
constructed,  I  feel  safe  hi  saying  that  there  is  probably  no  other 
type  of  construction  about  which  there  is  less  absolute  information 
concerning  the  physical  and  chemical  characteristics  of  the  bitu- 
minous materials  and  the  road  metals  which  will  bring  about  the 
best  results.  There  is  no  type  of  road  construction  which  requires 
more  care  or  more  consistent  expert  supervision  and  inspection  than 
that  involved  in  the  use  of  bituminous  material,  and,  until  such 
time  as  we  are  able  to  thoroughly  educate  and  instruct  efficient  and 
capable  engineers  and  inspectors  in  this  type  of  construction,  the 
same  will  remain  in  an  experimental  stage.  In  general,  also,  I  would 
state  that  the  preparation  of  the  sub-grade,  the  drainage,  and  the 
foundation  are  extremely  important  in  the  success  of  bituminous 
pavements,  and,  unless  properly  constructed,  will  bring  about  their 
destruction.  I  might  state  at  this  time  that,  to  my  mind,  the  ex- 
perimental stage  in  foundation  work  has  been  passed,  and,  that  for 
the  ordinary  country  traffic  to  which  the  average  highways  must 
be  subjected,  an  8-inch  telford  foundation,  or  a  5-inch  cement  con- 
crete foundation,  when  properly  constructed,  is  sufficient  for  the 
carrying  of  any  class  of  pavement  which  we  may  desire  to  place 
thereon. 

Presuming  that  the  foundation  has  been  properly  completed,  I 
do  not  believe  that  I  can  better  describe  the  method  of  building 
thereon  a  bituminous  penetration  pavement  than  by  quoting  from 
the  Pennsylvania  State  highway  department's  specifications,  to  wit: 

Upon  a  suitable  foundation  there  shall  be  spread  a  layer  of  broken  stone  of 
such  quality  as  may  be  suitable.  The  stone  shall  be  broken  in  fairly  uniform 
and  regular  cubes,  free  from  dirt  or  dust,  and  comparatively  free  from  flakes 
or  splinters.  The  stone  shall  be  of  such  size  that  they  will  pass  a  1^-inch  cir- 


144  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

cular  opening  and  over  a  f-inch  circular  opening.  This  layer  of  stone  shall 
be  of  such  thickness  that,  when  it  has  been  rolled  with  at  least  a  10-ton  power 
macadam  roller,  it  shall  have  a  thickness  of  3  inches. 

The  surface  must  be  firm  and,  when  completed,  correspond  to  the  grade  in 
proper  crown  of  cross-section.  Upon  each  square  yard  of  this  surface  shall  be 
evenly  spread,  by  means  of  an  approved  pressure  distributor  or  fan-spout 
sprinkling-pot,  from  1J  to  If  gallons  of  bituminous  material,  of  a  penetration 
from  90  to  120. 

The  bituminous  material  shall  be  heated  to  a  temperature  of  approximately 
350°F.  Immediately  thereafter,  sufficient  dry,  dustless  screenings,  passing  a 
£-inch  screen,  shall  be  spread  in  sufficient  quantities  to  evenly  cover  the 
entire  surface  of  the  road  and  take  up  excess  bituminous  material.  The  road 
shall  then  be  rolled  until  firm  and  a  smooth  surface  results  and  conforms  tc 
the  longitudinal  and  transverse  section. 

While  the  surface  is  clean  and  warm,  a  seal  coat  of  bituminous  material  of 
proper  consistency  to  be  flexible  when  cold,  shall  be  spread  £  gallon  to  the 
square  yard.  It  shall  be  applied  while  at  a  temperature  of  350°F.,  and,  whik 
the  bituminous  material  is  in  a  liquid  state,  there  must  be  spread  a  top  dress- 
ing of  clean,  dry,  Torpedo  sand,  or  dustless  stone  chips,  in  sufficient  quanti- 
ties to  cover  the  entire  surface  of  the  road  and  take  up  any  excess  bituminous 
material. 

Immediately  thereafter,  the  road  shall  again  be  thoroughly  rolled ;  if  so  di- 
rected, the  stone,  stone  chips,  and  sand  must  be  heated.  In  rolling,  the  rollei 
should  start  from  the  side  line  and  work  toward  the  center,  and,  in  all  cases; 
continue  until  thorough  compression  is  secured. 

By  following  these  instructions,  a  first-class  penetration  pavemenl 
can  be  constructed,  but,  in  the  experience  of  the  department,  the 
engineer  has  continually  occurring  the  several  conditions  which  1 
am  about  to  enumerate,  any  one  of  which,  escaping  his  attention 
will  be  bound  to  produce  a  weak  spot  in  the  pavement,  to  wit :  Th< 
presence  of  water  in  the  foundation,  due  either  to  wet  weathei 
springs,  or  to  rain-fall  after  the  foundation  has  been  placed.  Thii 
condition  results  in  water  working  up  through  the  telford  stone 
thence  through  the  stone  comprising  the  aggregate  of  the  pavement 
and  attacks  the  bituminous  material,  which  losing  its  bonding  powers 
readily  disintegrates  the  pavement.  Another  condition  ofttimes 
occurring,  is  due  to  the  contractor  not  napping  his  telford  properly 
and  attempting  to  bring  the  same  to  the  proper  crown  and  cress 
section  by  the  use  of  stone  spalls.  These  cannot  be  thoroughly 
rolled  into  the  foundation,  and,  when  the  stone  which  is  to  be  treatec 
with  bituminous  material  is  hauled  on  the  road,  the  spalls  contin 
ually  work  up  through  the  smaller  stone  and  produce  a  weak  plac( 
in  the  finished  pavement. 

The  use  of  soft  stone,  especially  in  districts  where  local  stone  i* 
used  for  road  purposes,  furnishes  another  problem  for  the  engineer 
Soft  stone,  when  placed  in  the  pavement  and  rolled,  may  seemingly 
be  treated  with  bituminous  material  and  thus  cover  up  all  crack: 
or  fractures  which  may  have  been  made  by  the  initial  rolling,  bu1 
the  rolling  of  the  pavement,  both  after  the  first  application  of  th< 
bituminous  material  and  by  the  final  compacting  of  the  same,  wil 
again  fracture  more  or  less  of  the  stone  aggregate.  These  fractures 
occurring  as  they  do  after  the  application  of  the  bituminous  material 


BITUMINOUS   CONSTRUCTION  145 

will  be  void  of  binding  qualities  and  the  stone  will  immediately  start 
to  break  down  through  continued  rubbing,  one  piece  against  the 
other.  This,  in  itself,  produces  dust  and  allows  the  moisture  to 
penetrate  into  the  pavement,  again  causing  destruction  to  the  bond- 
ing powers  of  the  bituminous  material.  In  addition,  this  soft  stone 
is  readily  worn  away  by  passing  vehicles  and  serves  to  shorten  the 
life  of  a  bituminous  pavement. 

Stone  crushed  in  quarries,  where  there  is  an  abundance  of  strip- 
ping, or  where  there  is  a  strata  of  soft  stone,  or  stone  hauled  upon 
the  highway  and  allowed  to  stand  for  several  days  subject  to  clouds 
of  dust  from  passing  vehicles,  become  covered  with  a  fine  film  of 
dust  particles.  Stone  of  this  character,  when  placed  in  the  road  and 
subjected  to  the  application  of  bituminous  material,  cannot  be 
properly  bonded,  inasmuch  as  the  bituminous  material,  while  cover- 
ing each  stone,  is  unable  to  directly  bond  itself  to  the  stone  proper, 
for  the  dust  layer  covering  the  stone  will  act  as  a  barrier  and,  while 
the  bituminous  material  will  or  may  hold  the  stone  in  place  in  the 
pavement,  it  will  not  have  the  proper  bonding  of  one  particle  of 
stone  with  another.  Stone  with  a  smooth  non-porous  surface  will 
prove  a  failure  on  account  of  the  inability  of  the  bituminous  material 
to  adhere  thereto.  Wet  or  damp  stones  result,  likewise,  in  the  bi- 
tuminous material  not  obtaining  any  adhesion.  It  is  well  also  to 
avoid  those  classes  of  stone  which  do  not  crush  in  a  cube  or  near- 
cubical  shape.  Stone  that  break  or  crush  in  splinters  will  not  take 
the  compression  and  will  not  interlock  themselves  one  with  the 
other  in  the  manner  most  desired  in  accomplishing  first-class  results. 

The  selection  of  a  suitable  binder  is  a  most  important  matter, 
requiring  skill  and  judgment.  There  is  no  one  "best"  product,  and 
the  selection  must  be  governed  by  a  number  of  conditions.  The 
principal  features  to  be  considered  in  this  connection  are:  The 
characteristics  of  the  stone  to  be  used;  the  manner  of  applying  the 
bituminous  cement — whether  the  material  is  to  be  applied  hot  or 
cold,  by  means  of  distributors  with  or  without  pressure,  or  by  pour- 
ing-pots;— the  quantity  and  character  of  traffic  to  which  the  road 
will  be  subjected;  climatic  conditions;  the  cost  of  bituminous  mate- 
rial; and  the  probable  cost  of  application. 

Inasmuch  as  the  results  to  be  obtained  are  the  securing  of  a  com- 
pact, uniformly  solid  paving  surface,  impervious  to  water,  it  is  ob- 
vious that  continued  and  experienced  supervision  and  exceptional 
care  be  taken.  Equally  important  with  the  selection  of  the  bituminous 
material  is  the  care  with  which  it  must  be  heated,  as  the  slightest 
over-heating  will  burn  the  product  and  render  it  unfit  as  a  binder. 
It  has  been  my  experience  that  no  successful  results  can  be  accom- 
plished unless  the  inspector  keeps  continually  with  him  on  the  work 
a  thermometer,  with  which  to  test  the  temperature  to  which  the 
bituminous  cement  is  being  subjected.  Another  frequent  failure 
occurs  through  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  quantity  of  bituminous 
material  applied  to  the  stone  and  is  caused  by  crude  or  careless  ap- 


146  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

plications,  and  cannot  bring  about  proper  results.  The  hand-pour- 
ing should  be  supplanted  by  suitable  mechanical  distributors  which 
will  apply  the  bituminous  cements  under  pressure  and  insure  thorough 
penetration  and  a  more  even  application. 

In  enumerating  the  various  mistakes  which  so  often  occur  in  pene- 
tration work,  I  would  say  that  the  cause  of  failures  can  be  readily 
traced  in  many  instances  to  faulty  plans  and  specifications,  lack  of 
care  and  judgment  in  the  selection  of  materials,  poor  and  inade- 
quate equipment  with  which  to  carry  on  the  work,  inexperienced 
labor  for  both  skilled  and  unskilled  service,  continuation  of  work 
during  unseasonable  or  inclement  weather,  and  insufficient  funds  to 
expedite  the  work  under  way.  I  might  say  in  passing  that  probably 
the  most  noticeable  cause  of  failure  is  that  a  class  of  incompetent 
contractors,  having  absolutely  no  experience  in  bituminous  con- 
struction, bid  on  highway  work  and  look  to  the  engineering  depart- 
ment as  a  school  of  instruction  for  their  guidance. 

As  to  what  the  life  of  a  bituminous  penetration  pavement  will  be, 
time  alone  can  tell  as  the  body  of  these  roads  contains  a  mass  of 
material  that  is  not  evenly,  properly,  or  finely  graded.  There  ex- 
ists sections  that  are  both  coarse  and  fine,  permitting  an  applica- 
tion of  the  bituminous  binder  either  in  excess  or  deficiency;  and, 
possibly,  in  some  instances,  only  a  light  seal  application  is  secured. 
While  this  condition  does  not  exist  generally,  I  must  acknowledge 
that  it  is  there  and  feel  that  wherever  this  method  of  construction 
has  been,  or  is  being,  followed,  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  until  the 
weak  places  show  signs  of  disintegration;  these,  of  course,  can  be 
repaired  by  an  efficient  maintenance  force,  and  upon  this  mainte- 
nance force  the  probable  length  of  life  of  this  type  of  pavement  de- 
pends. Where  this  class  of  pavement  is  supervised  under  the  most 
expert  management,  the  results  at  best  are  only  those  of  a  surface 
character  and  produce  a  road  that  for  the  time  being  seems  to  give 
satisfactory  results. 

Bituminous  concrete  pavements,  constructed  by  the  mixing  to- 
gether of  stone,  sand,  and  bituminous  cement,  in  mechanical  mixers, 
reduce  the  chance  of  failure  to  the  minimum  and  eliminate  many 
of  the  causes  of  failure  found  in  penetration  construction. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  discuss  here  the  material,  its  size, 
quality,  or  character,  or  to  explain  in  detail  how  this  mixture  is 
secured,  as  the  average  engineer  is  well  acquainted  with  this  type 
of  pavement,  inasmuch  as  it  is  very  similar  to  the  mixtures  used  in 
all  the  large  cities  for  street  purposes.  While  the  best  results  from 
this  type  of  pavement  are  obtained  by  using  a  cement  concrete  foun- 
dation, it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that  such  a  foundation  be  used, 
as  experience  has  demonstrated  that  water-bound  macadam  roads, 
where  they  have  been  properly  drained,  can  be  resurfaced  with  a 
mechanical  mixture,  and  the  results  therefrom  compare  favorably 
with  those  of  sheet  asphalt  streets.  This  type  of  construction  has 
been  a  success  and  I  feel  safe  in  saying  that  most  of  the  old  water- 


BITUMINOUS   CONSTRUCTION  147 

bound  macadam  roads  that  have  been  torn  by  the  heavy  traffic  can 
readily  be  brought  to  grade,  properly  crowned,  made  firm,  and  cov- 
ered with  a  bituminous  concrete  that  will  be  economical  and  service- 
able for  many  years. 

I  do  not  very  much  believe  in  the  use  of  telford  foundation  for  a 
mechanically-mixed  surface,  as  it  is  almost  impossible  to  obtain, 
upon  a  telford  foundation,  a  surface  that  will  not  be  more  or  less 
wavy,  and  we  all  know  that  bituminously-constructed  pavements, 
which  have  a  wavy  surface,  are  soon  doomed  to  destruction.  In  the 
construction  of  this  type  of  pavement,  there  are  a  few  points  which 
must  be  closely  watched :  The  first — and  to  my  mind  the  greatest — 
is  the  resultant  mixture  produced  by  the  majority  of  mixers  at  pres- 
ent in  use.  There  is  a  tendency  in  all  revolving  mixers  to  bring  the 
large  stone  together,  and,  unless  in  the  dumping  of  the  mixer  this  is 
closely  watched,  the  purpose  of  mixing  will  be  defeated,  which  is 
that  of  having  the  aggregate  of  different  sizes  so  mixed  as  to  give  the 
lowest  percentage  of  voids.  This  condition  will  again  arise  if  the 
material  has  to  be  transported  a  very  great  distance  from  the  mixer 
to  the  road,  as  there  will  be  a  tendency  for  the  larger  stone  to  work 
toward  the  top  of  the  load  and  the  smaller  material  toward  the  bot- 
tom. So,  it  is  important,  in  placing  the  material  in  the  pavement, 
that  it  should  first  be  dumped  upon  a  platform,  and  from  there  shov- 
eled into  place  in  as  uniform  a  mixture  as  possible. 

I  have  used  two  different  distinct  types  of  mixed  bituminous  con- 
struction: One,  a  cut-back  bituminous  material  which  remained  in 
a  plastic  state  for  several  days  after  being  placed  on  the  road,  there- 
by bringing  about  a  continuous  bonding  process,  by  means  of  local 
traffic  passing  over  the  road.  The  result  of  this  was  to  bring  about 
a  perfectly  smooth  and  uniform  surface,  in  which  there  was  probably 
from  70  to  80  per  cent  of  mineral  aggregate  exposed,  which  furnished 
traction  for  horses'  shoes  and  automobile  tires,  thus  eliminating  one 
of  the  great  criticisms  of  this  type  of  pavement.  The  other,  a 
straight  bituminous  material  of  approximately  60  to  70  penetration, 
upon  which  a  seal  coat  was  used  to  bring  about  a  smooth  and  compact 
surface. 

Care  should  be  exercised  in  determining  the  sizes  of  stone  for  the 
type  of  pavement  which  is  to  be  constructed.  From  experience,  I 
do  not  believe  it  wise  to  use  any  stone  larger  than  will  pass  through 
a  1-inch  ring,  in  the  construction  of  a  pavement  upon  cement  con- 
crete foundation,  inasmuch  as,  in  this  type  of  pavement,  while  the 
load  is  seemingly  carried  upon  the  surface,  it  is  hi  reality  carried 
directly  upon  the  foundation,  and,  if  stone  larger  than  1  inch  in 
size  is  used,  there  will  be  a  likelihood  of  the  larger  stone  occurring 
directly  upon  one  another,  thus  throwing  open  the  chance  of  frac- 
ture to  either  or  both  stones  by  impact  from  horses'  shoes,  or  weight 
from  the  tires  of  heavily-loaded  wagons. 

Another  point  that  does  not  favor  the  larger  stone  lies  in  the  fact 
that  sooner  or  later  the  stone  is  exposed  in  the  surface  in  its  largest 


148  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

diameter,  again  placing  it  in  a  position  to  be  fractured  by  traffic. 
When  such  fracture  occurs,  unless  the  pavement  is  treated  from  time 
to  time  with  light  applications  of  bituminous  cement,  it  opens  the 
way  for  moisture  to  enter  the  pavement  and  thus  destroy  the  bind- 
ing quality  of  the  bituminous  material. 

Where  ordinary  care  has  been  taken  in  the  construction  of  mixed 
bituminous  pavements  which  have  come  under  my  observation,  the 
results  obtained  fully  warrant  a  continuation  of  this  kind  of  con- 
struction, and  I  believe  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the 
experimental  stages  of  these  pavements  will  be  a  feature  of  the  past, 
providing  explicit  specifications  are  drawn  to  plainly  designate  the 
quality  of  all  bituminous  and  other  material  desired  in  each  individ- 
ual job,  and  the  old  practice  of  copying  specifications  and  methods 
in  use  elsewhere,  regardless  of  local  conditions  such  as  drainage,  sub- 
base,  and  traffic,  is  discontinued;  and  providing  we  are  successful 
in  properly  educating  highway  engineers,  inspectors,  contractors, 
and  the  forces,  both  skilled  and  otherwise,  in  connection  with  the 
use  of  all  materials  that  enter  into  the  construction  of  this  class  of 
paving;  and  I  consider  that  in  the  very  near  future  there  will  be  little 
distinction  between  the  general  specifications  that  designate  the  con- 
struction of  highway  pavements  and  those  that  designate  the  con- 
struction of  city  streets,  inasmuch  as  the  automobile  and  automo- 
bile truck — which  are  the  most  dangerous  factors  in  the  destruction 
of  the  average  pavement — will  traverse  the  city  street  and  the  coun- 
try road  in  equal  numbers. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  on  this  paper  was  to  be  opened 
by  Mr.  W.  A.  McLean,  provincial  engineer  of  Ontario,  Canada.  IE 
Mr.  McLean  here?  If  not,  the  subject  is  open  for  discussion  from 
the  floor. 

MR.  GASH  (of  Illinois):  I  like  the  paper  very  well  in  some  re- 
spects, but  the  thing  that  I  am  here  at  this  Congress  for  is  to  lean: 
not  what  the  failures  are  but  what  we  must  do  to  make  the  successes 
I  like  to  hear  the  discussion  of  the  successes  of  men  like  Washington, 
Jefferson  and  the  great  individuals  of  the  world  that  have  madt 
successes,  not  those  that  have  made  mistakes,  and  if  the  last  speakei 
would  have  told  us  what  to  do  to  keep  away  from  those  failures  anc 
the  things  to  use  to  make  the  roads  a  success,  I  believe  it  would  b« 
better  for  us,  and  I  would  like  to  bear,  in  the  future,  the  gentlemar 
himself  tell  us  what  materials  or  some  of  the  other  gentlemen  her« 
tell  us  what  materials  should  be  used  to  get  away  from  those  failures 

MR.  FOSTER:  I  might  say  that  in  taking  up  the  failures  we  can 
by  the  elimination  of  those  failures,  bring  about  the  success  of  eithei 
of  the  pavements  discussed.  We  feel  in  Pennsylvania  today  thai 
we  have  eliminated  the  mistakes  and  our  specifications  have  beer 
so  arranged  as  to  bring  about  results  and  I  am  only  giving  you  tin 


DISCUSSION  149 

mistakes  to  throw  your  inspectors  and  engineers  a  little  bit  more 
on  the  track  oif  what  they  should  look  out  for  in  the  elimination  of 
certain  materials  to  bring  about  a  permanent  result.  The  paper, 
when  fully  read,  will  explain  all  that. 

A  MEMBER:  I  would  like  to  ask  what  the  experience  is  in  regard 
to  the  penetration  method?  I  come  from  El  Paso  County,  which 
built  about  55  miles  of  bituminous  pavement  or  country  road  by 
the  penetration  method  and  we  are  thinking  of  going  to  the  mixing 
method.  I  would  like  to  have  the  results  of  your  experience. 

MR.  FOSTER:  That  is  all  answered  in  my  paper.  I  dealt  with 
both  methods.  In  the  penetration  method,  your  road  is  open  to 
mistakes  and  there  is  more  chance  of  failure.  In  a  penetration  road 
you  have,  at  best,  nothing  but  a  surface  treatment;  it  will  probably 
give  you  satisfactory  wear  four  or  five  years.  With  the  mixed  pave- 
ment which  we  call  fool  proof,  because,  except  in  rare  instances, 
you  cannot  depend  on  the  type  of  men  you  get  to  give  it  absolute 
attention  and  you  are  not  dependent  on  the  mixers;  when  the  sand 
and  the  asphalt  has  passed  through,  that  mixture  is  thoroughly 
coated  and  you  have  very  much  less  chance  of  making  the  failures. 
In  the  penetration  method  you  have  to  take  into  consideration  the 
climatic  conditions,  the  method  of  applying  your  bitumen,  whether 
it  is  to  be  applied  hot  or  cold,  by  force  sprinkler  or  hand  spout  and 
a  thousand  and  one  things.  We  don't  think  that  the  results  we  have 
in  Pennsylvania  would  be  applicable  in  each  State.  My  idea  is 
that  each  engineer  should  study  the  conditions  he  is  confronted 
with  and  make  separate  specifications  covering  each  individual  road, 
but  in  a  mixed  road,  on  a  concrete  foundation,  you  have  less  chance 
of  failure,  and  while  the  cost  is  somewhat  greater  I  think  the  life  of 
that  pavement  will  fully  repay  you  for  it. 

MR.  CURRIE  (of  Ottawa) :  I  am  very  much  pleased  to  hear  Mr. 
Gillespie's  interesting  paper  that  he  read  a  few  minutes  ago,  saying 
that  he  adhered  to  a  Telford  base  on  his  roads.  My  opinion  and 
the  experience  I  have  had,  I  think  a  Telford  base  is  much  prefer- 
able to  the  ordinary  macadam  base  that  you  get  usually  from  the 
crusher.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  in  a  macadam  base,  large  stones, 
say  3  or  4  inches — you  get  very  large  quantities  of  flat  stone  which, 
by  some  extraordinary  process,  works  through  the  ordinary  macadam 
and  works  to  the  surface  of  your  road,  and  after  a  considerable 
quantity  of  traffic  has  been  over  that  road  a  rut  is  formed.  This 
gentleman  in  front  of  me  here  asked  for  some  of  the  successes  of 
mixed  or  penetration  processes  on  bituminous  macadam  roads.  Up 
to  a  few  months  ago  I  was  engineer  for  a  little  city  called  West 
Lawrence,  close  to  Montreal,  and  had  considerable  success  with  the 
mixed  method  of  applying  tar,  principally,  and  quite  the  reverse 
with  the  penetration  method.  The  penetration  process  I  found  took 


150  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

something  like  3  gallons  of  tar  per  square  yard,  whereas,  the  mixed 
method  took  something  slightly  under  2  gallons  per  square  yard. 
The  penetration  process,  after  traffic  had  been  over  it,  the  tar  started 
to  buckle  up  on  the  surface  and  in  the  hot  weather  became  a  men- 
ace and  a  nuisance  both  to  pedestrians  and  vehicular  traffic.  We 
had  quite  the  contrary  experience  with  the  mixed  method;  taking 
our  stone,  first  of  all  heating  it,  freeing  it  from  all  dirt  and  moisture 
and  afterwards  applying  hot  tar  and  also  mixing  it  in  the  mixer. 
That  formed  a  glaze,  really,  over  the  Telford  base.  Over  that  we 
put  smaller  stone  and  treated  it  in  a  similar  manner.  After  finish- 
ing, we  painted  over  the  surface  with  this  particular  tar  we  used; 
on  top  of  that  we  put  small  screenings,  screenings  that  perhaps  would 
pass  through  a  J-inch  mesh,  and  I  must  say  that  we  had  consider- 
able success  with  that  class  of  construction.  Another  class  of  con- 
struction with  which  we  also  had  considerable  success  was  taking 
the  ordinary  water  bound  macadam  road  construction,  which  I  need 
not  enlarge  on.  After  the  road  has  been  under  traffic  say  two  or 
three  weeks,  we  apply  one  coat  of  tar  paint  on  top  and  after  that 
dried  in  we  put  another  on  and  then  screenings  on  top,  and  we  had 
considerable  success  with  it. 

A  MEMBER:  I  came  here  to  learn  and  have  learned  a  great  deal. 
I  am  somewhat  enthused  now  regarding  Congress  passing  laws  in 
order  that  we  can  have  thoroughfares  from  one  end  of  the  country 
to  the  other.  I  have  heard  discussions  here  on  different  roads.  I 
represent  Macklin  County  as  county  commissioner,  and  I  have  taken 
a  great  deal  of  interest  in  road  building,  and  we  have  tried  every- 
thing; we  have  tried  brick,  asphalt  and  everything  else,  and  as  one 
gentleman  from  Michigan  said  a  while  ago,  the  secret  is  maintenance. 
For  illustration,  when  I  started  from  Columbus,  my  wife  overhauled 
my  valise  and  found  a  button  off  my  overcoat.  She  said  "It  has 
to  be  repaired  before  you  can  go."  I  only  had  fifteen  minutes  to 
make  the  train,  but  she  sewed  that  button  on,  repaired  the  coat, 
and  we  have  got  to  take  care  of  these  roads,  we  found  that  out.  We 
have  got  six  crews  taking  care  of  these  roads.  We  have  got  the 
gravel  roads,  we  take  one  of  these  crews  to  a  gravel  road,  fix  it  up, 
roll  it  good  and  make  a  good  road  of  it.  We  come  to  another  road, 
water  bound  macadam,  and  we  go  to  work  and  fill  up  the  depressions. 
We  see  water  in  a  hole  right  after  a  rain — we  put  stuff  in,  and  roll 
it  down  with  a  roller.  We  have  got  good  roads.  We  come  along  a 
tarred  road  and  treat  it  the  same  way.  We  come  along  to  one  that 
is  used  too  much;  we  cut  it  off,  put  it  in  good  shape  and  roll  it  down. 
I've  heard  a  good  deal  of  discussion  here;  what  you  want  to  do  is 
to  get  your  Congressmen  together  and  don't  vote  for  a  man  unless 
he  will  tell  you,  on  the  honor  of  his  word,  that  he  will  vote  for  build- 
ing good  roads  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  another.  We  have 
got  a  good  highway  commission.  I  noticed  one  farmer  here;  when 
I  was  building  a  road  through  his  district,  he  didn't  want  it  at  that 


WATERWAY   STRUCTURES  151 

time.  I  asked  him  "Why  don't  you  want  it?"  He  said,  "Why, 
because  these  here  city  fellows  with  automobiles  and  these  joy  riders 
and  all  these  people  tear  the  roads  up  and  we  have  got  to  pay  for 
them."  Now  every  farmer  along  that  road  has  an  automobile  and 
wants  more  roads. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    The  next  subject  is  "Drainage  Structures,"  by 
Mr.  A.  R.  Hirst. 


WATERWAY  STRUCTURES 

BY  A.  R.  HIRST 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  Wisconsin 

Among  the  most  important  considerations  affecting  the  construc- 
tion of  public  roads  is  that  of  drainage.  The  life  of  every  road  struc- 
ture depends  upon  the  drainage  given  it,  and  the  culverts  and  bridges 
necessary  must  be  built  not  only  to  serve  the  purpose  of  drainage, 
but  must  serve  also  the  convenience  and  safety  of  travel.  The  fail- 
ure of  a  road  results  only  in  the  additional  expense  necessary  to  re- 
place it  in  proper  condition,  but  the  failure  of  a  bridge  results  also  in 
the  suspension  of  travel,  and  if  it  occurs  at  the  wrong  moment,  may 
cause  considerable  loss  of  property  and  possibly  injury  or  death  to 
those  traveling  the  road. 

For  many  years  both  the  design  and  erection  of  highway  bridges 
was  practically  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  steel  bridge  companies, 
who  used  their  opportunity  to  the  utmost  and  decorated  the  land- 
scape with  structures  which  had  little  to  commend  them  except  the 
fat  prices  they  brought  from  an  unknowing  public. 

Within  the  last  few  years,  however,  many  States  have  created 
highway  commissions  which  have  effectually  taken  up  the  problem  of 
bridge  design  and  a  considerable  change  for  the  better  has  occurred, 
both  in  the  strength  of  bridge  superstructures  and  in  the  foundations, 
more  especially  in  the  latter,  which  was  the  place  where  most  of  the 
older  structures  were  especially  deficient,  if  one  point  of  weakness 
can  be  selected  from  the  mass  of  general  ineffectiveness. 

A  properly  designed  waterway  structure  should  fulfill  the  following 
requirements : 

1.  Waterway  sufficient  to  carry  off  promptly  the  water  coming  to 
it. 

2.  Proper  foundations  to  bear  the  loads,  resist  undermining,  and 
give  long  service. 

3.  Superstructure  designed  to  bear  for  a  long  period  of  years  any 
load  which  may  legally  be  imposed  upon  it. 

4.  Superstructure  wide  enough  and  so  constructed  as  to  serve  the 
comfort  and  convenience  of  travel. 

5.  Economy  of  maintenance. 


152  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

A  sixth  factor,  that  of  aesthetic  design  and  fitness  of  the  structure 
to  the  surroundings,  has  been  and  is  little  considered  in  bridge  and 
culvert  design,  but  will  probably  be  demanded  more  and  more  as 
public  appreciation  of  the  value  of  pleasing  design  grows. 

In  the  short  compass  of  this  paper  we  cannot  enter  into  a  discus- 
sion of  bridge  design,  or  give  any  details  of  any  specific  type  of  struc- 
ture. We  will,  however,  give  some  account  of  our  standard  practice 
in  the  State  highway  work  in  Wisconsin,  and  probably  this  will  be 
sufficient  evidence  of  our  views  as  to  what  constitutes  a  proper 
waterway  structure. 

Wisconsin  is  a  State-aid  State,  and  gives  State-aid  to  bridges  and 
culverts  as  well  as  to  road  construction.  All  waterway  structures 
6  feet  and  under  in  span  are  classed  as  culverts,  and  are  built  out  of 
the  funds  available  for  the  construction  of  the  road.  All  waterway 
structures  over  6  feet  in  span  are  considered  as  bridges  and  must  be 
provided  for  by  separate  appropriations,  the  State  paying  20  per  cent 
of  their  cost  instead  of  33J  per  cent  as  in  the  case  of  culverts  on 
roads. 

Wisconsin  has  a  drastic  bridge  law  which  provides  that  culverts 
under  18  inches  in  span  must  be  so  constructed  or  reconstructed  as 
to  stand  without  planking  a  load  of  18  tons,  and  waterway  struc- 
tures over  this  span  must  be  designed,  "in  accordance  with  standard 
engineering  practice,"  to  stand  a  load  of  15  tons  without  planking. 

In  addition  to  the  duty  of  designing  all  State-aids  bridges  and 
culverts,  the  State  highway  commission  has  imposed  upon  it  by  law 
the  duty  of  approving  as  to  their  safety  and  engineering  sufficiency 
the  plans  of  all  bridges  constructed  with  county  aid.  In  the  seven 
seasons  of  the  existence  of  the  Wisconsin  highway  commission  and 
its  predecessor  in  highway  work,  the  Wisconsin  Geological  and  Nat- 
ural History  Survey,  we  have  designed  about  1000  highway  bridges 
of  a  span  exceeding  10  feet  for  counties,  and  about  400  bridges  exceed- 
ing 6  feet  in  span,  and  innumerable  culverts  under  this  span  for  the 
State-aid  construction.  In  addition  to  this,  we  have  approved  the 
plans  for  probably  500  bridges  not  designed  by  our  engineers,  but 
simply  checked  as  to  engineering  sufficiency.  Actual  culvert  and 
bridge  construction  under  our  own  designs  has  cost  about  $2,00< >,'>.<;>. 

We  may  roughly  divide  our  bridge  superstructures  into  five  classes, 
as  follows: 

Class  1.  Spans  from  18  inches  to  10  feet.  Almost  invariably  con- 
structed of  reinforced  concrete  of  the  slab  type.  We  are  building 
even  the  smallest  culverts  of  reinforced  concrete,  as  we  find  in  Wiscon- 
sin that  they  are  entirely  serviceable,  easily  constructed,  and  in  prob- 
ably 50  per  cent  of  the  cases  cost  less  than  any  other  type  of  culvert 
except  wood,  which  is  not  allowed  on  any  of  our  work.  The  smallest 
concrete  structure  we  are  now  building  is  18  inches  by  12  inches,  as 
we  have  found  the  smaller  sizes  equally  as  expensive  and  very  easily 
blocked  with  ice  and  de*bris. 


WATERWAY   STRUCTURES  153 

In  some  cases  where  the  foundation  conditions  are  extraordinarily 
soft  and  difficult,  or  concrete  materials  are  not  reasonably  available, 
we  use  culverts  of  corrugated  metal  with  concrete  or  stone  end  walls, 
but  such  culverts  are  used  only  where  it  is  impracticable  to  use  con- 
crete, and  probably  not  1  per  cent  of  our  culverts  are  now  built  of 
this  material.  Vitrified  clay  is  not  used  at  all  on  State-aid  work, 
as  they  have  been  found  almost  invariably  to  crack  by  filling  and 
freezing.  Concrete  pipes  molded  in  place  and  afterwards  moved  to 
the  job  are  not  used  for  the  same  reason.  Under  conditions  favor- 
able to  their  use,  both  make  excellent  culverts,  and  we  could  recom- 
mend them  in  less  severe  climates.  Cast  iron  water  pipe  has  not 
been  used  on  account  of  its  cost,  which  invariably  exceeds  that  of 
concrete. 

We  find  in  the  small  concrete  culverts  from  18  inches  to  10  feet 
the  average  cost  per  cubic  yard  complete,  including  the  excavation 
and  backfilling,  is  about  $8,  and  very  seldom  runs  above  $10  per 
cubic  yard;  sometimes  as  low  as  $6. 

Class  2.  Spans  10  feet  to  40  feet.  Either  reinforced  concrete,  the 
slab  type  up  to  18  feet  and  the  through  girder  type  up  to  40  feet, 
or  I-beam  structures  with  concrete  floors  are  used.  We  are  building 
many  true  reinforced  concrete  bridges,  but  with  public  lettings  open 
to  any  bidder,  the  workmanship  and  finished  appearance  has  been 
so  poor  in  many  cases  that  we  are  using  more  I-beam  structures  than 
we  otherwise  would.  In  the  case  of  I-beams,  a  5-inch  concrete  floor 
is  placed  on  top  of  the  I-beams,  and  the  corrugated  arch  type  of 
support  for  the  concrete  between  the  I-beams  is  but  seldom  used. 

Class  8.  Spans  from  40  to  80  feet.  We  are  using  the  Warren 
riveted  pony  truss  practically  exclusively,  though  a  few  plate  girders 
are  being  used  where  the  conditions  of  hauling  are  favorable.  All  of 
these  structures  have  concrete  floors. 

Class  4-  Spans  from  80  to  135  feet.  We  use  the  riveted  Pratt  high 
truss  with  a  horizontal  top  chord,  also  with  a  reinforced  concrete 
floor. 

Class  5.  Spans  over  185  feet.  We  use  a  Pratt  riveted  high  truss 
with  a  curved  top  chord.  Practically  all  of  these  larger  spans  are 
also  built  with  a  reinforced  concrete  floor.  Very  seldom  do  we  use  a 
pin  connected  truss,  either  for  Class  4  or  5,  probably  not  once  in 
twenty-five  cases. 

From  our  cost  figures  on  all  bridges  so  far  constructed,  we  find 
that  for  any  span  the  price  erected  (including  substructure  and 
superstructure)  figures  out  very  closely  to  $40  per  linear  foot  of  the 
overall  span.  Reinforced  concrete  floors  average  about  20  cents  per 
square  foot.  Steel  in  plate  girder  and  truss  spans  averages  from  $25 
to  $70  a  ton  erected,  and  I-beam  spans  figure  from  $50  to  $60  a  ton 
erected. 

We  have  adopted  for  widths  for  concrete  culverts  and  bridges 
the  standards  recommended  by  the  Association  of  State  Highway 
Department,  which  are  as  follows: 


154  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

First  class  roads 

feet 

Culverts  under  12-foot  span,  minimum  width 24 

Slab  bridges  over  12-foot  span,  minimum  width 20 

All  other  concrete  spans,  minimum  width 20 

Very  long  bridges  less  if  necessary. 

Second  class  roads 

Culverts  less  than  12-foot  span,  minimum  width 20 

Slab  bridges  over  12-foot  span,  minimum  width 18 

All  other  concrete  bridges,  minimum  width 18 

Third  class  roads 

Culverts  less  than  12-foot  span,  minimum  width 20 

Slab  bridges  over  12-foot  span,  minimum  width 18 

Longer  bridges  may  be,  minimum  width 16 

Steel  bridges  are  built  almost  invariably  with  a  16-foot  roadway; 
that  is,  16-foot  clear  distance  between  trusses  or  rails,  no  matter 
what  the  class  of  road,  although  for  spans  under  80  feet  some  18-foot 
clear  roadways  have  been  built. 

Abutments  under  practically  all  structures  are  plain  concrete,  as 
with  concrete  materials  as  cheap  as  we  have  them  in  Wisconsin,  and 
with  the  difficulty  of  getting  first-class  workmanship  in  reinforced 
concrete  foundations  without  constant  inspection,  we  find  that  this 
is  the  cheapest  type  of  abutment.  Occasionally  cement  rubble  ma- 
sonry abutments  are  used,  and  once  in  many  times  driven  steel  I- 
beam  piles  surrounded  by  a  concrete  wall  are  used.  The  last  type  of 
abutment  has  been  found  to  be  very  satisfactory  and  economical  for 
high  abutments  on  sandy  bottoms,  and  has  largely  displaced  the  use 
of  cylinders  with  steel  backing.  Steel  backing  is  not  allowed  on  any 
State-aid  structure.  The  price  of  concrete  in  bridge  abutments  and 
piers  averaged  last  year  about  $8  per  cubic  yard. 

A  large  share  of  the  trouble  with  bridge  structures  results  from 
improperly  designed  foundations.  A  common  fault  is  stopping  work 
before  a  proper  depth  below  stream  bed  is  reached.  Seldom  should 
foundations  extend  less  than  4  feet  below  stream  bed,  and  whenever 
doubt  as  to  the  bearing  power  of  the  soil  at  that  point  is  entertained 
or  as  to  undermining  from  a  rapid  stream,  they  should  be  carried 
down  to  solid  soil  or  thoroughly  piled.  All  foundation  work  should 
be  inspected  as  the  excavation  is  made  and  material  is  placed,  not 
necessarily  by  an  engineer,  but  at  least  by  an  honest  man  with  good 
judgment  and  backbone.  All  concrete  work  in  any  part  of  the 
structure  should  be  inspected  as  it  is  placed.  Inspection  of  steel  and 
workmanship  on  it  as  it  is  erected  is  not  so  necessary,  as  it  can  be 
inspected  and  its  compliance  with  the  specifications  determined  after 
erection  at  the  time  acceptance  is  to  be  given. 

As  to  methods  of  letting  the  work.  We  have  found  it  necessary 
to  have  open  competition  and  sealed  bids  on  bridge  work,  and  by 
asking  for  mailed  bids  on  all  work  have  established  true  competition 
and  have  to  a  very  large  extent  broken  up  the  old  system  of  "pooling," 
and  combinations  of  the  bridge  agents  who  may  be  on  the  ground  at 


DISCUSSION  155 

the  letting.  We  furnish  complete  plans  for  foundations  and  for  re- 
inforced concrete,  I-beam  and  plate  girder  spans,  and  all  bidders  sub- 
mit prices  on  our  uniform  plans.  For  truss  spans,  we  furnish  the 
truss  diagram  showing  the  stresses  in  the  truss  members  and  the 
make-up  of  the  truss  members,  floor  system,  and  principal  connec- 
tions, and  the  successful  bidder  submits  for  approval  the  shop  draw- 
ings before  fabrication  is  commenced.  For  trusses  we  believe  the 
latter  system  is  preferable  to  that  of  furnishing  complete  shop  draw- 
ings, as  it  allows  manufacturers  to  follow  their  standard  shop  prac- 
tice in  detailing  so  long  as  these  details  are  satisfactory. 

The  proper  design  for  culverts  and  bridges  is  an  engineering  prob- 
lem which  should  always  be  left  to  engineers.  Probably  a  State  high- 
way department  can  handle  it  more  economically  than  can  private 
engineers,  as  so  many  bridges  will  be  built  of  one  span  that  super- 
structure plans  can  be  standardized  and  even  the  same  foundation 
plan  may  fit  several  bridges.  The  cost  of  designing,  letting  and  ac- 
cepting bridges  in  Wisconsin  has  averaged  us  about  3|  per  cent  of 
the  total  cost.  Inspection  has  been  paid  for  separately  by  the  local 
units.  It  would  probably  be  better  to  have  a  State  inspector  on 
each  bridge,  but  we  have  gotten  very  good  results  through  local  in- 
spection at  probably  25  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  placing  a  man  on 
each  job.  Important  jobs  should  have  a  skilled  inspector  by  all 
means. 

The  above  discussion,  I  am  afraid,  when  I  read  it  over,  is  not  as 
enlightening  as  could  be  desired,  but  I  hope  it  may  be  of  some  inter- 
est, and  if  so,  I  shall  feel  repaid  for  the  time  taken  to  prepare  it  in 
our  very  busiest  season. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  will  be  opened  by  Prof.  T.  H. 
MacDonald,  State  highway  engineer  of  Iowa. 

MR.  MACDONALD:  It  is  so  near  the  noon  hour  that  I  do  not 
expect  to  take  advantage  of  the  time  allotted  for  the  discussion  of 
the  paper,  because  in  the  main  it  represents  standard  practice  through- 
out the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  States.  The  Association  of  the 
State  Highway  Departments  of  these  States,  which  has  been  confined 
largely  to  these  States,  has  directed  during  its  meetings  for  the  past 
several  years,  its  attention  to  the  proper  design  of  bridges  and  cul- 
verts, and  these  departments  all  look  upon  the  subject  of  highway 
bridge  and  culvert  design  from  the  standpoint  of  a  State-wide  propo- 
sition. That  is,  it  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  the  individual  as  it 
is  a  matter  of  adopting  methods  that  can  be  standardized  and  designs 
that  can  be  duplicated  many  times.  For  instance,  all  of  the  stand- 
ard box  culvert  designs  of  the  State  highway  commission  of  Iowa 
are  duplicated  so  many  times  that  in  place  of  using  an  individual 
blue  print  for  these  structures,  they  are  electrotyped  and  printed 
by  the  thousands  and  when  we  consider  the  drainage  area  of  the 
State,  like  almost  any  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  States,  Iowa  I  think 
with  54,000  square  miles  and  under  the  law  the  State  department 


156  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

is  responsible  for  the  design  or  for  the  standard  specifications  govern- 
ing the  waterways  through  which  all  of  the  water  from  54,000  square 
miles  of  area  must  pass,  and  we  have  found  this  to  be  the  case,  that 
in  most  cases,  for  the  primary  structure,  those  structures  for  which 
there  is  a  small  tributary  area,  which  have  no  tributaries  themselves, 
we  have  found  that  in  most  cases  the  area  of  waterways  for  these 
structures  may  be  made  less  than  is  now  the  case;  that  is,  it  has 
been  cheaper,  in  these  States,  to  build  a  16-foot  bridge  when  planks 
were  cut  16  feet  long,  than  it  was  to  cut  the  planks  in  two  and  make 
it  8  feet  long,  and  so,  for  the  primary  structures,  using  Talbot's 
formula  and  blue  prints,  which  we  will  not  take  time  to  discuss  here, 
but  which  may  be  used  for  draining  different  characters  of  surfaces, 
we  are  cutting  down  the  size  of  the  waterway  for  all  of  the  primary 
drainage  area,  but  for  all  the  secondary  drainage  areas,  the  inclina- 
tion is  to  make  these  larger  and  I  believe  that  if  we  are  taught  any- 
thing by  the  recent  floods  which  occurred  last  year,  it  is  that  there 
must  be  some  control  of  the  streams  which  will  provide  for  all  of 
the  secondary  drainage  areas  adequate  waterways;  and  with  the 
limited  time  at  my  disposal,  there  is  only  one  other  point  I  wish  to 
mention  and  that  is  the  subject  of  federal  patents  as  related  to 
highway  improvement,  particularly  relative  to  highway  bridge  im- 
provements; it  is  my  idea  that  the  federal  government  should  not 
issue  patents  for  any  type  of  highway  improvement  for  which  the 
government  is  not  willing  to  take  the  responsibility.  The  State  of 
Iowa,  after  a  most  careful  examination  and  after  the  employment 
of  legal  advice,  patent  advice,  put  on  its  statute  books  last  year  a 
measure  by  which  the  State  is  empowered  in  any  case  in  which  the 
governor  may  think  that  the  interests  of  the  public  demand,  the 
State  is  empowered  to  intervene  and  take  over  the  defence  of  any 
patent  suit  relative  to  highway  improvement  patents,  and  the  State 
has  already  intervened  in  one  such  case,  and  it  is  my  thought  that 
it  is  necessary  to  examine  the  patents  that  have  been  issued  in  order 
that  there  will  not  be  fastened  upon  the  bridge  industries  as  related 
to  reinforced  concrete  designs,  any  royalty  which  is  not  proper,  and 
we  have  the  rather  unique  position  of  a  State  undertaking  to  defend 
its  right  against  the  federal  government,  which  we  have  felt  was 
somewhat  jeopardized  by  patents  which  were  issued.  I  believe  the 
federal  government  patent  officer  should  be  required  to  take  full 
responsibility  for  the  patents  which  are  issued,  so  that  we  will  know 
they  are  really  valid  and  should  be  entitled  to  the  respect  of  all 
the  engineers  who  wish  to  use  the  types  of  construction  that  are  so 
patented.  I  thank  you. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  will  pass  over  the  discussion  of  this  subject 
for  the  moment  and  get  the  other  subjects  before  us.  Next  we 
have  on  our  program  the  subject  of  "Brick  Roads/'  which  will  be 
discussed  by  Mr.  James  M.  McCleary,  county  engineer  of  Cuyahoga 
County,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 


BRICK   ROAD    CONSTRUCTION  157 

BRICK  ROAD  CONSTRUCTION 

BY  JAMES  M.  MCCLEARY 
Road  Engineer,  Cuyahoga  County,  Ohio 

The  road  system  of  Cuyahoga  County  has  received  so  much 
praise  that  anyone  who  claims  connection  with  its  development 
incurs  danger  of  the  charge  of  egotism,  provided  he  omits  to  point 
out  that  the  much  heralded  excellence  was  a  gradual  growth  and  that 
costly  mistakes  marred  the  county's  early  ventures  into  this  realm  of 
improvement.  These  mistakes  were  less  due  to  wrong  theories  or 
practices  of  the  engineers  than  to  the  demand  of  the  taxpayer  for  a 
cheap  improvement.  Couple  with  this  cause  the  eloquence  of  the 
material  man  who  had  something  to  sell  that  possessed  practically 
no  value  as  a  road  material.  The  extraordinary  merits  lay  entirely 
in  the  blithe  manner  and  quick  tongue  with  which  he  persuaded  the 
property  owner  that  if  his  material  were  used — and  his  only — when 
Gabriel  sounded  his  horn  and  we  all  answered  that  last  call  it  would 
be  clearly  evident  to  said  property  owner  that  the  Lord  Almighty 
made  a  serious  mistake  when  he  paved  his  streets  with  gold  and  over- 
looked so  valuable  a  substance  as  the  patented  article. 

The  failures  of  these  various  materials  I  shall  not  discuss,  but 
shall  deal  with  the  mistakes  of  early  brick  construction,  for  it  was 
by  these  earlier  experiences  that  the  present  methods  of  bu'lding 
brick  roads  in  Cuyahoga  County  were  evolved.  There  was  no  sud- 
den vault  to  excellence.  We  corrected  our  errors  and  gradually 
attained  the  type  of  highway  which  has  won  your  attention.  No 
peculiarities  of  topography  or  soil  make  this  kind  of  road  more  ap- 
propriate in  Cuyahoga  County  than  elsewhere.  To  make  this  clearer, 
I  will  state  that  in  the  western  part  of  the  county  the  land  is  so 
level  that  drainage  is  a  difficult  problem  and  must  be  given  much 
consideration.  In  the  southern  and  eastern  parts,  the  land  is  so 
broken  that  to  secure  a  feasible  grade  without  undue  expense  for 
excavation  becomes  the  chief  difficulty.  The  soil  varies  from  a 
sticky  yellow  clay  in  the  southern  and  eastern  sections  to  a  sandy 
loam  at  the  west.  The  development  of  the  brick  road  in  Cuyahoga 
County,  therefore,  was  obstructed  by  all  the  possible  problems  to  be 
found  elsewhere :  natural  and  artificial  soil,  grades,  climatic  influences 
and  the  opinion  of  the  abutting  property  owner,  this  latter  being 
always  ready  of  expression  at  every  gathering  where  road  building 
was  considered. 

The  first  brick  road  in  Cuyahoga  County  was  started  in  1893  and 
completed  in  1895  and  located  on  what  is  known  as  the  Wooster 
Pike  in  the  southwest  portion  of  the  county.  The  wearing  surface 
was  of  standard  size  brick,  8  feet  in  width,  tar  filled,  placed  between 
stone  curbs,  3  x  15  inches  and  resting  upon  a  6-inch  broken  stone 
base.  The  pavement  was  placed  upon  one  side  of  the  roadway 


158  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

with  a  graded  earth  drive  occupying  the  balance  of  the  width.  No 
drainage  was  provided  and  really  nothing  of  detail  was  taken  into 
consideration. 

The  specifications  were  principally  contained  in  the  title  on  the 
back  of  their  cover.  So  far  as  the  contract  was  concerned,  it  provided 
chiefly  that  the  contractor  was  to  be  paid  in  any  event.  If  anything 
could  open  the  eyes  of  blind  justice,  surely  it  would  be  this  first 
contract  awarded  in  Cuyahoga  County  for  brick  pavement. 

No  requirement  in  the  specification  dealt  with  the  quality  of  the 
stone  and  the  result  was  that  the  contractor  gathered  up  field  stone 
for  his  base  and  they  were  of  such  consistency  that,  when  the  roller 
had  done  its  work,  one  might  think  that  sand  ballast  had  been  used. 
Upon  this  the  cushion  was  placed  without  compression  and  then  the 
brick.  As  to  the  filler,  no  one  could  have  told  its  composition  at  the 
end  of  six  years,  so  little  of  it  could  be  found. 

The  pavement  being  but  8  feet  in  width,  all  of  the  traffic  came  in 
one  place.  Lack  of  bond  and  absence  of  uniform  support,  caused  a 
depression  to  appear.  In  the  wet  season,  this  rut  or  groove  filled 
with  water  which  soaked  through  the  base,  creating  a  worse  condition 
from  day  to  day  during  the  damp  seasons.  The  colder  weather 
brought  upheavals  and  such  havoc  that  many  sections  of  the  im- 
provement (so-called)  were  a  hindrance  rather  than  an  aid  to  the 
traffic. 

I  anticipate  your  query  as  to  why  these  defects  were  not  repaired. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem  the  law  under  which  these  improvements  were 
made  permitted  no  expenditure  for  maintenance.  In  1898  this  legis- 
lative flaw  was  remedied,  but  for  five  years  there  was  no  chance  to 
palliate  the  badness  of  our  methods  nor  to  interfere  with  the  in- 
creasing dilapidation  which  constituted  the  chief  value  of  this 
road — the  value  of  a  horrible  example. 

The  next  road  laid  was  South  Woodland.  This  is  in  the  eastern 
section  of  the  county.  Again  the  wearing  surface  was  8  feet  in 
width,  tar  filled  and  placed  between  flush  stone  curbs  on  a  6-inch 
broken  stone  base.  We  had  learned,  in  a  small  way,  from  our  first 
mistakes  and  placed  a  6-inch  drainage  tile  beneath  the  center  of  the 
road  way.  But  on  account  of  the  soft  filler  and  imperfect  prepara- 
tion for  carrying  off  the  water,  but  little  improvement  in  the  result 
was  realized.  An  uneven  settlement  of  the  base  soon  resulted  in 
roughness.  For  all  of  its  shortcomings,  however,  I  wish  to  state 
that  when  it  was  taken  up  three  years  ago  to  be  replaced  by  a  30- 
foot  roadway,  its  condition  was  such  that  by  contrast,  not  every 
town  or  county  could  point  a  finger  of  scorn  at  it. 

Lorain  Road,  our  next  installation,  was  built  16  feet  wide,  tar 
filled  and  resting  upon  a  crushed  stone  and  slag  base  between  flush 
curbs,  with  drain  tile  beneath  each  curb.  Subjected  to  an  un- 
usually heavy  traffic,  the  almost  inevitable  result  of  such  construction 
must  be  extensive  repairs  amounting  almost  to  reconstruction. 


BRICK   ROAD    CONSTRUCTION  159 

Our  next  great  forward  step  occurred  when  the  tar  filler  gave  way 
to  a  grout  filler  composed  of  one  part  sand  and  one  part  cement. 
This  plan  was  followed  until  1905  with  success,  at  least  in  comparison 
with  previous  experiences.  The  cement  filler  alone  could  not  cure 
all  of  the  defects  due  to  inferior  drainage  and  frost  action.  Another 
step  was  therefore  decided  upon,  the  inclusion  in  the  specifications 
of  a  requirement  for  a  4-inch  concrete  foundation  which,  of  course, 
increased  the  price.  State  Road  No.  2  was  constructed  under  this 
plan.  The  increased  cost  brought  immediate  opposition,  resulting 
in  a  temporary  return  to  broken  stone  or  slag  base  until  1908  when 
concrete  was  again  adopted  as  a  foundation  and  continued  up  to  the 
present  time. 

I  have  gone  into  these  experiences  rather  extensively  for  the  pur- 
pose, as  I  said  before,  of  showing  you  that  the  present  method  of 
building  brick  roads  in  Cuyahoga  County  is  the  result  of  a  slow 
growth  and  not  fruit  of  some  revelation  vouchsafed  to  an  inspired 
engineer  after  a  Welsh  rarebit  supper. 

Since  1908  it  has  been  the  policy  not  merely  to  conform  to  the 
chief  essentials  of  brick  paving,  namely,  the  properly  prepared  sub- 
foundation,  the  smoothly  finished  concrete  base,  the  compressed 
sand  cushion,  the  laying  of  good  brick,  the  application  of  the  cement 
filler  to  the  joints,  but  to  attach  importance  to  minor  details  of 
approved  manner  and  method  of  construction  as  will  produce  a  road 
nearly  approaching  the  ideal.  I  say  "nearly"  with  much  emphasis 
for  I  feel  that  in  road  construction  there  is  always  room  for  im- 
provement. And  doubtless  we  have  not  even  yet  given  weight  to 
certain  details  advocated  by  some  of  the  more  painstaking  students 
of  brick  road  construction  in  the  country.  Our  approach  however 
to  the  ideal  at  each  successive  effort  has  given  to  us  roads  which  have 
received  almost  a  world  wide  commendation  and  have  given  to 
Cuyahoga  County  the  best  road  improved  district  of  any  like  sized 
area  in  the  world. 

A  satisfactory  plan  for  an  average  rural  pavement  may  include 
a  paved  portion  anywhere  from  9  to  16  feet  in  width,  the  width  being 
controlled  by  the  amount  of  traffic  to  which  the  road  is  subjected. 
A  dirt  or  gravel  macadam  should  occupy  the  balance  or  unpaved 
portion  of  width.  Whatever  dimensions  are  adopted,  the  surface 
drainage  should  be  over  the  pavement  toward  a  ditch  on  the  side 
of  the  road  closest  to  the  pavement,  eliminating  a  crown  from  the 
paved  portion.  The  unpaved  portion  should  be  drained  in  the 
opposite  direction. 

Immediately  you  ask  "Why  a  dirt  road?"  The  best  answer  is, 
"Ask  the  farmer"  and  he  will  tell  you  to  ask  the  horse. 

The  engineer  will  save  himself  much  trouble  if  he  holds  to  such  a 
grade  line  as  will  entail  minimum  depths  of  fill.  This  is  not  always 
possible  and  it  is  the  larger  fills  that  call  for  the  most  extreme  care. 
It  behooves  the  engineer  to  see  that  his  specifications  contain  a 


160  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

clause  calling  for  the  fill  to  be  put  in  layers  of  not  more  than  6-inch 
thickness  and  each  layer  compacted  with  a  roller,  not  exceeding 
ten  tons  in  weight.  This  clause  must  be  enforced  with  rigidity. 

Puddling  is  the  one  method  that  can  be  followed  successfully  in 
the  treatment  of  old  fills.  The  surface  of  the  road  should  be  broken 
and  dirt  removed  from  the  center  to  the  sides.  At  right  angles  to 
this  trench,  shorter  trenches  should  be  dug  at  intervals  of  twenty- 
five  feet,  forming  a  rectangular  vat.  Pump  water  into  these  compart- 
ments and  allow  it  to  stand  until  it  has  leaked  its  way  into  the  fill. 
This  will  disclose  the  weak  spots  and  the  engineer  can  take  care  of 
them  as  he  thinks  best. 

The  drainage  of  the  graded  portion  of  the  road  is  of  first  neces- 
sity. Whatever  plan  is  adopted,  the  one  that  will  most  nearly 
maintain  the  sub-structure  free  from  moisture  below  the  frost  line 
is  the  ideal  condition  to  be  sought.  This  means  that  you  must  not 
merely  drain  the  road  bed,  but  adequate  side  ditches  must  be  pro- 
vided to  carry  off  promptly  the  accumulated  water.  In  the  prepara- 
tion of  a  sub-base  the  only  debatable  proposition  is  the  purpose  of 
rolling.  Common  practice,  including  the  use  of  a  very  heavy  roller, 
has  been  founded  upon  the  theory  of  compacting  the  soil  to  as  great 
a  depth  as  possible.  This  can  do  no  harm  but  I  am  personally  in- 
clined to  believe  that  the  chief  purpose  of  rolling  is  accomplished 
when  the  weak  or  spouty  places  in  the  soil  are  revealed  so  that  the 
engineer  can  treat  them  as  he  sees  fit. 

For  this  purpose,  a  roller  weighing  from  eight  to  ten  tons  answers 
every  requirement.  Preceding  the  final  preparation  of  the  sub-base 
the  curbs  must  be  placed.  In  case  of  most  of  our  rural  work,  curbs 
are  placed  flush  with  the  surface  of  the  completed  pavement. 

With  curb  set  and  base  prepared  the  next  step  is  the  placement 
of  the  concrete  base,  which  with  our  roads  has  been  4  inches  in  depth. 
In  specifying  the  proportions,  a  mixture  of  one-three-five  with  a  per- 
missible variation  according  to  the  size  of  the  aggregates  which  will 
most  nearly  fill  the  voids,  meets  every  necessity.  To  meet  this 
variableness,  which  obtains  with  almost  every  job,  it  is  necessary  to 
specify  the  size  of  your  course  aggregate,  but  not  the  amount,  re- 
quiring only  so  much  of  the  course  aggregate  to  be  used  as  shall 
leave  the  concrete  most  nearly  free  from  voids.  This,  instead  of  an 
inflexible  rule  of  proportions,  will  relieve  you  of  many  arguments 
and  will  assure  you  a  condition  of  concrete  whereby  a  smooth  surface 
is  easily  attained.  A  smooth  surface  you  must  have,  for  upon  'hat 
much  both  of  efficiency  and  durableness  of  your  wearing  surl<*ce 
depends.  It  enables  you  to  accomplish  in  the  next  step  a  require- 
ment of  equal  importance,  that  of  placing  the  sand  cushion  of  uniform 
fill  and  of  uniform  density. 

While  personally  I  do  not  place  as  much  importance  as  some 
people  do  in  the  ability  of  the  sand  cushion  to  afford  a  resiliency  or 
absorb  the  shock  effect,  it  is  unquestionably  a  necessity  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  the  wearing  surface  of  the  brick  to  a  perfect 


BRICK  ROAD   CONSTRUCTION  161 

plane,  by  neutralizing  the  unevenness  and  lack  of  uniformity  of  the 
brick. 

No  one  will  question  but  that  the  support  of  the  wearing  surface 
provided  for  by  this  sand  cushion  must  be  uniform.  It  is  there- 
fore necessary  to  compress  and  bring  to  a  like  density  every  part  of 
this  cushion.  Dropping  the  sand  cushion  on  to  the  base  from  dump 
wagons  and  leaving  the  bottom  portion  of  the  load  untouched  be- 
fore striking  off  with  a  template  is  objectionable  and  renders  the  hand 
rolling  difficult  by  having  a  dense  pile  and  a  loose  pile  to  contend  with, 
the  roller  spanning  the  looser  portion.  It  is  better  to  spread  the  sand 
entirely  by  shovels,  than  by  rolling  and  striking  off  and  re-rolling, 
even  a  third  time.  Thus  you  bring  the  cushion  to  a  condition  of  com- 
pactness and  even  density  that  not  only  will  furnish  an  even  support 
to  the  entire  pavement,  but  will  prevent  the  sand  from  flowing  up 
into  the  joints  of  the  brick  when  the  brick  surface  is  rolled.  While 
it  is  not  necessary  for  this  cushion  sand  to  be  entirely  free  from  soil 
and  vegetable  matter,  it  should  be  nearly  so,  otherwise  its  density 
cannot  be  maintained. 

It  is  needless  to  go  into  the  specifications  for  the  brick  further 
than  to  insist  on  lugs  on  the  side,  and  grooves  on  the  end  of  the 
brick.  I  do  not  mean  that  there  should  be  no  specification  for  the 
brick  but  that  it  is  the  place  of  the  engineer  to  determine  by  the 
class  of  traffic  in  prospect,  what  percentage  of  loss  shall  be  tolerated 
as  a  maximum  in  the  rattler  test.  Granting  that  you  are  satisfied 
with  your  brick,  their  laying  is  the  next  proposition. 

1.  See  that  the  lugs  are  turned  one  way.  \ 

2.  Make  certain  that  the  joints  are  broken  so  that  one-third  or 
more  of  the  brick  of  one  course  overlaps  the  brick  of  the  next  course. 

3.  Be  sure  that  every  fourth  course  is  driven  up  to  a  straight  line. 

4.  For  the  sake  of  appearance,  keep  the  line  of  the  brick  at  right 
angles  with  the  curb. 

Next  in  order  is  culling.  Care  should  be  taken  to  see  that  all  soft 
brick  or  brick  that  are  burned  too  hard  are  removed.  Those  so 
heavily  kiln  marked  that  they  will  cause  unevenness  in  the  pave- 
ment should  be  turned.  Caution  should  be  exercised  in  this,  for 
many  a  kiln  marked  brick  is  thrown  out  which,  if  allowed  to  re- 
main would  have  been  of  more  value  to  the  pavement  than  others 
that  are  retained. 

After  the  brick  are  thus  placed  in  the  street,  their  slight  un- 
evenness should  be  ironed  out  by  the  use  of  a  roller  not  exceeding 
five  tons  in  weight.  If  a  horse  roller  is  used  at  all,  it  should  have  a 
diameter  of  at  least  5  feet.  Rolling  should  begin  on  one  side  and 
pursue  a  course  parallel  to  the  curb.  The  roller  should  return  over 
the  same  course.  The  next  trip  should  lap  the  first,  the  roller  again 
returning  over  the  same  course.  This  should  continue  until  the  center 
of  the  pavement  has  been  reached  when  the  roller  should  be  moved 
to  the  opposite  curb  and  continue  as  before  until  the  center  is  reached 
from  the  other  side. 


162  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

The  roller  should  then  start  at  one  side  and  work  diagonally  across 
the  pavement.  Thi3  diagonal  rolling  will  have  a  tendency  to  bed  the 
brick  in  such  a  manner  as  to  avoid  "rocker."  The  pavement  should 
then  be  culled  again  for  broken  brick  after  which  it  should  be  hand 
rammed  with  a  paver  rammer  weighing  not  less  than  fifty  pounds. 
Interpose  a  plank  not  less  than  6  feet  long,  10  inches  wide  and  2 
inches  thick,  between  the  surface  of  the  pavement  and  the  rammer. 
The  plank  should  be  laid  parallel  to  the  curb. 

For  filling  joints,  the  next  process  in  order,  use  a  grout  filler  com- 
posed of  equal  parts  of  sand  and  cement.  It  seems  hardly  neces- 
sary to  state  that  the  cement  should  meet  the  standard  specifications 
for  Portland  cement  as  adopted  by  the  American  Society  for  Testing 
Materials.  The  sand  with  which  we  have  had  much  success  has  been 
taken  from  the  lake  and  although  not  very  sharp  is  nevertheless 
fine  and  clean  and  has  given  such  good  results  that  I  cannot  do  other- 
wise than  recommend  its  use.  In  any  event  the  sand  to  be  used  should 
be  free  from  sewage,  acid  or  soil,  and  should  be  sharp  and  fine. 

A  watertight  box,  standing  on  uneven  legs  so  as  to  afford  a  "lower 
corner"  should  be  used  as  a  receptacle  for  the  grout.  In  it  place 
not  to  exceed  1  cubic  foot  of  sand  and  one  bag  of  cement,  mixing  the 
mass  until  it  assumes  a  uniform  color.  Add  water  and  stir  the  mix- 
ture until  it  assumes  the  consistency  of  thin  cream.  The  mixture 
should  then  be  applied  to  the  pavement  by  means  of  scoop  shovels 
and  thoroughly  swept  into  the  joints.  After  this  has  had  sufficient 
time  for  setting  a  second  coat,  slightly  thicker  should  be  applied 
and  later  a  third  coat  which  will  assure  filled  joints.  This  last  coat 
should  be  worked  either  with  a  specially  prepared  broom  or  a  rubber 
squeegee  and  swept  across  the  joints  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees. 

After  the  initial  set  has  taken  place,  the  pavement  should  be 
covered  with  a  half  inch  or  more  of  sand  and  this  kept  saturated 
with  water  for  at  least  five  days.  The  pavement  should  not  be 
opened  to  traffic  for  at  least  ten  days. 

We  have  not  undertaken  any  special  provision  against  possible 
thermal  effect,  such  as  contraction  and  expansion  due  to  low  and  high 
temperatures,  but  have  relied  mainly  upon  the  condition  of  out  struc- 
ture by  avoiding  moisture  underneath  the  roadway  and  by  an  en- 
deavor to  have  our  cement-filler  at  the  greatest  possible  strength. 
These  provisions,  together  with  a  rigid  curb  enables  us  to  hold  in 
compression,  the  expansion  occurring  in  our  narrow  roadways.  In 
this  respect,  we  have  not  been  entirely  successful.  A  few  cracks 
in  the  pavement  have  appeared,  but  so  far,  they  have  not  ravelled 
out  so  as  to  injure  the  traffic  worth  of  the  road  and  have  not  been 
thought  of  sufficient  importance  to  require  repairs. 

In  trying  to  express  the  proven  worth  of  such  roads  to  the  com- 
munity, I  am  at  a  loss  for  words.  Their  economy  has  proven  in 
contrast  with  any  other  methods  of  road  building  from  the  cheapest 
to  the  most  expensive.  I  make  this  statement  after  comparing  the 
annual  maintenance  cost  of  other  types  of  good  road  with  the  utter 


DISCUSSION  163 

lack  of  any  repair  expense,  on  brick  roads,  due  to  ordinary  wear. 
Our  only  repair  expense  has  been  caused  by  early  mistakes  in  con- 
struction. 

The  fact  that  our  roads  are  in  shape  for  maximum  service  twelve 
months  in  the  year  and  that  they  originate  no  dust  has  endeared  them 
to  abutting  dwellers  and  to  travelers  from  a  distance.  Washing 
by  rain  suffices  to  keep  them  clean  and  imparts  a  sanitary  advantage 
which  has  been  much  emphasized  by  health  authorities. 

Perhaps  the  most  eloquent  praise  is  contained  in  the  simple  state- 
ment that,  although  we  have  built  nearly  400  miles  of  such  roads, 
thirty-three  farmers  petitions  are  now  on  file  in  our  office,  asking  for 
thirty-three  separate  extensions.  Local  sentiment  may  be  con- 
servative, but  it  everlastingly  catches  on  when  it  is  shown  something 
really  good.  We  are  no  longer  besought  to  make  cheap  roads,  but 
to  make  good  ones.  Witness  one  case  where  assessments  on  a  macad- 
am road  had  still  four  years  to  run  and  yet  so  eager  were  the  abutting 
owners  for  a  better  road  that  they  threw  four  years  payments  into 
the  discard  and  signed  unanimous  petition  for  brick.  The  petition 
was  granted  and  brick  laid,  although  it  was  necessary  to  scrap  a 
relatively  new  macadam  road  to  do  so. 

In  a  day  when  power  traffic  is  imposing  new  tests  upon  road  sur- 
faces, and  when  the  aggregate  of  all  traffic  is  increasing  so  rapidly, 
I  cannot  avoid  the  feeling  that  we  were  fortunate  in  wasting  little 
time  and  expense  upon  methods  that  could  bring  us  no  ultimate 
advantage.  Our  early  experiments  were  often  far  from  successful 
but  they  carried  us  along  a  course  of  evolution  to  something  better 
than  we  could  possibly  anticipate.  We  must  credit  good  luck  alone 
for  the  fact  that  our  venture  dealt  with  a  type  of  road  peculiarly 
adapted  to  forms  of  traffic  which  could  not  be  foreseen  in  1893  when 
the  experiments  commenced.  We  can  only  claim  credit  for  persist- 
ence in  building  year  after  year  without  a  single  omission  for  two 
decades,  in  refusing  to  be  discouraged  by  failures  and  in  availing 
ourselves  of  the  only  chance  that  any  man  can  ask — the  chance  to 
correct  his  own  mistakes. 

MR.  R.  KEITH  COMPTON  :  In  opening  the  discussion  on  brick  roads 
the  speaker  feels  that  the  construction  of  brick  streets  is  so  inter- 
woven and  so  closely  allied  with  the  road  end  of  the  proposition 
that  a  few  remarks  from  him  concerning  the  early  construction  of 
brick  streets  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  might  be  somewhat  interesting 
for  this  convention. 

I  suppose  that  every  community  in  the  early  construction  of  its 
roads  and  streets  has  passed  through  the  same  experience  as  Cuyahoga 
County.  As  intimated  in  Mr.  McCleary's  very  excellent  paper,  ten 
or  fifteen  years  ago  sales  agents,  lobbyists  and  politicians  had  more 
voice  in  the  selection  of  road  and  streets  materials  than  the  engineer. 
Very  frequently  the  engineer  was  forced  to  use  against  his  better 
judgment  either  inferior  material  or  material  entirely  unsuited  for  the 


164  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

work  which  he  had  to  do.  Today,  however,  in  almost  every  com- 
munity, we  find  that  the  selection  of  the  material  is  in  the  hands  of 
men  trained  along  lines  which  place  them  in  a  position  to  decide 
which  is  the  best  material  for  any  particular  road  or  street. 

The  first  brick  pavement  laid  in  Baltimore  was  constructed  about 
1892  on  St.  Paul  Street  between  Biddle  and  Preston  Streets.  It  was 
laid  on  4-inch  base  of  concrete  and  a  sand  cushion  anywhere  from 
\  inch  to  3  inches  in  thickness.  The  brick  was  about  the  same  size 
as  the  ordinary  building  brick,  wire-cut,  with  straight  edges,  and  of 
red  shale.  Instead  of  laying  the  courses  at  right  angles  to  the  curb, 
they  were  laid  herringbone  fashion,  the  most  expensive  way  to  lay  a 
pavement.  Sand  was  used  as  a  filler.  After  giving  twenty-one 
years  service,  one-half  of  the  block  has  been  renewed;  the  other  half 
is  still  in  fairly  good  shape.  I  cite  this  to  show  that  even  in  the 
early  stages  of  brick  construction  good  and  successful  work  was 
accomplished,  along  with  failures. 

We  then  came  to  the  re-pressed  brick,  with  lugs,  and  continued  to 
lay  brick  of  this  character  in  small  quantities  until  1911,  when  the 
city  of  Baltimore  had  on  its  hands  about  23  miles  of  vitrified  block — 
some  of  poor  construction,  some  fair  and  some  excellent.  Since 
January  1,  1912  to  September  1,  1913,  we  have  put  under  contract 
about  243,000  square  yards,  and  have  completed  182,000  square 
yards.  Some  of  this  work  is  on  very  heavy  traffic  streets,  most  of 
it  is  on  medium  traffic,  while  a  small  portion  of  it  is  alley  work. 

The  old  section  of  Baltimore,  as  many  of  you  gentlemen  probably 
know,  contains  many  small  alleys,  varying  in  width  from  10  to  20 
feet.  In  the  business  section  of  the  city  these  alleys  are  used  for  the 
purpose  of  delivering  goods  to  the  rear  of  the  wholesale  houses  and 
warehouses,  while  in  the  old  residential  section  they  are  used  princi- 
pally for  the  collection  of  garbage,  delivery  of  ice,  etc.,  so  that  you 
will  readily  see  that  in  the  business  section  it  is  necessary  to  have  a 
material  which  will  stand  this  severe  traffic,  while  in  the  residential 
section  there  is  not  enough  traffic  on  the  alleys  to  keep  a  bituminous 
pavement  alive;  therefore  we  feel  that  brick  is  probably  the  best 
material  to  use  in  this  instance. 

Probably  5  per  cent  of  our  brick  work  so  far  is  on  a  4-inch  base, 
with  95  per  cent  of  it  on  a  6-inch  base.  We  endeavor  to  follow  the 
very  latest  and  up-to-date  construction,  which  is  strictly  in  accord- 
ance with  that  outlined  by  Mr.  McCleary,  as  follows: 

A  PROPERLY  PREPARED  SUB-FOUNDATION 

If  the  sub-grade  is  of  soft  material  and  spongy  under  the  roller, 
the  contractor  is  compelled  to  remove  it  and  substitute  good  ma- 
terial. The  sub-grade  is  thoroughly  rolled  with  a  steam  roller  weigh- 
ing not  less  than  5  tons.  If  of  light  sandy  material,  it  is  lightly 
sprinkled  with  water  to  prevent  creeping  under  the  roller,  and  also 
to  prevent  its  absorbing  too  much  water  from  the  concrete. 


DISCUSSION  165 

SMOOTHLY   FINISHED    CONCRETE    BASE 

While  we  do  not  use  a  template  on  finishing  out  concrete,  the  con- 
tractor is  required  to  make  it  of  such  consistency  and  to  ram  it  in 
such  a  way  that  it  presents  an  even  and  smooth  surface.  On  a 
6-inch  concrete  base  stone  passing  a  2J-inch  screen,  and  on  a  4-inch 
base  stone  passing  a  1^-inch  screen  is  allowed,  to  the  extent  of  20 
per  cent  of  the  total  mass,  but  in  no  instance  must  the  longest  di- 
mension of  any  stone  be  over  3  inches  and  2  inches,  respectively,  or 
one-half  the  thickness  of  the  concrete  base. 


COMPRESSED    SAND    CUSHION 

I  find  that  this  is  one  of  the  hardest  things  to  obtain.  Our  speci- 
fications first  called  for  this  cushion  to  be  2  inches  in  thickness.  We 
found,  however,  that  there  was  a  tendency  for  some  reason,  both  on 
the  part  of  the  contractor's  foreman  and  the  city's  inspector,  to  exceed 
this,  so  that  we  finally  reduced  our  cushion  to  1|  inches,  and  owing 
to  the  smoothness  of  our  concrete  there  is  very  little  variation  from 
this  depth.  We  find  that  a  l|-inch  cushion  is  more  easily  compacted 
than  a  2-inch  cushion,  and  incidently,  the  rolling  and  compacting 
of  this  cushion  is  one  of  the  most  important  elements  entering  into 
the  proper  construction  of  vitrified  block  pavements,  and  too  much 
importance  cannot  be  given  to  the  working  out  of  this  detail.  When 
your  sand  cushion  is  not  compact  and  firm  you  will  find  that  your 
grouting  is  more  apt  to  break  and  jump  out,  due  to  the  vibration 
of  the  brick  under  traffic.  Furthermore,  the  rumbling  sound  so 
frequently  noticed  from  teams  passing  over  a  brick  pavement  is  due 
in  a  large  measure  to  your  sand  cushion  not  being  compact,  and  for 
this  reason  I  recommend  a  loamy  sand  for  this  purpose,  preferably 
10  or  15  per  cent  of  loam,  rather  than  a  perfectly  clean  material. 

The  most  practical  way  to  determine  whether  or  not  your  sand 
cushion  is  sufficiently  firm  is  to  step  on  it  evenly  but  firmly,  gradually 
throwing  your  entire  weight  on  it.  If  an  imprint  is  merely  made, 
your  cushion  is  sufficiently  firm.  If,  however,  there  is  a  decided 
imprint,  your  cushion  has  not  been  sufficiently  compacted,  and  your 
men  should  be  compelled  to  re-roll  and  re-strike  it. 

LAYING   OF   GOOD   BRICK 

In  my  judgment  what  you  want  is  not  a  very  hard  brick.  If  too 
hard  it  is  brittle,  and  will  spall  under  traffic.  They  should  be  hard, 
well  and  uniformly  burned,  free  from  warps,  fire-cracks  and  other 
defects  sufficient  to  cause  rejection.  What  you  want  in  my  judgment 
is  uniformity.  If  you  can  obtain  a  uniform  brick  your  street  will 
wear  evenly  and  will  always  present  a  good  appearance  if  otherwise 
well  constructed.  If  your  brick  are  not  uniform  the  wear  on  your 
street  will  not  be  uniform,  no  matter  how  well  constructed  otherwise. 


166  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

Blocks  when  delivered  on  the  street  should  be  unloaded  by  hand 
and  properly  piled  along  the  curb  lines  where  directed. 

As  outlined  by  Mr.  McCleary,  care  should  be  taken  in  laying  brick 
to  see  that  the  lugs  are  placed  all  one  way;  otherwise  you  will  have 
wide  joints  on  the  same  line  of  brick,  and  your  courses  will  be  uneven 
and  wavy. 

The  breaking  of  joints  as  indicated  by  Mr.  McCleary  is  another 
very  important  item,  and  when  cutting  brick  to  fit  in  next  to  your 
curb  the  cut  end  should  be  placed  away  from  the  curb  rather  than 
against  it.  You  will  find  that  this  will  give  you  a  street  of  much 
better  finish.  The  same  thing  applies  in  cutting  to  fit  up  against  the 
railway  tracks. 

In  my  judgment  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  lay  the  brick  too  close, 
although  it  is  also  a  great  mistake  to  have  too  loose  paving.  If  laid 
too  close  you  will  not  obtain  a  sufficient  amount  of  grout  in  your 
end  joints  to  be  of  much  service.  If  laid  too  loose,  however,  you  will 
find  that  while  rolling  the  brick  will  rock  and  the  sand  is  apt  to  come 
up  into  joints.  Incidentally,  the  sand  coming  up  into  the  joints  is  a 
very  important  item  and  should  be  guarded  against  to  the  limit. 
While  your  brick  are  in  process  of  being  rolled  the  inspector  should 
carefully  follow  the  procedure,  and  if  the  sand  cushion  is  coming  up, 
the  brick  should  be  immediately  removed  and  the  sand  cushion 
restruck,  and  if  necessary  re-rolled.  The  appearance  of  sand  in  the 
joints  more  than  \  inch  or  f  inch  seriously  obstructs  the  admission 
of  the  cement  grout. 

I  know  of  no  better  way  to  roll  a  brick  pavement  than  that  outlined 
by  Mr.  McCleary,  except  that  in  my  judgment  the  use  of  a  horse- 
roller  is  not  practicable,  but  in  all  instances  a  steam  roller  should  be 
used.  After  your  rolling  is  completed  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  in- 
spector, he  should  then  proceed  to  look  for  broken  brick  and  badly 
shaped  or  otherwise  defective  brick  which  escaped  his  notice  during 
the  process  of  laying.  All  of  these  should  be  removed,  being  careful 
at  the  same  time  to  remove  all  chips  which  have  fallen  down  on  the 
sand  cushion,  good  brick  should  be  substituted,  either  by  recourse 
to  the  pile  on  the  sidewalk  or  by  turning  such  of  those  in  the  street 
which  have  decided  kiln  marks  on  one  side.  All  soft  brick  which 
may  have  previously  escaped  should  be  removed.  A  good  way  to 
locate  soft  brick  is  during  and  after  the  water  is  applied.  They  appear 
dry  during  the  application,  or  comparatively  so,  and  subsequently 
wet. 

APPLICATION    OF   THE    CEMENT    FILLER 

The  speaker  is  a  firm  believer  in  a  cement  filled  joint  rather  than 
a  bituminous  filled  joint  for  brick  pavements.  Properly  cement 
filled  joints  protect  the  edges  of  the  brick,  and  give  you  a  monolithic 
construction.  A  bituminous  filled  joint  does  not  protect  the  edges 
of  the  block  so  well  and  does  not  present  a  monolithic  construction. 
I  have  seen  bituminous  filled  streets  completed  in  the  most  workman- 


DISCUSSION  167 

like  manner  and  the  street  left  with  a  good  even  surface.  Two  years 
later  the  brick  have  been  rounded  on  the  edges,  and  the  surface  has 
become  decidedly  uneven,  the  brick  having  shifted  and  floated  on 
account  of  the  bituminous  filled  joint. 

Some  years  ago  we  tried  a  cement  filler  mixed  two  of  cement  to  one 
of  sand.  We  found  this  too  brittle,  and  at  once  substituted  the  regu- 
lation filler  of  one  to  one.  If  this  filler  is  mixed  and  applied  as  out- 
lined in  Mr.  McCleary's  paper,  you  should  have  no  trouble,  but  it  is 
imperative  that  the  minutest  detail  of  the  selection  of  the  sand,  the 
cement,  the  mixing,  application,  and  the  covering  with  sand  after  the 
filler  is  otherwise  completed,  be  complied  with.  The  slightest  devia- 
tion from  one  of  these  details  is  more  than  likely  to  cause  you  trouble. 

It  is  bad  practice  to  follow  too  closely  the  application  of  the  filler 
with  your  sand  cover.  The  sand  cover  can  only  be  used  for  two  pur- 
poses: (1)  either  to  protect  the  cement  filler  from  the  hot  rays  of 
the  sun,  or  (2)  protect  it  from  frost,  depending  of  course  upon  the 
time  of  the  year  your  work  is  under  construction.  It  is  very  im- 
portant that  your  application  be  so  regulated  that  two  or  three  hours 
should  elapse  between  the  time  that  your  filler  is  completed  and  your 
sand  cover  is  applied ;  otherwise,  a  too  early  application  of  your  sand 
will  not  only  cover  up  slack  joints,  but  may  seriously  weaken  the 
cement  filler. 

As  is  well  known,  the  installation  of  the  transverse  expansion  joints 
are  unnecessary,  the  only  necessity  being  the  side  joints  next  to  the 
curb.  Every  precaution  should  be  taken  to  have  those  joints  free  of 
foreign  matter  so  that  your  pavements  will  have,  in  case  of  expan- 
sion and  contraction,  the  full  advantage  of  a  clear  joint  filled  from 
the  top  to  the  bottom  with  either  a  good  bituminous  filler  or  the 
patented  elastic  joint. 

For  thickness  of  joint,  the  speaker  finds  that  the  following  are 
about  necessary: 

On  streets  between  30  feet  and  50  feet  in  width*  If  inches  next  to  the  curbs. 
On  streets  between  20  feet  and  30  feet  in  width,  1  inch  next  to  the  curbs. 
On  streets  between  10  feet  and  20  feet  in  width,  f  inch  next  to  the  curbs. 

If  all  of  these  details  are  strictly  complied  with  you  will  have  a  road 
or  street  consisting  of  the  following:  (1)  durability,  (2)  ease  of  trac- 
tion, (3)  moderate  maintenance,  (4)  sanitary,  (5)  pleasing  appearance, 
(6)  it  will  be  a  pleasure  to  either  drive  or  motor  over  them. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  will  ask  Mr.  Blair  to  continue  the  discussion 
of  "Brick  Roads." 

MR.  BLAIR:  I  do  not  want  to  take  the  time  of  anyone  else  who 
wishes  to  speak  on  this  subject.  I  think  Mr.  McCleary  deals  in 
detail  very  carefully  as  to  the  progress  that  has  been  made  in  Cuya- 
hoga  County  in  brick  road  construction.  I  do  not  think  that  even 
in  Cuyahoga  County  they  have  reached  perhaps  that  perfection  in 


168  AMERICAN  ROAD    CONGRESS 

construction  that  is  easily  attainable,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
they  have  reached  entire  perfection  in  that  county,  they  have  built 
roads  of  brick  that  have  not  cost,  due  to  wear  and  tear,  anything 
for  maintenance  whatever.  Some  calamity,  some  little  defect  in 
the  early  construction,  has  led  to  the  necessity  for  repairs  on  a  few 
of  the  roads,  but  the  system  is  certainly  a  wonderful  one  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  it  covers  a  period  of  twenty  years.  Many  of  the  roads 
in  that  county  from  ten  to  fifteen  years  in  use,  have  not  called  for 
any  repair  whatever.  So  I  think  that  Mr.  McCleary  and  the  com- 
missioners of  that  county  have  accomplished  really  a  great  work, 
and  it  furnishes  an  example  that  might  readily  be  copied  by  a  great 
many  communities  where  the  roads  in  such  communities  are  subject 
to  excessive  use  and  excessive  wear,  as  they  are  in  this  county.  I 
am  a  great  believer,  myself,  in  the  construction  of  a  brick  road  on 
excessively  used  highways.  This  Convention,  up  to  this  time,  has 
been  pretty  nearly  a  discussion  of  repair  and  maintenance.  I  differ 
somewhat  from  some  of  the  speakers  in  that  particular,  because  I 
believe  that  we  want  to  arrive  at  a  better  information,  at  better 
ideas  as  to  how  to  construct  roads  of  the  particular  sort  that  will 
render  service  without  this  dreadful  cost  of  maintenance.  I  know 
that  what  has  been  said  upon  this  floor  is  largely  from  the  viewpoint 
of  the  speaker.  We  have  heard  it  said  upon  this  floor  by  some  man 
from  a  sand  district  in  North  Carolina,  that  the  roads  there  are 
wonderful  roads  and  they  suit  that  community.  We  have  heard 
on  the  other  hand  some  speakers  upon  this  floor  who  have  praised 
highly  the  gravel  roads  in  Missouri.  It  is  from  the  viewpoint  and 
surroundings  of  the  speaker  and  it  is  from  a  comparative  sense  that 
we  speak  of  these  roads.  The  roads  that  are  so  highly  praised  by 
the  gentleman  from  Missouri  would  not  answer  the  purposes  of 
many  communities  in  this  country,  they  would  not  stand  up  against 
the  tonnage  that  is  raised  from  640  acres  in  the  farming  districts  of 
central  Illinois.  They  would  be  all  cut  to  pieces;  so  I  am  a  firm 
believer  in  the  selection  of  road  material  that  is  adapted  to  the 
community  and  where  we  have  excessive  use  of  roads  and  highways, 
we  must  build  accordingly  and  we  must  select  the  material  accord- 
ingly, if  we  would  have  our  system  an  economic  one. 

MR.  RIGHTER  (of  New  York):  I  would  like  to  know  why  the 
manufacturers  cannot  furnish  a  brick  that  is  of  less  depth  than  4 
inches.  A  large  part  of  the  cost  of  brick  pavements  is  the  cost  of 
brick,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  a  brick  will  have  to  be  designed  that 
is  3  or  3 i  inches  in  depth,  so  that  freight  can  be  reduced.  There  is 
a  large  demand  for  concrete  roads  and  they  are  cheap.  Brick  roads 
are  more  expensive.  I  would  like  to  know  if  a  brick  cannot  be 
designed  that  will  bear  the  traffic  and  yet  be  of  lighter  weight.  I 
have  been  tald  by  some  of  the  manufacturers  that  the  reason  bricks 
are  made  4  inches  deep  is  that  the  culls  can  be  used  in  building 
operations,  and  that  is  the  reason  for  making  them  4  inches  deep 


DISCUSSION  169 

and  adding  to  the  cost  of  freight  and  handling.    I  think  it  is  up  to  the 
brick  companies  to  furnish  a  brick  that  will  be  lighter. 

MR.  BLAIR:  I  may  answer  that  question  very  much  in  the  same 
way,  following  what  I  have  already  said.  The  manufacturers  of 
brick  in  this  country  have  undertaken  to  furnish  the  brick  that  is 
best  adapted  to  the  uses  to  which  they  are  likely  to  be  put.  We  do 
not  believe  that  it  is  economic  for  you  as  a  tax  payer  or  you  as  an 
engineer  to  use  a  brick  that  is  much  less  than  4  inches  deep.  There 
are  certain  elements  against  which  the  road  must  be  made  to  bear 
up  and  support;  these  are  taken  into  consideration  in  the  manu- 
facture of  a  brick  4  inches  deep.  It  is  easy  enough  to  manufacture 
a  brick  3J  or  2£  or  whatever  depth  you  please,  so  far  as  that  is  con- 
cerned, but  it  has  not  been  a  proposition  wholly  selfish  except  in 
the  sense  that,  through  self  interest,  we  are  giving  a  brick  to  the 
users  of  brick  in  this  country  that  we  believe  is  best  adapted  for  the 
use  to  which  it  is  to  be  put  and  that  will  best  serve  the  economic 
idea. 

MR.  SMITH:  I  would  like  to  ask  the  cost  of  a  16-foot  brick  pave- 
ment on  a  country  road. 

MR.  McCLEARY:  In  the  western  part  of  the  county,  grading  is 
a  small  item,  and  in  the  eastern  part  it  is  a  large  item.  In  a  job  of 
2.6  miles,  the  grading  alone  was  $11,000;  grading  a  road  42  feet 
wide,  ditches  2  feet  deep. 

MR.  SMITH:  I  asked  the  question  to  compare  it  with  other  fig- 
ures I  have  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 

MR.  MCCLEARY:  That  is  taking  care  of  an  expensive  road  in 
the  eastern  part  of  the  county. 

MR.  BLAIR:  I  think,  eliminating  the  grade  or  with  a  grade  at 
a  minimum,  through  a  level  country,  the  cost  of  a  brick  road  may 
be  said  to  be  approximately  $1000  per  foot  in  width,  per  mile  in 
length;  that  is  on  a  4-inch  concrete  base  such  as  Mr.  McCleary  de- 
scribes in  his  paper,  as  being  the  recent  method  of  building  pave- 
ments, 9  feet,  $9000;  16  feet,  $16,000,  etc. 

MR.  THORNILEY:  In  Washington  County  last  year  we  built  a 
mile  of  macadam  road.  The  specifications  called  for  two  kinds  of 
roads,  one  of  brick  and  the  other  concrete.  The  road  that  was  let 
was  concrete,  at  a  cost  of  $12,100  a  mile.  They  did  offer  brick  for 
the  same  road,  a  16-foot  road,  at  $16,000  a  mile. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  subject  is  "The  Selection  of  Road 
Material,"  by  Hon.  L.  W.  Page,  Director  U.  S.  Office  Public  Roads, 
Washington,  D.  C. 


170  AMERICAN  BO  AD   CONGRESS 

THE  SELECTION  OF  MATERIALS  FOR  MACADAM  ROADS 

BY  LOGAN  WALLER  PAGE 
Director  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads 

Of  all  the  factors  which  go  to  make  up  the  perfect  macadam  road, 
there  is  undoubtedly  none  more  potent  than  that  of  the  suitability 
of  the  material  which  enters  its  construction.  A  road  may  be  lo- 
cated, drained  and  constructed  along  the  very  best  lines  and  accord- 
ing to  the  most  approved  methods  and  be  a  total  failure  if  the  ma- 
terial of  which  it  is  built  has  been  poorly  chosen.  It  is  perhaps  not 
too  much  to  say  that  large  sums  of  money  are  wasted  annually  in 
this  country  because  too  little  importance  is  attached  to  this  phase 
of  the  road  problem.  The  engineer  is  then,  at  the  very  outset,  con- 
fronted with  the  important  problem  of  selecting  the  most  suitable 
material  for  his  work,  and  on  the  care  with  which  he  performs  this 
task  depends  in  a  large  degree  the  success  or  failure  of  the  road  he  is 
to  build.  The  purpose  of  the  present  paper  is  to  discuss  in  some  detail 
the  methods  Which  may  be  used  hi  approaching  this  problem,  with 
special  reference  to  the  value  of  laboratory  tests  as  an  aid  in  the  se- 
lection of  suitable  materials  for  roads. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  the  engineer  may  avail  himself  of 
the  information  necessary  to  a  proper  selection  of  a  road  material. 
The  first  and  only  certain  one  is  to  make  an  actual  service  test  on 
the  material  under  observation,  and  under  the  same  conditions  of 
traffic  and  climate  to  which  the  proposed  road  will  be  subjected. 
This  method  is,  of  course,  impractical  except  in  certain  rare  instances, 
due  to  the  length  of  time  which  must  elapse  before  definite  results 
can  be  obtained.  The  second  method  is,  by  means  of  short  time 
laboratory  tests  to  approximate  as  nearly  as  possible  the  destructive 
agencies  to  which  the  material  will  be  subjected  on  the  road,  supple- 
menting the  knowledge  thus  gained  by  a  study  of  the  results  already 
obtained  in  practice  on  material  of  a  similar  nature. 

The  laboratory  testing  of  road  building  materials  originated  in 
France  over  forty  years  ago,  and  was  introduced  into  this  country 
by  the  writer  in  1893,  when  he  became  director  of  the  road  material 
laboratory  of  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  at  Harvard  University. 
The  United  States  government  became  interested  in  this  work  shortly 
afterwards,  establishing,  in  1900,  a  laboratory  in  the  department  of 
agriculture,  at  Washington.  This  laboratory  is  now  a  part  of  the 
office  of  public  roads,  and  has  thus  been  able  to  give  much  assistance 
throughout  the  country  in  regard  to  the  proper  selection  of  material 
for  macadam  roads. 

The  three  most  important  properties  which  a  rock  should  possess 
in  order  that  it  may  successfully  resist  the  destructive  agencies  to 
which  it  is  subjected  are  hardness,  toughness,  and  cementing  value. 

Hardness,  from  the  road  builder's  point  of  view,  may  be  defined 


MATERIALS  FOB  MACADAM  ROADS  171 

as  the  resistance  which  a  rock  offers  to  the  displacement  of  its  sur- 
face particles  by  friction.  It  is  well  illustrated  in  practice  by  the 
grinding  action  of  iron  tired  vehicles  which  tend  to  reduce  to  dust 
the  rock  fragments  of  which  the  road  is  composed.  This  property  is 
determined  in  the  laboratory  by  a  special  method,  the  essential  fea- 
tures of  which  are  as  follows : 

A  core  25  mm.  in  diameter  is  drilled  from  a  sample  of  the  solid  rock 
by  means  of  a  core  drill.  After  being  accurately  weighed,  it  is  held 
in  a  perpendicular  position  against  a  cast  steel  disc  revolving  at  the 
rate  of  thirty-three  revolutions  per  minute,  while  crushed  quartz 
sand  of  a  standard  size  is  fed  upon  the  disc  to  act  as  the  abrasive 
agent.  After  1000  revolutions  of  the  disc,  the  core  is  again  weighed, 
the  loss  calculated,  and  a  measure  of  the  hardness  of  the  rock  thus 
obtained. 

Toughness,  or  resistance  to  impact,  is  a  measure  of  ability  of  a 
road  material  to  resist  the  pounding  action  of  traffic  such  as  is  caused 
by  the  shoes  of  horses,  etc.  It  is  determined  in  the  laboratory  in 
the  following  way: 

A  cylindrical  test  specimen  of  the  rock  25  mm.  by  25  mm.  is  taken 
from  the  core  used  in  the  hardness  test,  and  subjected  to  the  impact 
of  a  2  kgm.  hammer  through  a  spherical  end  plunger  in  a  machine 
especially  designed  for  the  purpose.  The  test  consists  of  a  1  cm. 
drop  of  the  hammer  for  the  first  blow,  followed  by  an  increase  in  the 
drop  of  1  cm.  until  failure  of  the  test  piece  occurs.  The  height  of 
blow  at  failure  is  taken  to  represent  the  toughness  of  the  specimen. 

The  combined  effect  of  the  mechanical  agencies  causing  wear  is 
very  effectively  determined  by  means  of  the  Deval  abrasion  test, 
which  has  been  the  standard  for  over  thirty  years,  and  which  is  con- 
ducted essentially  as  follows: 

Five  kilograms  of  the  rock  to  be  tested  is  broken  so  as  to  number 
as  nearly  as  possible  fifty  pieces,  and  is  placed  in  an  iron  cylinder, 
mounted  in  such  a  way  that  the  axis  of  the  cylinder  is  inclined  at  an 
angle  of  30  degrees  with  the  axis  of  rotation  of  the  machine.  After 
10,000  revolutions  of  the  machine  at  the  rate  of  thirty-three  per  min- 
ute, the  material  is  taken  out  and  sieved  through  a  0.16  cm.  sieve, 
the  material  passing  being  that  used  in  calculating  the  percentage  of 
wear. 

The  cementing  value  of  a  road  stone  is  that  property  which  causes 
the  fine  rock  dust  to  act  as  a  cement  and  thus  bind  the  coarser  frag- 
ments of  which  the  road  surface  is  composed  into  an  impervious 
shell.  A  laboratory  test  to  determine  this  property  was  devised 
several  years  ago  by  the  writer,  and  is  conducted  substantially  as 
follows : 

Five  hundred  grams  of  the  material  to  be  tested  is  broken  to  about 
pea  size,  and  placed,  together  with  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water,  in 


172  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

an  iron  ball  mill.  Five  thousand  revolutions  of  the  mill  reduces  the 
mixture  to  the  consistency  of  a  stiff  dough,  which  is  moulded  by 
means  of  a  hydraulic  moulding  machine  into  cylindrical  briquettes 
25  mm.  by  25  mm.  in  size.  After  drying  twenty-four  hours,  these 
briquettes  are  tested  by  impact  in  a  machine  especially  designed  for 
the  purpose.  A  1  kgm.  hammer  falling  upon  an  intervening  plunger, 
which  in  turn  rests  upon  the  test  piece,  is  allowed  to  drop  from  a 
height  of  1  cm.  until  failure  of  the  specimen  occurs.  The  number  of 
blows  causing  failure  is  used  to  represent  the  cementing  value  of  the 
material. 

It  will  readily  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  that  a  very  accurate 
preliminary  idea  of  the  properties  of  a  road  stone  may  be  obtained 
by  means  of  laboratory  tests.  Many  years'  experience  in  testing 
these  materials  have  made  it  possible  to  adopt  certain  standards  of 
excellence  which,  when  used  intelligently  and  in  conjunction  with 
the  other  factors  in  the  case,  are  of  much  value  in  selecting  suitable 
materials  for  water-bound  roads. 

The  results  of  laboratory  tests  alone,  however,  are  not  sufficient 
to  judge  of  the  suitability  of  a  rock  for  road  building  purposes,  un- 
less supplemented  by  additional  information  as  to,  (1)  the  character 
and  volume  of  the  traffic  to  which  it  is  to  be  subjected;  (2)  climatic 
conditions  under  which  it  is  to  be  used,  and,  (3)  its  name  and  general 
character,  including,  if  possible,  its  mineral  composition.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  above,  consideration  in  any  specific  instance  should  be 
given  to  such  matters  as  the  availability  of  the  material,  especially 
with  reference  to  cost,  transportation  facilities,  etc. 

The  value  of  taking  these  factors  into  consideration  will  be  briefly 
illustrated  below. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  a  given  road  rock  is  far  from  being 
equally  well  suited  to  different  traffic  conditions.  A  high  grade  trap 
rock  would  be  as  unsuitable  as  it  would  be  uneconomical  on  a  road 
subjected  to  light  traffic,  in  that  the  dust  worn  off  would  not  be 
sufficient  to  bind  the  coarser  fragments  together,  and  the  road  would 
consequently  ravel.  On  the  other  hand,  the  comparatively  soft 
limestone  which  would  be  well  adapted  for  the  light  traffic  road  would 
quickly  pound  to  dust  if  subjected  to  conditions  which  would  hardly 
affect  the  trap. 

As  a  general  rule,  it  may  be  said  that  the  ideal  rock  for  any  par- 
ticular road  should  be  just  so  hard  and  tough  that  the  fine  material 
worn  off  by  the  action  of  traffic  would  be  sufficient  to  supply  that 
lost  by  the  physical  agencies  of  wind  and  ram.  By  correlating  the 
information  obtained  by  observing  the  behavior  of  the  various  rock 
types  under  different  traffic  conditions,  with  the  results  of  laboratory 
tests  on  material  similar  in  character,  it  has  been  found  possible  to 
determine  quite  definitely  under  just  what  conditions  any  given  ma- 
terial would  be  most  suitable,  even  before  it  had  ever  been  used  in 
road  construction. 


MATERIALS   FOR   MACADAM  ROADS  173 

Many  years  of  observation  of  the  behavior  of  the  various  road 
building  rocks  in  service  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that,  as  a  general 
rule,  certain  classes  of  material  possess  for  particular  purposes  dis- 
tinctive advantages  over  others.  It  is  obviously  of  advantage,  there- 
fore, to  know  the  general  type  of  the  material  under  observation, 
in  order  that  an  intelligent  comparison  may  be  made  between  it  and 
the  material  of  a  similar  nature  which  has  already  been  used.  The 
different  varieties  of  trap,  for  instance,  such  as  diabase,  basalt,  etc., 
are  generally  considered  to  make  the  most  satisfactory  road  mate- 
rial, especially  when  the  traffic  is  heavy  enough  to  supply  by  wear  the 
dust  lost  from  natural  causes.  The  limestones,  as  a  class,  being 
softer  and  less  tough  are,  as  a  rule,  better  adapted  for  light  traffic 
than  the  traps.  Laboratory  tests  in  these  cases  are,  therefore, 
mostly  of  value  in  enabling  the  engineer  to  make  a  definite  choice 
between  a  number  of  materials  which  in  a  general  way  might  be 
considered  as  suitable  for  his  work. 

The  granites,  owing  to  lack  of  toughness  and  cementing  value,  are, 
as  a  rule,  only  suitable  for  the  foundation  courses  in  plain  macadam 
construction.  Here  the  value  of  taking  into  consideration  the  char- 
acter of  the  rock  tested  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  frequently 
granites  are  found  by  laboratory  tests  to  have  good  cementing  values, 
due  to  highly  altered  minerals,  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  such  ma- 
terial should  not  be  used  on  account  of  the  ease  with  which  it  disin- 
tegrates under  traffic. 

Foliated  material,  such  as  gneiss,  schist,  slate,  etc.,  should  never, 
of  course,  be  used  when  better  material  is  available.  Material  such 
as  quartzite  and  marble  should  also  be  avoided,  the  first  on  account 
of  its  hardness  and  lack  of  cementing  value,  and  the  second  because 
of  its  crystalline  structure  and  general  lack  of  durability. 

The  availability  of  various  materials  considered  for  use  in  road 
construction  should,  of  course,  be  considered,  and  is  highly  important, 
especially  from  a  financial  standpoint.  In  considering  this  point, 
however,  care  should  be  taken  not  to  lose  sight  of  the  other  factors 
in  the  case.  Experience  has  shown  in  innumerable  instances  where 
poor  material  has  been  used  because  it  was  cheap  that  money  would 
have  been  saved  in  the  long  run  by  the  use  of  a  superior  rock,  even 
though  shipped  from  a  distance  and  costing  considerably  more  at  the 
outset.  There  are  cases,  however,  where  local  material  may  be 
used  advantageously.  It  is  in  such  instances  as  these  that  engineer- 
ing judgment,  combined  with  laboratory  results,  is  necessary  for 
proper  selection. 

An  accumulation  of  data  resulting  from  the  great  number  of  tests 
made  on  road  building  rocks  in  the  government  laboratory  has  quite 
recently  made  possible  some  very  interesting  investigations  concern- 
ing the  relation  between  the  properties  of  hardness  and  toughness. 
By  plotting  numerous  values  of  these  tests,  it  was  found  that,  in  a 


174  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

general  way,  hardness  increases  with  toughness  and  that,  whereas 
for  low  values  of  toughness  the  hardness  was  extremely  variable,  as 
the  rock  became  tougher  the  hardness  showed  less  and  less  deviation 
from  an  average  of  the  plotted  points.  The  significance  of  this  fact 
is  that  the  property  of  hardness  appears  to  be  invariably  associated 
with  that  of  toughness,  although  the  reverse  is  not  the  case.  It 
seems,  therefore,  that  for  a  quick  determination  of  the  qualities  of  a 
road  building  rock,  the  hardness  test  might  possibly  be  omitted, 
since  material  which  satisfactorily  passes  the  toughness  requirement 
invariably  appears  to  be  hard  enough  for  use  in  road  construction. 

When  rock  is  to  be  used  in  bituminous  construction,  the  importance 
of  some  of  the  above-mentioned  tests  is  diminished.  The  cementing 
value,  for  instance,  may  be  practically  disregarded  when  the  use  of  an 
artificial  binder  removes  the  necessity  for  dependence  upon  a  dust 
bond.  A  tough  rock  is,  of  course,  preferable,  and  more  especially 
when  the  surface  is  to  withstand  the  shock  of  heavy  traffic,  but  both 
toughness  and  per  cent  of  wear  become  less  important  in  the  body 
of  the  road  with  bituminous  construction  when  the  surface  is  main- 
tained by  occasional  surface  treatments  to  preserve  a  wearing  mat 
with  a  hard  and  tough  aggregate. 

Since  public  health  and  comfort  have  universally  demanded  an 
abatement  of  the  dust  nuisance,  and  economic  maintenance  is  cor- 
related with  their  demands,  a  few  words  on  the  selection  of  dust  pre- 
ventives and  road  binders  can  not  be  out  of  place  in  a  discussion  of 
materials  for  macadam  roads.  The  selection  of  a  form  of  treatment 
or  construction  must  be  governed  by  a  full  consideration  of  the 
volume  and  character  of  traffic  which  the  road  surface  is  called  upon 
to  carry.  In  rural  sections  where  a  macadam  road  is  subjected 
principally  to  the  average  farm  traffic  and  a  relatively  small  number 
of  automobiles,  a  surface  which  is  in  good  condition  at  the  outset 
may  be  economically  and  satisfactorily  maintained  by  an  occasional 
application  of  one  of  the  lighter  dust  laying  tars  or  oils.  The  pur- 
pose in  a  case  of  this  character  is  simply  to  preserve  an  already  good 
surface  by  keeping  the  products  of  wear  saturated  with  a  material 
that  will  prevent  them  from  being  removed  from  the  road  surface. 
The  purpose  is  readily  best  accomplished  by  a  product  that  is  not  pos- 
sessed of  marked  binding  qualities — a  material  that  will  not  pick  up 
nor  "ball"  when  mixed  with  dust  only.  Hygroscopic  salts  and  other 
non-bituminous  dust  preventive  have  also  served  the  above  purpose 
successfully  where  climatic  conditions  favor  their  particular  char- 
acteristics. 

The  value  of  a  simple  dust  preventive  decreases,  however,  with  an 
increase  in  the  volume  of  automobile  traffic,  and  a  more  permanent 
form  of  wearing  surface  then  becomes  necessary.  Up  to  a  certain 
limit,  and  particularly  on  park  roads,  this  character  of  traffic  is  suc- 
cessfully provided  for  by  means  of  an  annual  surface  treatment  of 
oil  or  tar  covered  with  cleaned  screenings  or  fine  gravel.  For  cold 


ADDRESS  BY  JUDGE  ASHEB  175 

surface  treatment,  the  oils  which  give  particular  satisfaction  are  the 
natural  or  partially  refined  products  which,  through  laboratory  tests, 
are  shown  to  consist  of  low-boiling  constituents  carrying  in  solution 
a  relatively  high  amount  of  heavy  adhesive  asphaltic  base.  For  most 
successful  surface  treatment,  it  is  essential  that  an  oil  shall  develop 
decided  adhesive  qualities  in  the  residue  from  the  standard  volatili- 
zation test  at  63°C.  Tar  products  should  be  free  from  water,  and 
it  is  believed  that  their  value  for  surface  treatment  increases  with 
the  decrease  in  the  free  carbon  content. 

When  the  traffic  becomes  of  such  a  character  and  magnitude  as  to 
cause  a  too  rapid  deterioration  of  a  surface  mat,  the  macadam  must 
be  constructed  or  resurfaced  with  a  heavy  binder  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  upper  2  or  3  inches  of  the  wearing  surface.  The  selection  of  a 
binder,  whether  it  be  a  tar  or  asphalt  product,  now  becomes  depend- 
ent on  several  factors,  among  which  the  method  of  construction, 
character  of  the  aggregate,  and  climatic  conditions  are  most  impor- 
tant. For  instance,  a  dense  aggregate  may  permit  of  the  use  of  a 
lighter  tar  than  will  a  poorly  graded  one;  or  a  lighter  tar  or  softer 
asphalt  product  would  be  specified  for  northern  latitudes  rather 
than  for  use  in  the  south.  A  single  standard  for  all  materials  and 
conditions  can  not,  therefore,  be  established,  but  with  the  various 
factors  in  mind,  a  specification  can  be  drawn  to  cover  the  consist- 
ency and  desirable  chemical  characteristics.  In  fact,  in  the  purchase 
of  road  materials  for  whatever  purpose  it  should  be  to  the  advantage 
of  the  producer  as  well  as  a  protection  to  the  consumer,  that  a  defi- 
nite specification  be  required.  All  shipments  when  received  should 
be  submitted  to  laboratory  tests  that  will  insure  fulfillment  of  these 
specifications. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Has  anyone  of  you  any  question  you  wish  to 
ask  Mr.  Page?  If  not,  I  desire  to  introduce  to  you  Judge  Joseph 
Asher,  of  Arkansas,  who  will  address  us  a  few  moments. 


ADDRESS  BY  JUDGE  JOSEPH  ASHER 

I  come  from  the  great  State  of  Arkansas  which  is  pretty  nearly 
square  in  shape  and  54,000  square  miles  in  area.  It  is  the  land  of 
tall  trees,  cotton,  corn,  rice,  fruits  of  every  kind,  stone  of  every  kind, 
coal  and  diamonds;  we  have  all  of  these  things,  and  at  the  same 
time  we  would  like  to  have  good  roads.  The  constitution  of  1874 
forbid  the  county  or  State  to  issue  any  interest  bearing  bonds,  hence 
we  cannot  borrow  any  money  for  internal  improvements  of  any 
kind,  but  the  Good  Roads'  people,  about  twelve  years  ago,  got 
together  and  passed  an  amendment  to  our  constitution  which  author- 
ized the  voters  every  two  years  to  vote  on  the  subject  of  levying  a 


176  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

3  mill  road  tax,  and  since  then  we  are  progressing  in  road  building. 
Every  two  years  the  question  is  submitted  to  the  voters  and  carries 
by  large  majority.  The  country  boy  appreciates  the  fact  that  in 
case  he  does  not  vote  the  road  tax,  he  works  ten  days  on  the  country 
road;  in  case  he  does  he  only  works  four.  You  understand  we  have 
no  cities  in  Arkansas  like  you  have  here,  we  have  only  $500,000,000 
valuation  and  a  3  mill  tax  on  that  gives  us  $1,500,000  a  year.  We 
found  out  that  the  constitution  did  not  limit  us  on  an  improvement 
district,  and  three  or  four  years  ago,  our  legislature  passed  a  law 
that  we  might  form  improvement  districts  in  the  country  the  same 
as  they  do  in  the  city,  and  assess  the  benefits  against  the  abutting 
acreage  property,  and  under  that  law  Pulaski  County  has  put  down 
about  30  miles  of  macadam  road,  besides  140  miles  built  without 
this  assistance.  The  improvement  district  usually  laid  out  is  a  terri- 
tory about  2  miles  on  each  side  of  the  road  to  be  improved  on  the 
request  of  the  people  living  in  that  territory,  representing  a  majority 
of  the  assessed  value  who  signed  the  petition.  The  county  out  of 
its  general  fund  pays  one-third  to  one-half  of  the  expense,  abutting 
property  pays  the  rest.  We  found  that  it  worked  like  a  charm. 
We  are  coming  along  and  building  good  roads  without  much  trouble. 
The  people  have  a  lot  of  interest  in  it,  as  it  is  largely  at  their  per- 
sonal expense.  When  they  find  they  are  paying  something  like 
$4000  or  $5000  a  mile,  they  are  ready  to  take  hold  of  it;  not  a  man 
grumbles.  We  assess  them  according  to  the  benefits.  The  county 
court  appoints  a  board  of  commissioners,  they  appoint  assessors  and 
they  meet  and  say  "We  are  going  to  assess  the  benefits  for  build- 
ing this  road;  come  and  meet  us  and  see  that  we  do  each  property 
owner  right,  or  show  us  that  we  are  wrong  and  we  will  right  it." 
We  assess  the  land  in  bottom  river  country,  where  the  land  is  rich, 
$2.50  to  $7  an  acre  for  that  road.  Everybody  is  satisfied.  Another 
law  under  which  the  legislature  may  form  special  improvement  dis- 
tricts if  the  legislature  finds  it  will  accrue  to  the  benefit  of  the  coun- 
try is  also  in  operation.  The  last  legislature  put  itself  on  record  and 
put  through  200  miles  of  first  class  road.  Some  of  that  road  will 
be  the  same  as  you  have  in  Wayne  County,  concrete  road;  another 
portion  of  the  road  is  a  good  macadam.  We  believe  that  the  fairest 
way  to  assess  the  road  proposition  is  that  the  people  who  use  the 
road  pay  for  it,  and  it  is  working  entirely  satisfactory.  We  have 
no  trouble  organizing  those  improvement  districts.  The  only  trouble 
is  that  much  of  our  territory  is  not  assessed  high  enough  to  sustain 
a  large  assessment.  1  believe  that  these  suggestions  might  work 
in  some  other  locality;  other  States.  It  is  new  with  us.  Our  courts 
have  held  it  good  and  I  believe  it  would  hold  good  in  other  Southern 
States  that  are  similarly  encumbered  as  ours. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    Gentlemen  of  the  Convention,  I  desire  to  read 
to  you  a  telegram  which  I  have  just  received  from  President  Dell 


ADDKESS  BY  JUDGE  ASHER  177 

M.  Potter,  of  the  Southern  National  Highway  Association,  whose 
home  is  in  Arizona.  On  behalf  of  the  Southern  National  Highway 
Association  he  extends  to  you  greetings  and  wishes  you  success  in 
all  your  undertakings,  and  regrets  that  he  is  unable  to  be  present. 

Adjourned  until  2.30  p.m. 


CONTRACT  SESSION 

UICDER  AUSPICES  AMERICAN  SOCIETY  OF  ENGINEERING  CONTRACTORS 

October  1,  2.30  p.m. 
J.  R.  WEMLINGER,  Chairman 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  meeting  will  please  come  to  order.  Mr. 
Rickey  has  a  resolution  to  offer  and  I  will  ask  him  to  read  it. 

Mr.  Rickey  offered  a  resolution  favoring  the  creation  of  a  depart- 
ment of  public  highways  which  was  referred  to  the  committee  on 
resolutions. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  W.  L.  Bowman  will  present  a  paper  on 
"Legal  Suggestions  Respecting  Road  Contracts." 

LEGAL  SUGGESTIONS  RESPECTING  ROAD  CONTRACTS 

BY  WILLIAM  LAW  BOWMAN,  C.E.,  LL.B. 
New  York  Bar 

Etymologically  and  technically  the  word  "  contract"  should  mean 
an  agreement  enforcible  by  law.  "The  law  of  contract  may  be  de- 
scribed as  an  endeavor  of  the  State  ....  to  establish  a 
positive  sanction  for  the  expectation  of  good  faith  which  has  grown 
up  in  the  mutual  dealings  of  men  of  average  rightmindedness."  How 
do  our  present  public  contracts  for  road  construction  and  their  in- 
terpretation by  officials  satisfy  these  old  definitions.  As  a  part  of  the 
great  work  of  properly  linking  our  States  and  their  cities  and  towns 
with  uniformly  good  roads,  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  to  better  and  if 
possible  make  uniform  the  contract  conditions  respecting  the  con- 
struction work  and  to  secure  that  cooperation  and  esprit-de-corps 
between  officials,  engineers  and  contractors  which  alone  will  give 
us  the  best  roads  for  the  least  money  with  a  minimum  of  trouble  and 
wasted  energy.  It  has  been  wisely  remarked  that  "you  get  only 
what  you  pay  for"  and  in  the  long  run  that  is  as  true  in  road  con- 
struction work  as  in  any  other  field. 

Let  us  first  consider  some  general  principles  respecting  states, 
municipalities  and  roads  which  should  be  known  in  order  to  appreciate 
the  special  subjects  which  will  be  considered. 

The  State  is  a  sovereign  body  and  as  such  is  not  responsible  by 
action  at  law  or  in  equity.  There  are  a  few  isolated  cases  holding 
that  when  a  State  goes  outside  its  governmental  capacity,  it  may 
then  be  sued  in  the  federal  court.  No  dependence  however  can  be 

178 


MUNICIPAL  CONTRACT   LAW  179 

placed  upon  these  decisions  by  a  contractor.  The  result  is  that  a 
contractor  with  a  State  has  no  way  to  enforce  his  contract  rights 
nor  to  secure  redress  against  official  oppression  unless  the  State  leg- 
islature has  provided  therefor.  The  best  and  usual  plan  is  the  forma- 
tion by  the  legislature  of  a  court  or  board  of  claims  to  hear  and  de- 
termine claims  against  the  State,  its  departments  and  boards.  One 
State  allows  a  contractor  to  sue  it  provided  the  legislature  passes  a 
special  bill  for  the  specific  matter.  The  value  of  that  right  is  well 
illustrated  by  a  statement  made  to  the  writer  by  an  offending  official 
that  when  he  got  through  with  the  matter  I  would  have  to  have 
more  political  influence  than  he  thought  I  had  in  order  to  get  such 
a  bill  through  the  legislature.  It  is  also  the  general  rule  that  in  such 
instances  the  offending  official  himself  is  beyond  the  legal  reach  of 
the  contractor.  Thus  it  is  that  except  in  those  States  having  a 
court  or  board  of  claims,  official  oppression  and  even  financial  ruin 
can  be  honestly  or  dishonestly  caused  without  any  hope  or  prevention 
or  redress  for  the  contractor.  A  so-called  agreement  where  the  con- 
tractor depends  solely  upon  the  action  of  an  official  and  his  engineer 
should  not  be  called  a  contract.  It  violates  the  true  meaning  and 
our  understanding  of  that  term.  This  inability  of  a  contractor  to 
enforce  his  contract  rights  or  even  to  demand  fair  play  and  justice 
cannot  but  be  detrimental  to  good  economical  road  construction. 
Under  such  circumstances  the  work  becomes  political — only  favor- 
ites dare  bid  or  accept  contracts — and  the  other  results  of  political 
work  naturally  follow. 

Due  to  this  fact  that  most  States  could  not  and  still  cannot  be 
compelled  to  live  up  to  their  contract  conditions,  the  terms  of  a 
State  contract  have  been  considered  practically  unimportant  by  the 
contractor.  He  knew  that  he  must  follow  the  directions,  the  plans  and 
specifications  called  for.  While  conscientious  and  honest  officials 
and  engineers  predominate  in  State  work  yet  they  at  times  need  the 
restraint  which  a  chance  to  be  heard  by  the  contractor  affords.  Fur- 
thermore the  atmosphere  and  the  mental  attitude  of  all  concerned  is 
bad  in  such  a  situation.  Those  opposed  to  granting  the  contractor 
this  right  to  properly  and  legally  present  his  claims  before  a  disin- 
terested court  or  party  will  be  interested  to  know  that  even  so  great 
a  sovereign  as  Emperor  William  of  Germany  last  year  lost  an  action 
to  one  of  his  tenants  in  the  German  supreme  court  over  the  value 
of  certain  improvements.  Therefore  unless  a  State  has  a  board  or 
court  of  claims  open  at  all  times  to  those  contracting  with  the  State, 
its  departments  and  boards,  or  unless  it  provides  for  a  submission 
to  an  impartial  and  disinterested  arbitrator  or  arbitrators  any  changes 
in  the  present  State  contracts  that  are  discussed  or  suggested  will  of 
course  be  useless  except  as  they  may  influence  the  controlling  official. 
In  this  connection  it  has  been  very  noticeable  that  both  the  judges 
and  the  juries  favor  the  State  or  municipality  when  they  are  sued. 
This  is  even  found  where  it  is  necessary  to  construe  the  iron-clad 
terma  and  conditions  of  our  present  day  one-sided  agreements  which 


180  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

are  required  to  be  signed  by  those  desiring  to  engage  in  public  work 
and  where  it  would  be  expected  there  would  be  some  sympathy  for 
the  contractor.  In  all  seriousness  then,  it  is  submitted  that  there 
seems  to  be  no  logical  reason  why  the  contractor  should  not  be  given 
an  opportunity  to  get  a  square  deal  if  he  believes  he  is  not  being 
fairly  or  honestly  dealt  with. 

Municipalities  are  the  legal  creatures  of  the  legislature,  and  their 
powers  and  rights  must  be  found  in  the  law  creating  them.  Through- 
out this  paper  the  term  municipalities  will  signify  cities,  counties, 
towns,  boroughs,  road  districts,  etc.  As  a  governmental  agent,  a 
municipality  is  immune  in  respect  to  mere  errors  of  judgment  but 
in  its  ministerial  capacity  it  is  liable  for  consequences  of  negligence 
and  maladministration.  As  regards  plans  for  public  improvements 
some  courts  attribute  negligence  to  a  municipality  in  the  adoption 
of  a  defective  plan  and  the  test  of  the  liability  of  a  municipality 
which  causes  injury  is  not  the  fitness  of  the  engineer  but  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  work.  Where  a  defective  plan  is  the  result  of  bad 
faith  or  oppression  or  is  so  clearly  unreasonable  as  to  inflict  needless 
injury  a  court  may  enjoin  performance  or  if  the  work  is  completed 
hold  the  municipality  responsible. 

Roads  are  in  the  control  of  the  State.  In  doing  road  work  a 
municipality  acts  as  the  agent  of  the  State  performing  a  public  duty 
imposed  by  law.  On  this  account  those  dealing  with  either  roads  or 
municipalities  must  ascertain  the  legislative  acts  pertaining  thereto  as 
a  basis  for  any  serious  investigation.  In  determining  the  powers  or 
rights  conferred  by  such  statutes  the  investigator  must  remember 
that  the  wording  of  the  law  will  be  strictly  adhered  to  and  that  the 
tendency  is  to  restrict  powers  granted  and  to  deny  any  implied  pow- 
ers or  rights. 

Since  a  contract  may  be  either  wholly  void  or  voidable  at  the  op- 
tion of  the  State  or  municipality  unless  certain  preliminary  steps 
are  properly  taken  and  since  in  such  instances  it  usually  results  in  a 
total  or  partial  loss  to  the  contractor  of  his  compensation  for  work 
done  and  material  furnished  it  is  essential  that  a  brief  warning  in 
this  regard  should  be  given. 

With  respect  to  roads;  the  proceedings  to  acquire  the  land;  the 
report  upon  the  advisability  of  a  road;  the  estimate  of  the  cost; 
the  description  of  the  road;  the  survey  and  resurvey ;  the  proper  sanc- 
tion of  the  voters  or  taxpayers;  the  proper  formation  and  action  of 
the  boards  or  courts,  etc.,  all  must  be  in  compliance  with  the  statutes 
and  laws  pertaining  thereto.  In  addition  the  actual  preliminaries 
to  the  contract  itself  must  be  regularly  and  legally  complied  with: 
A  proper  and  sufficient  appropriation  or  available  funds;  a  proper 
advertisement  for  bidders;  a  proper  letting  to  a  proper  party;  a 
a  properly  constitued  board  or  official  acting  strictly  in  accordance 
with  its  or  his  authority;  a  proper  bond  for  performance,  etc.  The 
contract  itself  must  be  in  the  required  form  properly  executed,  for 
the  purposes  allowed  by  the  special  statute,  with  proper  persons  en- 


ROAD    CONTRACTS  181 

titled  both  to  give  and  to  have  such  contract  and  in  accordance  and 
in  conformity  with  the  preliminary  reports,  plans,  specifications,  sur- 
vey, description,  etc.  As  has  been  previously  stated,  failures,  omis- 
sions, or  negligence  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  State  or  municipal  offi- 
cials or  agents  in  the  above  respects  may  cause  the  contractor  to 
lose  his  compensation  for  work  done  and  for  benefits  actually  con- 
ferred by  the  contractor.  There  are  some  decisions  and  some  stat- 
utes which  are  based  on  equity  to  prevent  such  unjust  enrichment  of 
such  bodies  at  the  expense  of  a  contractor  but  it  is  not  safe  to  rely 
on  such  law  in  any  particular  instance.  The  general  rule  may  be 
likened  to  the  ancient  rule  of  "  caveat  emptor"  or  as  it  might  be  ex- 
pressed here  "let  the  contractor  beware."  This  warning,  while  pri- 
marily for  the  contractor  should  be  taken  to  heart  by  the  official  who 
is  trying  to  do  right  and  be  honest  since  usually  he  is  the  unfortunate 
party  that  causes  the  contractor's  troubles  and  losses. 

CONTRACTS 

As  we  have  already  seen,  most  present  day  state  contracts  for 
road  construction  are  not  really  "  contracts"  because  of  the  inability 
of  the  contractor  to  sue  thereon.  In  addition  I  have  also  seen  one 
State  contract  which  stated  that  "all  right  or  rights  of  any  action 
at  law  or  in  equity  under  or  by  virtue  of  this  contract  and  all  matter 
connected  with  it  and  relative  to  the  same  are  hereby  expressly 
waived  by  the  contractor."  Practically  the  same  result  is  accom- 
plished by  other  States  and  especially  by  municipalities  by  the  require- 
ment that  upon  or  before  final  payment  the  contractor  must  execute 
a  release  in  full  of  all  claims  arising  out  of  or  by  reason  of  the  work 
done  and  material  furnished  under  the  contracts.  Is  this  good  faith 
in  the  dealings  of  men  of  average  right-mindedness?  I  cannot  con- 
ceive of  but  one  answer  to  this  question.  The  remedy  is  then  simple. 
Provide  either  fair  and  disinterested  boards  of  arbitration  to  pass 
upon  a  contractor's  claims  or  provide  a  court  of  claims  and  eliminate 
any  waiver  of  appeal  to  such  arbitrators  or  court  and  the  general 
release  as  a  conation  precedent  to  final  payment  from  all  road  con- 
struction contracts.  In  other  words  give  the  contractor  a  chance 
for  a  square  deal  upon  a  two-sided  mutually  agreeable  contract.  In 
passing  it  might  be  noted  that  the  United  States  government  is  prob- 
ably the  worst  offender  in  this  matter  of  unfair  and  objectionable 
clauses,  including  that  requiring  a  release,  and  it  is  setting  a  disgrace- 
ful example  for  the  States  and  municipalities. 

SATISFACTION   CLAUSES 

It  is  probably  a  safe  statement  that  there  is  no  State  or  municipal 
contract  in  use  today  which  does  not  provide  for  the  "satisfaction" 
of  some  official,  board  or  engineer,  or  all  combined.  Is  this  a  neces- 
sary, fair  and  honest  requirement  in  road  construction  contracts  or 


182  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

is  it  merely  a  club  to  compel  the  contractor  to  do  what  the  official 
or  engineer  wants  regardless  of  the  plans  and  specifications? 

In  most  States  it  has  been  properly  held  that  this  requirement 
merely  necessitates  work  satisfactory  to  the  mind  of  a  reasonable 
man.  Thus  if  the  work  has  been  performed  substantially  in  com- 
pliance with  the  contract,  the  law  will  hold  the  official,  engineer,  etc., 
to  be  satisfied.  With  plans  and  specifications  so  clear  and  concise 
as  they  generally  are  in  road  construction,  and  especially  with  the 
work  required  to  be  done  "under  the  direction"  of  an  engineer  and 
under  constant  inspection,  it  would  seem  that  legal  satisfaction  would 
be  presumed  in  99  out  of  100  cases  and  hence  the  use  made  of  this 
requirement  in  such  States  would  be  merely  to  bluff  or  bulldoze  the 
contractor.  In  no  way  does  it  improve  the  requirements  of  the 
plans  and  specifications. 

In  such  a  State  as  Pennsylvania  where  work  can  be  held  unsatis- 
factory by  the  official  or  engineer  even  though  the  plans  and  speci- 
fications are  rigidly  adhered  to  and  where  only  honesty  of  purpose 
is  required,  the  result  of  such  a  contract  requirement  may  be  heart- 
breaking. Under  the  guise  of  dissatisfaction  I  have  known  an  official 
in  that  State  to  deliberately  violate  every  essential  provision  of  an 
agreement  and  to  settle  at  his  own  figure  with  the  contractor;  or  in 
plain  English  to  rob  the  contractor  not  only  of  his  contract  right  but 
also  of  thousands  in  money  with  no  redress.  A  contractor  who  ac- 
cepts State  work  in  a  State  where  this  personal  satisfaction  of  private 
taste  in  road  construction  is  required  must  understand  that  he  is  at 
the  beck  and  call  of  the  official  or  engineer  regardless  of  his  contract 
requirements  and  conditions.  What  could  the  contractor  in  such  a 
State  do  when  he  has  to  satisfy  not  only  the  engineer  in  charge,  but 
the  road  commission  and  a  State  board?  Suppose  the  work  satisfied 
one  and  not  the  other  two,  or  two  and  not  the  third  party? 

Our  considerations  recommend  that  "satisfactory"  requirements 
be  dropped  from  road  construction  contracts  as  either  unnecessary, 
harmful  or  unfair  and  as  not  being  a  sanction  for  the  expectation  of 
good  faith  between  men  of  average  right-mindedness. 

CONTRACT  WORK 

In  looking  over  many  of  the  latest  forms  of  road  construction 
contracts  it  is  noticeable  that  there  is  a  very  decided  improvement  in 
the  manner  and  method  of  setting  forth  the  contract  work  and  speci- 
fying what  is  variously  designated  as  alteration,  additional,  miscella- 
neous, or  extra  work,  etc.  Road  work  is  now  generally  specified  in 
various  units  and  a  price  bid  for  each  respective  unit.  In  one  such 
contract  we  find  this  definition:  "Extra  work  is  any  work  in  con- 
nection with  the  execution  or  completion  of  the  contract  for  which 
no  price  is  included  in  the  proposal  sheets  and  contracts."  Compare 
this  simple  and  concise  statement  with  a  New  York  City  form  which 
had  different  requirements  for  ordering  additional  work  as  different!- 


BOAD   CONTRACTS  183 

ated  from  extra  work,  the  distinction  not  being  stated  and  being  such 
that  there  would  be  times  when  the  average  engineer  or  contractor 
would  not  know  to  which  class  the  work  belonged  to.  Result — the 
contractor  would  be  refused  payment  for  additional  work  done  pur- 
suant to  extra  work  requirements  or  vice. 

In  this  same  regard  why  should  a  contractor,  as  is  now  frequently 
demanded,  be  responsible  for  unknown  or  underground  conditions? 
Just  lately  in  New  York  City  a  paving  contractor  found  a  lot  of 
rock  above  grade  which  should  have  been  taken  put  by  a  prior  grading 
contractor.  Under  notice  to  bidders  to  examine  the  site,  etc.,  the 
court  of  appeals  held  that  the  plans  of  the  completed  grading  contract 
on  file  in  the  city  offices  did  not  constitute  a  representation  to  bidders 
of  the  condition  of  the  road  bed  and  hence  the  paving  contractor 
had  to  do  this  work  of  grading  without  extra  compensation. 

Let  us  then  have  definite  contract  units  of  work  at  unit  payments 
clearly  specified,  and  provide  payment  for  any  other  work  necessary 
which  may  arise  either  at  the  unit  prices  or,  as  is  becoming  popular, 
upon  a  percentage  basis.  This  latter  method  seems  a  fair  means  of 
providing  for  extra  work  as  hereinbefore  defined  but  the  contract 
must  specify  exactly  what  is  to  be  considered  the  "cost"  upon  which 
the  percentage  is  based,  as  there  is  great  difference  of  opinion  on  the 
subject.  For  example  in  one  State,  the  statute  provides  for  certain 
construction  work  at  cost  plus  15  per  cent.  There  being  no  provi- 
sion against  subletting,  the  actual  work  was  done  by  subcontractors 
at  a  fixed  price.  The  "cost,"  as  sustained  by  the  highest  court,  in- 
cluded the  cost  to  the  contractor  for  the  work  as  agreed  and  paid  to 
the  subcontractor,  the  contractor's  overhead  expenses  for  super- 
vision, engineering,  office  rent,  etc.  In  this  way  the  State  actually 
paid  53J  per  cent  on  the  actual  cost  of  labor  and  materials  at  the 
job  which  is  the  popular  conception  of  the  word  "cost"  in  percentage 
contracts.  The  rules  of  law  applicable  to  percentage  contracts  are 
the  same  as  those  of  the  ordinary  lump  sum  contracts.  Under  proper 
contract  conditions  with  definite  plans  and  specifications  and  with 
honest  officials  and  contractors,  contracts  on  the  percentage  basis  of 
"cost  of  labor  and  materials  at  the  job"  would  in  my  opinion  give 
as  wide  scope  for  competitive  bidding  and  should  give  better  results 
in  actual  construction  work.  It  should  do  away  with  many  of  the 
conflicts  now  common  between  the  official,  the  engineer  or  both  and 
the  contractor.  The  tendency  would  also  be  to  give  closer  competi- 
tion between  the  large  corporation  with  heavy  overhead  charges  and 
the  small  concern  with  practically  no  such  expenses.  There  would 
seem  to  be  no  question  but  what  in  the  long  run  this  would  be  less 
expensive  to  the  municipality  because  it  would  tend  to  cut  out  the 
contracts  with  enormous  profits  and  at  the  same  time  lessen  the 
broken  contracts  because  no  contract  should  be  given  put  for  less 
than  the  defined  "cost"  price.  This  is  merely  a  suggestion  in  pass- 
ing but  I  should  like  to  see  it  given  a  fair  trial. 


184  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

DUTIES   OF  THE   ENGINEER 

Under  most  of  our  road  construction  contracts  the  engineer  takes 
his  time  honored  dual  capacity  of  agent  for  the  State  or  municipality 
and  arbitrator  between  the  contracting  parties.  It  has  been  noted 
that  if  the  contract  provides  that  the  engineer  will  make  an  estimate 
and  issue  a  certificate  he  will  often  do  so  where  he  may  refuse  if  such 
wording  is  not  used.  There  is  no  question  but  what  the  engineer  is 
given  too  much  "discretion"  under  our  present  contracts.  In  road 
construction  work  there  would  seem  to  be  no  excuse  for  a  lack  of 
definite  plans  and  specifications  which  of  themselves  should  reduce 
the  engineer's  discretion  to  a  minimum. 

There  always  will  be  objections  to  the  salaried  or  paid  engineer  of 
a  State  or  municipality  acting  as  an  arbitrator  without  appeal  as  is 
the  result  accomplished  by  practically  all  State  and  municipal  con- 
tracts. Upon  the  wording  of  such  contracts  some  courts  have  even 
gone  to  the  extent  of  holding  the  contractor  but  not  the  State  or 
municipality  bound  by  the  engineer's  decisions  within  the  scope  of 
his  authority.  Clearly  such  a  result  is  unjust.  In  addition  to  this, 
State  and  municipal  contracts  are  so  replete  with  oppressive  or  "  club ' ' 
clauses  for  the  engineer  that  a  contractor  knows  he  must  take  care 
of  that  official  one  way  or  another.  It  has  been  well  said  that  no 
man  should  be  placed  in  such  a  position  where  bribery  and  graft  is 
often  the  easiest  and  cheapest  solution  of  differences  or  disputes. 
Whether  or  not  the  engineer  is  an  arbitrator  depends  upon  the  strict 
wording  of  the  pertinent  clauses  of  the  contract.  All  such  clauses 
will  be  strictly  considered  and  no  implied  powers  will  be  given  the 
engineer.  Where  an  engineer  is  made  an  arbitrator  he  must  remem- 
ber that  he  has  greater  powers  than  the  judges  on  the  bench,  because 
he  may  intentionally  decide  contrary  to  the  law  and  still  have  his 
judgment  stand.  On  this  account  an  engineer's  decisions  should  be 
beyond  reproach.  The  fact  that  in  the  exercise  of  his  duties  as 
arbitrator  he  cannot  be  held  legally  responsible  for  lack  of  skill,  care- 
lessness and  even  negligence  should  create  an  ambition  to  merit  the 
honor  bestowed.  The  engineer  should  never  forget  that  he  is,  under 
present-day  clauses,  taking  the  place  of  the  court  and  that  his  action 
may  close  the  door  to  either  party  to  appeal  from  his  decision.  Pro- 
fessional honor  and  reputation  often  depends  more  upon  the  engi- 
neer's action  in  such  matters  than  upon  his  pure  engineering  knowledge. 
However,  the  engineer  must  know  that  he  cannot  ordinarily  deprive 
the  contractor  of  his  right  to  judicial  construction  of  the  contract 
after  it  has  been  performed  so  far  as  such  construction  involves  mat- 
ters of  law.  These  considerations  show  us  that  the  engineer  holds 
under  our  present  day  construction  contracts  an  almost  impossible 
position  for  a  human  being.  Would  it  not  be  better  to  relieve  him  of 
some  of  these  onerous  duties?  Experience  seems  to  show  that  bet- 
ter feeling,  better  work,  and  cooperation  between  the  engineer  and 
contractor  may  be  secured  by  more  precise,  concise  and  definite  plans 
and  specifications,  and  the  elimination  of  all  unnecessary  "  discretion" 
and  "arbitration  without  appeal"  clauses  respecting  the  engineer. 


ROAD  CONTRACTS  185 

CONSTRUCTION  OF  CONTRACTS 

Since  we  cannot  expect  any  sudden  change  in  present  road  construc- 
tion contracts,  this  paper  would  not  be  complete  without  a  statement 
of  some  of  the  most  general  legal  principles  which  should  govern  the 
actions  of  officials  and  engineers  even  if  the  contractor  cannot  sue 
or  get  a  fair  hearing  for  his  side.  Since  all  State  and  municipal  con- 
tracts emanate  from  the  contracting  official  the  ordinary  rule  is  that 
the  contract  provisions  should  be  construed  most  strongly  against 
the  author.  Especially  is  that  so  when  such  construction  is  neces- 
sary to  save  a  contractor  from  fraud  and  injustice,  or  where,  as  in 
these  contracts,  one  party  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  other.  The  follow- 
ing instances  where  municipalities  have  been  held  responsible  in  dam- 
ages on  account  of  the  actions  and  orders  of  officials  and  engineers 
should  be  known  and  avoided: 

a.  Mistakes  in  lines,  grades,  elevations,  plans  or  specifications  or 
directions  whereby  the  contractor  had  either  to  do  additional  work 
or  do  over  work  already  done. 

6.  Requirement  that  the  contractor  do  the  work  in  a  way  not 
called  for  by  the  contract,  entailing  more  expensive  work  than  would 
customarily  or  otherwise  be  entailed. 

c.  Requirement  that  the  contractor  do  over  work  already  done 
properly  or  repair  or  maintain  the  same  unreasonably. 

d.  Requirement  that  the  contractor  do  work  not  within  his  con- 
tract as  contract  work. 

e.  Refusal  to  permit  contractor  to  perform  work  called  for  by  his 
contract. 

A  substantial  performance  of  a  contract  creates  a  situation  where 
the  contractor  is  entitled  to  his  full  contract  price  less  the  expense  of 
supplying  the  omissions  and  defects.  From  a  study  of  cases  all 
over  the  country  the  following  rule  would  seem  practical  for  contracts 
under  $25,000.  Provided  the  contractor  has  honestly  attempted  to 
complete  his  contract,  and  particularly  when  he  has  followed  the 
directions  of  the  official  or  engineer,  and  when  the  omissions  or  defects 
do  not  pervade  the  whole  work  or  make  the  object  of  the  parties  im- 
possible or  difficult  of  accomplishment,  or  when  the  usefulness  or 
value  of  the  construction  is  not  materially  impaired,  and  provided 
the  cost  or  reasonable  value  of  correcting  such  defects  or  omissions 
does  not  exceed  6  per  cent  of  the  contract  price,  then  there  has  been 
a  substantial  performance.  No  practical  working  rule  can  be  given 
for  contracts  over  $25,000.  Substantial  performance  also  excuses  the 
production  of  an  engineer's  certificate. 

In  this  connection  it  is  important  to  note  that  in  correcting  defects, 
supplying  omissions  or  completing  a  contract  the  State  or  municipal- 
ity becomes  bound  by  the  terms  of  the  contract  and  its  plans  and 
specifications.  For  example,  if  the  contract  permitted  the  use  of  na- 
tive stone  the  State  cannot  use  trap  rock  and  expect  to  charge  that 
against  the  contractor.  In  such  instances  a  burden  is  imposed  upon 
the  official  to  complete  the  performance  in  good  faith  pursuant  to 
all  the  contract  provisions  and  with  reasonable  care  and  regard  to 


186  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

the  rights  of  the  contractor.  There  seems  to  be  a  tendency  on  the 
part  of  some  officials  to  make  an  example  of  a  contractor  who  has 
defaulted.  Their  chief  object  often  seems  to  be  to  spend  all  the 
retains  and  if  possible  all  they  think  they  can  collect  on  the  con- 
tractor's bond.  This  is  neither  legal  nor  honest.  The  completion 
work  must  be  done  diligently,  and  the  damages  mitigated  as  much 
as  possible.  High-priced  men  cannot  be  used  for  cheap  labor,  nor 
can  completion  be  delayed  until  market  prices  have  risen.  Thus  it 
has  even  been  held  that  a  municipality  was  bound  by  the  date  of 
completion  when  it  assumed  a  contract. 

If  a  contract  calls  for  liquidated  damages  for  delay  after  a  specified 
date,  such  damages  are  waived  or  are  not  recoverable  by  the  State  or 
municipality  where  they  render  the  contract  incapable  of  performance 
within  the  specified  time  or  where  they  assume  as  agents  of  the 
contractor  to  complete  the  contract.  Similarly  if  the  delay  after  a 
specified  date  is  caused,  both  by  the  State  or  municipality  and  the 
contractor,  the  liquidated  damages  cannot  be  apportioned.  It  has 
been  held  that  a  city  cannot  retain  a  substantial  sum  under  the  guise 
of  liquidated  damages  for  delay  when  in  fact  only  nominal  damages 
have  been  sustained.  Where  the  liquidated  damage  clause  falls,  then 
actual  damages  caused  by  the  contractor  must  be  proved  as  an  offset. 
There  is  still  one  very  important  matter  pertinent  in  this  respect. 
Where  a  contractor  follows  detailed  plans  and  specifications  and  the 
directions  of  the  engineer  and  completes  any  part  or  all  the  work 
there  should  be  no  deductions  for  variations  from  the  contract  since 
the  parties  have  practically  construed  the  contract  as  one  for  work  in 
accordance  with  the  engineer's  directions  and  such  construction  must 
prevail  over  the  literal  meaning  of  the  contract.  Also  under  these 
same  conditions  and  circumstances  a  contractor  is  not  responsible  for 
a  result  nor  is  he  responsible  for  any  defects  or  repairs  (except  where 
there  is  a  repair  clause)  beyond  those  required  by  the  failure  of  the 
contractor's  materials  or  by  the  contractor's  own  work.  In  other 
words,  a  road  contractor  usually  does  not  warrant  the  road  as  cap- 
able of  standing  any  particular  traffic,  etc.,  that  should  be  determined 
by  the  plans  and  specifications. 

Naturally  the  most  important  thing  to  the  contractor  is  prompt 
payment,  not  only  of  his  partial  but  also  of  his  final  payment.  It  is 
a  general  rule  of  law  that  a  failure  of  a  State  or  municipality  to  pay 
an  instalment  on  the  due  date  causes  a  breach  of  contract  which 
relieves  the  contractor  from  further  performance  and  enables  him  to 
collect  the  contract  price  or  reasonable  value  of  all  work  done  to  date. 
The  failure  of  the  engineer  to  make  his  estimate  and  issue  his  certifi- 
cate may  not  excuse  a  failure  to  pay  partial  payments  even  if  they 
are  required  to  be  made  only  upon  engineer's  certificates.  The  re- 
fusal of  an  engineer,  under  ordinary  circumstances  where  there  has 
been  work  done,  to  make  his  estimate  and  issue  his  certificate  in 
time  so  that  the  contract  payment  can  be  made  is  of  itself  presump- 
tively fraudulent.  Again  it  is  often  found  to  be  the  case  that  the 


ROAD   CONTRACTS  187 

engineer  refuses  to  act  upon  the  direction  of  the  official,  which,  of 
course,  is  collusion,  and  which  excuses  the  production  of  such  certifi- 
cate. It  is  a  rule  of  law  that  an  engineer's  certificate  will  not  be 
considered  as  a  condition  precedent  to  a  partial  or  final  payment  unless 
it  is  definitely  and  distinctly  stated  so  to  be  in  the  contract.  The 
control  of  the  money  bag  is  often  supreme  and  in  this  way  engineers 
and  officials  have  it  in  their  power  to  make  or  break  a  contractor. 
A  reputation  of  an  engineer  for  prompt  and  fair  estimates  and  of  an 
official  for  prompt  payments  is  sure  to  result  in  lower  bids  and  better 
construction  work. 

Having  considered  these  few  most  important  matters  and  with  an 
understanding  of  the  legal  principles  involved  cannot  we  in  the 
future  have  justice  and  equity  and  not  vengeance,  spite  or  bossism 
in  road  construction  work?  The  result  of  such  a  change,  where  it 
is  necessary,  cannot  but  be  beneficial  to  all  concerned. 

REPAIRS 

There  seems  to  be  a  tendency  in  some  of  the  present  day  road  con- 
tracts to  require  a  contractor  to  maintain  the  road  for  a  specified 
length  of  time,  usually  one  to  five  years.  Is  that  a  good  and  eco- 
nomical requirement?  Does  it  not  to  a  certain  extent  restrict  bidding 
and  contracting  to  local  parties?  Are  not  the  unit  prices  and  hence 
the  contract  total  largely  increased  to  take  care  of  an  unknown  amount 
of  repairs?  Is  there  not  a  gamble  on  that  matter?  The  best  of 
roads  require  constant  inspection  and  repairing  to  keep  them  in  shape. 
That  work  should  be  done  either  under  a  strictly  repair  contract  or 
by  the  State  or  municipality  itself.  This  criticism  of  course  is  more 
applicable  to  country  roads  as  differentiated  from  city  streets. 

SUMMARY 

In  a  late  article  of  mine  advising  architects  respecting  employment 
by  State  or  municipalities  the  following  rules  were  formulated  which 
would  seem  pertinent  here: 

1.  Know  that  the  municipal  corporation  is  acting  pursuant  to  the 
law  creating  it. 

2.  Know  that  your  contract  does  not  cause  the  indebtedness  of 
the  municipality  to  exceed  its  constitutional  or  statutory  limit. 

3.  Know  that  your  contract  does  not  exceed  a  limit  above  which 
advertisement  and  acceptance  of  the  lowest  bidder  is  required  or  that 
proper  advertising,  awarding,  etc.,  has  been  done. 

4.  Know  that  assessments  or  taxes  to  pay  for  public  improvement 
work  which  include  your  compensation  are  valid. 

5.  Know  that  the  board  or  official  employing  you  do  so  in  the  pro- 
per legal  method  required  by  the  act  incorporating  the  body  or  by 
the  charter  or  by  the  local  rules  governing  such  body. 

6.  Know  that  funds  are  available  or  a  specific  appropriation  made 
by  the  proper  authorities  to  pay  you  before  proceeding  with  your 
contract  work. 


188  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

7.  Have  your  contract  in  writing  and  know  that  it  is  worded 
properly. 

8.  Have  and  put  everything  in  writing  and  act  only  upon  the 
strict  wording  of  all  contracts. 

9.  In  State  work  ascertain  first  if  there  is  a  State  board  or  court  of 
claims;  if  not  you  must  depend  on  the  official  honesty  and  integrity 
of  the  official  with  whom  you  deal.     Remember  personal  honesty 
and  official  honesty  are  contradications  in  some  officials. 

10.  Never  consider  or  do  any  public  work  without  first  consulting 
competent  legal  advice. 

While  the  above  advice  for  the  contractor  will  give  him  some 
knowledge  of  his  position  in  a  road  contract,  yet  it  does  not  protect 
him  from  the  many  abuses  now  possible  under  such  contracts.  Those 
must  be  corrected  by  honest,  conscientious  officials  who  will  coun- 
tenance only  the  same  character  of  engineers.  Contracts  and  gen- 
eral specification  conditions  for  road  work  must  be  drawn  solely  for 
that  class  of  work  and  not  copied  slavishly  from  ancient  documents 
used  for  buildings,  etc.  There  must  be  no  discrepancy  between  the 
contract  clauses  and  the  general  conditions  or  other  parts  of  the 
specifications.  Unit  prices  for  unit  quantities  of  specified  work  with 
full  details  in  the  plans  and  specifications  or  cost  plus  percentage 
contracts  for  definite  work  with  opportunities  for  honest,  competi- 
tive bidding  and  awards  to  lowest  bidders  are  essential.  All  un- 
necessary "satisfaction,"  "discretion,"  "warranty,"  "final  and  con- 
clusive decision,"  "waiver  of  damages,"  "waiver  of  claims,"  "waiver 
of  right  of  action,"  etc.,  clauses  and  other  similar  oppressive  or 
"  club"  clauses  for  the  official  and  engineer  must  be  eliminated.  They 
certainly  are  anything  but  a  sanction  for  the  expectation  of  good 
faith  in  the  mutual  dealings  of  men  of  average  right-mindedness. 
Lastly  and  most  important  the  agreement  between  the  parties  must 
be  made  a  real  contract  by  giving  the  contractor  the  power  to  asssrt 
and  prove  his  claims  before  a  competent  court  or  board. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  Mr.  Bowman's  paper  will 
begin  by  presenting  a  paper  by  Mr.  James  A.  Head,  who  was  for- 
merly mayor  of  Nashville,  Tennessee.  I  reget  to  say  that  Mr.  Head, 
on  account  of  illness,  was  unable  to  attend,  but  we  are  fortunate  in 
having  the  paper  read  by  Mr.  Kenyon,  president  of  the  highway 
commission  of  Indiana.  Mr.  Kenyon. 

MR.  KENYON:  Mr.  Head  sent  me  a  telegram  and  asked  me  if 
I  would  read  this  paper  for  him,  which  was  a  little  discussion  of  some 
of  the  legal  problems  that  arise  in  these  matters,  and  as  an  addenda 
to  the  very  excellent  discussion  you  have  just  listened  to. 


MUNICIPAL  CONTRACT  LAW  189 

MUNICIPAL  CONTRACT  LAW  AS  APPLIED  TO  ROAD 
CONSTRUCTION 

BY  JAMES  M.  HEAD 
Ex-Mayor  of  Nashville,  Tennessee 

The  building  of  good  roads  by  the  federal  government,  by  the 
several  States  and  by  counties  and  cities  is  fast  becoming,  if  it  is 
not  already  the  topic  of  chief  interest  to  the  great  mass  of  the  Amer- 
ican people.  The  general  law  upon  this  subject  is  growing,  expand- 
ing and  developing  to  meet  the  conditions  with  which  it  is  rapidly 
being  confronted. 

The  Law  Merchant  of  the  common  law  (which  is  nothing  more 
than  the  usages  and  customs  of  business  reduced  to  practice  soon 
to  be  enacted  into  statute  law  as  the  highest  expression  of  public 
sentiment  the  real  court  of  last  resort  as  to  all  law)  is  fast  forcing 
intelligent  action  upon  this  most  important  subject. 

Originally  it  was  thought  to  be  and  doubtless  was  sufficient  to 
meet  the  conditions  then  existing  to  "summons"  or  "warm  in"  the 
neighbors  on  each  road  to  appear  on  a  given  day  and  devote  a  speci- 
fied time  to  "working  the  roads."  As  cities  multiplied  and  devel- 
oped, this  primitive  method  (which  I  am  sorry  to  say  is  still  in 
force  in  some  sections  of  the  country)  was  found  to  be  wholly  inade- 
quate to  meet  these  conditions,  and  the  principal  streets  of  the 
several  towns  had  to  be  improved  out  of  the  general  funds  raised 
by  taxation.  The  growth  of  towns  became  so  rapid  that  enterpris- 
ing individuals  soon  found  that  improved  streets,  sewers,  gas  and 
water  privileges  not  only  enhanced  the  general  value  of  property  in 
the  towns  but  actually  increased  the  market  value  of  the  property 
adjacent  to  the  improvement  so  that  the  policy  of  making  local 
assessments  against  the  abutting  property  to  cover  a  portion  or  all 
of  the  expenses  for  making  the  improvements  has  come  to  be  one 
of  the  recognized  and  established  policies  of  modern  law  as  applied 
to  city  improvements,  and  is  now  in  some  sections  seriously  being 
considered  as  properly  applicable  to  country  road  construction. 

This  growth  of  the  law  and  the  changes  which  have  taken  place 
within  the  past  few  years  have  necessarily  resulted  in  more  or  less 
serious  trouble  with  legislatures,  and  have  produced  complicated 
legal  controversies,  resulting  in  more  or  less  serious  difficulties  both 
to  the  contractor  and  abutting  property  owners. 

Assuming  that  the  broad  position  is  well  established,  both  in  law 
and  in  public  opinion,  that  abutting  property  owners  may  legally 
be  assessed  to  pay  for  public  improvements  at  least  to  the  extent 
of  the  benefits  actually  received  by  reason  of  the  improvement,  the 
law  applicable  to  such  proceedings,  the  method  of  procedure,  and 
the  rights  and  obligations  of  the  contractor  and  property  owner 
respectively  are  still  in  a  more  or  less  unsettled  condition  in  some 


190  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

places,  different  policies  being  pursued  in  different  sections  of  the 
country. 

The  first  tendency  of  the  courts  was  to  hold  all  statutes  prescrib- 
ing the  method  to  be  pursued  to  render  abutting  property  liable  for 
special  or  local  assessments  to  be  in  derogation  of  the  common  law 
principle  of  the  equality  of  taxation,  that  all  such  statutes  must  be 
strictly  construed,  and  that  the  liability  of  property  owner  for  this 
tax  (if  such  it  may  be  called)  was  to  be  set  aside  unless  the  exact 
method  pointed  out  by  the  statute  had  been  strictly  complied  with. 
While  this  strict  construction  policy  has  been  practically  abandoned 
and  all  such  statutes  are  now  given  by  the  courts,  if  not  a  liberal  at 
least  a  reasonably  fair  interpretation,  we  are  still  often  confronted 
with  the  most  unexpected  interpretations  of  such  statutes. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  will  soon  have  no  more  decisions  relieving 
abutting  property  owners  from  all  liability  for  their  assessments 
because  as  in  one  case  the  publication  required  by  the  statute  that 
notice  of  the  proposed  improvement  should  be  published  for  so  many 
weeks  prior  to  advertisement  for  bids  and  that  the  requisite  number 
of  days  had  not  elapsed  by  one  or  two  days;  or,  in  another  case  where 
the  notice  required  that  the  advertisement  should  be  made  at  each 
end  of  the  proposed  work  in  letters  two  inches  large,  whereas  the 
notice  as  actually  published  was  made  with  letters  only  1J  inches 
large;  or  in  a  more  recent  case  where  the  ordinance  described  the 
property  proposed  to  be  assessed  as  being  situated  in  lot  C,  when  in 
fact  it  was  actually  situated  in  lot  6. 

Such  decisions  only  illustrate  the  importance  of  having  not  only 
the  ordinance  of  intention  to  improve,  the  advertisement,  the  ordi- 
nance making  the  improvement,  and  the  contract  itself  to  follow 
both  the  letters  and  spirit  of  the  local  assessment  statute  and  thereby 
avoid  all  possible  litigation  of  this  character,  resulting  either  in 
defeating  the  collection  of  the  amount  due  the  contractor  altogether, 
or  else  in  casting  the  entire  burden  of  making  the  improvement  upon 
the  city  at  large. 

The  occasional  practice  of  dishonest  public  officials  in  awarding 
contracts  for  such  improvements  to  favored  contractors  at  exorbi- 
tant prices,  sometimes  shared  in  by  the  officials  themselves,  has  led 
the  courts  and  legislatures  to  look  for  some  remedy  to  prevent  such 
flagrant  abuses  of  power  and  thus  no  doubt  has  often  resulted  in 
the  strained  and  unnatural  construction  to  which  such  statutes  have 
been  subjected.  It  was  naturally  assumed  and  is  still  believed  by 
many  that  competitive  bidding  in  the  letting  of  all  public  contracts 
would  automatically  prevent  this  corrupt  abuse  of  power,  and  hence 
the  construction  that  anything  which  tended  to  interfere  or  which 
could  be  construed  as  interfering  with  the  freest  and  fullest  compe- 
tition must  be  held  illegal  and  as  expressly  prohibited  by  the  statute 
requiring  competitive  bidding.  It  was  of  course  self-evident  that 
the  adoption  of  plans  and  specifications  calling  for  one  kind  of  im- 
provement, where  there  were  several  different  kinds  that  would 


MUNICIPAL  CONTRACT  LAW  191 

answer  the  same  general  purpose,  necessarily  resulted  in  the  restric- 
tion or  limitation  of  bidding  to  those  bidders  who  could  or  who 
were  prepared  to  furnish  the  particular  kind  of  improvement  specified. 
As  the  adoption  of  some  plans  and  specifications  were  absolutely 
necessary  before  a  public  improvement  could  be  advertised  for  or 
let  by  public  contract,  it  was  at  first  assumed  that  patented  or 
monopolized  articles  could  not  be  purchased  at  all  by  public  officials 
where  contracts  were  to  be  let  to  the  lowest  bidder  after  advertise- 
ment. But  this  narrow  and  restricted  construction  of  the  statute, 
which  necessarily  resulted  in  prohibiting  the  use  of  what  might  be 
the  very  best  and  cheapest  for  the  purpose  desired,  has  given  way  to 
the  now  generally  recognized  doctrine  of  the  right  of  public  officials 
to  specify  patented  or  monopolized  articles  where  a  reasonable  price 
at  which  any  contractor  may  purchase  the  monopolized  article  is 
given  and  no  allegation  or  proof  of  actual  fraud  is  made.  It  is  in 
fact  being  recognized  that  because  so  called  competitive  bidding 
can  be  and  often  is  evaded,  municipalities  should  not  be  deprived 
by  law  of  the  right  to  use  the  best  that  can  be  had,  whether  monopo- 
lized or  not,  and  that  the  selection  of  honest,  competent  and  efficient 
public  officials  is  at  last  the  only  sure  way  to  prevent  collusion  and 
fraud.  With  honest  officials  capable  of  forming  an  intelligent  opin- 
ion of  what  is  needed  and  what  is  best,  and  the  adoption  of  definite 
specifications  required  to  be  lived  up  to,  satisfactory  results  always 
can  be  attained  whether  or  not  monopolized  article  be  used. 

The  doctrine  laid  down  by  some  of  the  courts  that  the  specific 
method  prescribed  by  the  statute  for  making  local  assessments  must 
not  only  be  literally  followed,  but  is  at  the  same  time  the  measure 
of  authority  to  make  the  improvement  at  all,  is  fast  becoming  obso- 
lete, and  the  far  more  reasonable  doctrine  is  now  generally  accepted 
that  patented  or  monopolized  articles  may  be  specified  if  an  oppor- 
tunity for  competitive  bidding  is  provided  whether  actually  taken 
advantage  of  or  not. 

The  duty  of  municipalities  to  maintain  their  streets  in  a  safe 
passable  condition  for  the  benefit  of  the  public,  and  their  right  to 
make  local  improvements  and  charge  a  part  or  all  the  costs  thereof 
against  abutting  property  owners  at  least  to  the  extent  that  such 
property  is  actually  benefited,  being  generally  acknowledged  the 
duty  of  the  several  counties  and  States  to  open  and  maintain  for 
the  use  of  the  public  free  of  charge  public  highways  between  the 
several  prominent  points  in  the  State,  and  the  right  of  the  federal 
government  "to  establish  post  offices  and  post  roads"  for  the  con- 
venience of  the  general  public  being  generally  conceded,  the  best 
method  of  accomplishing  these  several  results  becomes  at  once  a 
matter  of  the  greatest  importance  and  about  which  no  mistakes 
should  be  made. 

To  what  extent  these  several  jurisdictions  should  act  in  concert 
in  raising  and  using  public  funds  to  accomplish  the  desired  object 
is  a  question  about  which  at  this  time  there  is  great  diversity  of 


192  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

opinion.  In  regard  to  cities,  it  is  now  generally  considered  that  it 
is  their  right  and  duty  to  open  and  maintain  streets  in  their  proper 
condition  for  the  free  use  of  the  public  and  if  necessary  or  advisable 
charge  a  part  or  all  the  cost  of  construction  and  maintenance  to  the 
property  especially  benefited.  As  to  towns  and  villages  through 
which  county  or  State  highways  must  necessarily  pass  in  reaching 
large  points  of  general  interest,  other  and  more  complicated  ques- 
tions necessarily  arise  as  to  how  such  improvements  shall  be  made, 
how  paid  for,  what  material  shall  be  used  and  how  maintained  after 
the  original  cost  of  construction  is  provided. 

As  to  the  proposed  establishment  of  "post  roads,"  even  more  and 
greater  difficulties  naturally  arise,  not  only  as  to  the  right  to  use 
public  funds  for  such  a  purpose  at  all,  but  also  as  to  how  these  funds 
are  to  be  raised  and  how  utilized. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  cities  have  generally  acquiesced  in  this 
duty  of  constructing  and  maintaining  their  streets  in  a  reasonably 
safe  condition  for  the  use  of  the  public,  and  have  secured  suitable 
laws  and  ordinances  in  most  cases  for  this  purpose,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  most  of  the  States  and  counties  have  already  taken  steps 
looking  to  the  establishment  of  highway  laws  suitable  to  the  peculiar 
conditions  which  each  locality  must  be  confronted,  is  it  not  the  part 
of  wisdom  if  not  of  necessity  for  the  federal  government  under  its 
specific  grant  of  power  "to  establish  post  offices  and  post  roads" 
to  formally  adopt  certain  highways  as  "post  roads"  and  if  need  be 
pay  the  several  States  or  counties  through  which  the  "post  roads" 
may  pass  the  fair  and  reasonable  value  of  present  improvements  of 
such  roads,  thereby  enabling  the  State  or  county  to  build  additional 
roads;  and  as  fast  as  possible  not  only  "establish"  but  maintain  all 
such  "post  roads"  independently  of  any  State  or  county  regulation  or 
control?  If  such  a  system  should  be  adopted,  although  it  might 
be  difficult  to  start  at  first,  like  the  rural  free  delivery  mail  system, 
it  would  soon  adapt  itself  to  the  necessities  of  the  case,  and  would 
become  practicable  and  workable,  and  we  would  soon  have  federal, 
State,  county,  village  or  district  road  systems  applicable  not  only 
to  the  whole  country,  but  adapted  to  the  local  conditions  of  each 
community  through  which  the  several  roads  may  pass. 

The  raising  of  separate  funds  for  the  original  construction  and 
continued  maintenance  of  the  different  systems  of  roads,  the  deter- 
mination of  the  kind  and  character  of  road  to  be  built,  the  location 
and  maintenance  of  the  road  are  all  questions  which  must  be  left 
to  the  several  federal,  State,  county  and  district  or  local  organiza- 
tions respectively  if  satisfactory  results  are  ever  to  be  accomplished. 
The  dividing  of  authority  and  responsibility,  or  the  lending  of  finan- 
cial aid  to  be  used  by  local  organizations  cannot  result  in  satisfactory 
road  construction,  which  to  be  successful  must  have  a  well  organized 
official  head  vested  with  authority  to  act,  and  means  to  be  used  in 
accomplishing  the  desired  results. 


DISCUSSION  193 

These  are  the  ends  to  which  all  road  organizations  should  con- 
tribute. National  highways  over  the  most  direct  route  between  the 
principal  cities  and  State  capitals  to  be  constructed  and  maintained 
by  the  general  government;  State  highways  over  the  most  direct 
route  between  the  leading  towns  of  the  State  to  be  constructed  and 
maintained  by  State  funds  managed  by  State  officials  and  possibly 
constructed  by  convict  labor;  and  county  or  district  roads  as  feeders 
to  these  several  national  and  State  highways  to  be  constructed  and 
maintained  by  neighborhood  contribution  and  local  officials. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  papers  are  now  open  for  further  discussion. 
Mr.  Bregenzer,  editor  of  The  Contractor,  of  Chicago,  has  kindly  con- 
sented to  make  a  few  remarks  on  the  subject. 

MR.  BREGENZER  :  The  legal  considerations  brought  up  by  a  former 
speaker,  Mr.  Bowman,  bring  up  a  point  very  near  to  the  contractor 
in  signing  road  contracts,  and  the  most  important  of  these  is  prob- 
ably the  maintenance  bond.  The  maintenance  bond  militates  not 
only  against  the  contractor  in  holding  up  his  payments,  but  in  a 
measure  it  militates  against  the  manufacturer  of  good,  honest  road 
material.  The  maintenance  bond  requires  that  a  certain  sum  of 
the  amount  to  be  paid  the  contractor,  shall  be  withheld  until  the 
authorities  be  personally  or  otherwise  satisfied  that  a  road  will 
stand  up  for  a  given  period.  Now  in  making  an  analysis,  you  will 
find  that  in  the  first  place  the  road  material  is  specified  by  the  engi- 
neer; the  methods  of  construction  are  largely  specified  by  the  engi- 
neer and  the  materials  and  methods  are  supervised  by  the  engineer's 
inspector.  In  spite  of  this,  the  burden  is  placed  upon  the  con- 
tractor to  pay  if  it  does  not  stand  up.  I  think  that  is  particularly 
pertinent  in  reference  to  the  material  that  is  used  in  the  roads. 

Another  subject  of  importance  that  would  require  a  little  unifi- 
cation on  the  part  of  the  contractors  in  getting  some  justice  would 
be  from  the  standpoint  of  bids.  A  very  peculiar  thing  happened 
last  month  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  About  six  bids  were  to  be  let. 
They  were  advertised  for,  but  there  were  no  bidders.  On  inquiring 
into  the  reason  we  found  out  that  in  every  case  the  estimate  was  so 
low  that  the  contractor  was  unable  to  bid  on  this  work.  I  think 
it  would  be  a  very  good  point  if  contractors  would  unify  on  subjects 
of  this  kind,  so  that  the  standards  and  costs  of  doing  work  would 
be  recognized  by  the  engineers  as  well  as  the  contractor.  Until 
they  are  able  to  accomplish  this,  the  same  condition  will  always 
prevail,  and  I  think  that  would  be  one  of  the  important  recommen- 
dations to  be  made  in  this  case.  Thank  you. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Is  there  any  further  discussion.  If  not,  we 
will  proceed  with  the  consideration  of  the  next  paper,  "The  Protec- 
tion and  Upkeep  of  Road  Equipment,"  by  Mr.  Daniel  J.  Hauer. 


194  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

THE  PROTECTION  AND  UPKEEP  OF  ROAD  EQUIPMENT 

BY  DANIEL  J.  HAUER 
Construction  Economist  and  Consulting  Engineer 

No  matter  whether  roads  are  built  by  contractors  or  by  day  labor 
forces  under  the  direction  of  engineers,  the  item  of  plant  and  equip- 
ment is  one  of  the  prominent  factors  of  cost.  Inadequate  plant 
means  to  materially  increase  the  cost  of  construction.  Only  re- 
cently the  writer  stood  watching  some  road  building  upon  which  only 
a  few  tools  were  being  used,  and  most  of  them  were  ill-adapted  to  the 
work.  It  was  difficult  to  accurately  calculate  the  exact  amount  of 
money  that  was  wasted,  due  to  a  lack  of  road  equipment,  but  it 
was  easily  estimated  that  the  cost  of  construction  was  increased  at 
least  25  per  cent.  Likewise,  too  much  plant  can  make  an  added  cost. 
Even  with  the  proper  plant,  and  handled  in  an  efficient  manner,  the 
plant  item  in  road  construction  is  a  larger  per  cent  of  the  total  cost 
of  the  work  than  in  most  other  classes  of  construction.  This  is  due 
to  two  causes.  First,  the  plant  necessary  to  build  a  wagon  road  is 
much  more  expensive  than  that  to  build,  to  illustrate  we  will  say,  a 
railroad.  With  light  grading  on  both,  the  same  equipment  will  be 
needed  to  do  the  excavation.  For  the  railroad  a  small  concrete  mixer 
may  be  needed,  and  some  track-laying  tools  to  complete  the  job. 
On  the  other  hand,  for  the  wagon  road  there  will  be  much  hauling 
of  road  materials,  thus  wagons  and  a  traction  engine  will  be  needed, 
then  road  scrapers  or  graders,  and  spreading  machines,  water  sprin- 
klers, oil  sprinklers,  and  heating  apparatus  will  be  necessary;  scarifiers, 
harrows  and  rollers  must  be  used,  while  for  concrete  culverts  and 
bridges,  mixers,  derricks,  buckets,  barrows,  and  other  appliances  are 
called  for  to  do  the  job  in  an  efficient  manner.  The  writer  has  con- 
structed a  section  of  a  railroad  costing  about  $100,000,  with  a  plant 
costing  only  about  $5000,  while  a  contract  for  less  than  $50,000  of 
wagon  road  took  an  outfit  costing  nearly  $20,000;  40  per  cent  of  the 
total  cost  instead  of  5  per  cent. 

The  second  reason  for  the  larger  cost  of  plant  for  wagon  road  con- 
struction is  that  this  class  of  work  is  let  out  in  small  scattered  con- 
tracts that  are  uneconomical  from  a  constructive  standpoint.  The 
reason,  too,  for  road  building  in  nearly  every  section  of  the  country 
is  short. 

Naturally  the  life  of  any  machine  is  dependent  upon  the  use  and 
care  given  it.  The  longer  the  life,  the  less  the  annual  depreciation, 
consequently  some  of  the  high  plant  cost  can  be  eliminated  from  road 
construction  by  the  proper  care  and  upkeep  of  the  equipment,  and 
by  selecting  the  most  improved  and  economical  types. 

As  far  as  possible  the  same  machines  should  be  used  for  many 
different  purposes.  This  can  be  done  in  two  ways:  By  trying  out 
machines  designed  for  one  particular  kind  of  work,  for  other  kinds, 


PROTECTION   AND   UPKEEP   OF   ROAD   EQUIPMENT  195 

and  by  adding  attachments  to  machines  that  thus  adapt  them  to 
three  or  four  different  things. 

To  illustrate,  a  contractor  once  found  by  experimenting  that  a 
certain  kind  of  road  grader  would  spread  crushed  stone  for  macadam 
at  a  very  much  less  cost  than  it  could  be  done  by  any  other  known 
method  at  that  time.  Then  a  road  roller  that  can  be  used  as  a  trac- 
tion engine,  with  a  scarifier  attachment,  and  likewise  for  operating 
a  stone  crusher,  or  other  machines,  can  be  said  to  be  four  tools  in 
one;  not  that  it  is  possible  to  use  it  for  more  than  one  purpose  at  a 
time  but  in  the  present  method  of  building  roads  a  roller  is  only  used 
a  small  portion  of  the  time,  so  it  is  economical  to  adapt  it  to  as  many 
uses  as  possible.  In  this  manner  the  cost  of  plant,  or  rather  the 
investment  in  plant  can  be  maintained  at  the  minimum. 

In  like  manner,  wagons,  which  are  an  important  factor  in  road 
building,  should  be  of  the  most  improved  type,  and  adapted  as  far 
as  possible  to  all  kinds  of  hauling.  So,  too,  with  concrete  mixers. 
Some  contracts  demand  a  hot  mixer  as  well  as  one  for  mixing  ordi- 
nary concrete.  Money  is  saved  when  one  mixer  will  answer  for  both 
purposes. 

Another  item  in  the  cost  of  plant  is  in  the  character  of  the  plant 
purchased.  Cheap  and  poorly  made  plant  means  money  lost  to  the 
contractor  in  several  ways.  Delays  occur  through  breakdowns  and 
these  are  always  expensive.  Cheaply  made  tools  mean  continual  re- 
pairs and  a  short  life,  and  are  an  added  expense  to  any  job.  Only 
well-made  tools  should  be  used.  A  guarantee  as  to  the  construction 
of  a  machine  can  and  does  mean  little.  It  does  not  mean  payment 
for  delays  caused  by  breakdowns,  nor  for  poor  work  being  done.  The 
ability  of  a  manufactuer  for  swearing  his  product  is  a  good  one  is  not 
a  help  to  a  contractor  or  engineer  in  getting  his  work  done,  nor  in 
showing  that  the  machine  in  question  is  well  built.  The  greatest 
asset  is  in  buying  from  a  firm  of  recognized  responsibility,  one  of  in- 
tegrity, and  one  that  is  so  well  advertised  that  they  must  stand  be- 
hind their  products  by  putting  into  them  only  the  best  of  materials 
and  workmanship.  This  is  the  best  guarantee  possible.  This  means 
work  done  at  a  low  cost.  A  firm  with  such  a  reputation  means 
that  thousands  of  dollars  have  been  spent  by  them  and  their  cus- 
tomers in  obtaining  these  results.  The  new  customer  profits  from 
these  past  expenditures. 

These  are  all  possible  factors  in  plant  and  equipment,  upkeep  and 
maintenance  cost.  The  problem  that  the  contractor  and  construc- 
tion engineer  must  solve  in  this  connection  is  a  very  difficult  one, 
owing  to  the  many  adverse  conditions. 

Road  work  is  done  in  comparatively  short  stretches,  usually  in  a 
single  season,  which  varies  in  length  from  about  one  hundred,  to 
one  hundred  and  eighty  days,  according  to  the  climatic  conditions. 
A  contractor's  plant  is  moved  onto  a  job,  and  is  used  along  the  line 
of  the  work,  part  or  all  of  the  time  during  the  season.  Much  of  a 
contractor's  plant  is  made  up  of  transportation  machinery,  and  even 


196  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

other  items  of  plant  are  only  working  in  one  place  for  a  few  days  at 
a  time,  so  that  to  protect  plant  while  at  work  on  such  jobs  is  very 
difficult,  and  in  many  cases  any  kind  of  a  protection  is  a  detriment, 
and  a  great  hindrance  to  the  free  movement  of  the  men  and  teams. 

All  machinery  should  be  protected  when  it  is  not  being  used,  and 
some  when  in  use.  Boilers  at  work  use  much  more  fuel  when  not 
protected.  Some  kind  of  a  house,  built  in  sections  should  always  be 
used  to  protect  boilers.  Such  sheds  can  have  one  side  left  out,  and 
a  canvas  curtain  used  when  necessary.  If  the  sides  and  tops  are 
built  in  sections  they  can  be  hooked  together  wtih  hooks  and  rods  and 
staples  so  as  to  be  rigid  enough  to  stand  up  against  the  wind  and 
weather. 

Machinery  that  cannot  be  protected  while  at  work,  can  be  covered 
with  canvas  coverings  over  night,  during  rainy  spells  and  at  such 
times  when  they  are  not  in  use.  Every  traction  engine  and  roller 
should  be  thus  protected.  Steam  drills  and  such  tools  can  be  covered 
with  a  canvas  jacket.  The  machinery  part  of  a  concrete  mixer  can 
be  so  protected,  and  also  pumps  and  other  equipment.  Heavy  water- 
proofed canvas  will  be  found  to  be  excellent  for  this  purpose,  and 
not  only  keep  the  machinery  clean  from  dust  and  mud,  but  will 
likewise  prolong  the  life  of  the  equipment.  As  the  canvas  becomes 
worn  from  use,  it  must  be  retreated  with  water-proofing  liquids  to 
preserve  it. 

At  the  end  of  the  season,  with  the  job  finished,  the  question  always 
arises,  "What  shall  be  done  with  the  plant?"  To  move  it  from  its 
present  place  to  some  central  storage  point,  will  mean  an  added  ex- 
pense to  get  it  onto  a  new  job.  If  the  work  on  the  same  road  is  to 
be  continued  the  next  season  the  entire  outfit  may  have  to  be  moved 
back.  The  plant  can  be  moved  to  the  next  job  at  the  minimum  cost 
from  the  site  upon  which  it  last  worked.  Then  the  question  comes 
as  to  how  repairs  should  be  made,  and  the  protection  to  be  given 
the  plant  from  the  winter  weather. 

Situated  away  from  machine  shops,  the  proper  overhauling  cannot 
be  given  to  all  the  plant,  but  it  will  be  possible  to  replace  many  of 
the  worn  and  broken  parts  with  new  ones,  tighten  up  all  loose  keys 
and  nuts,  true  up  all  bearings,  and  do  all  repairing  that  can  be  done 
in  the  open.  Then  all  iron  and  wood  work  can  be  painted.  This  is  a 
protection  not  only  against  the  weather,  prolonging  the  life  of  the 
plant,  but  is  also  a  business  proposition  that  pays  well,  as  everyone 
is  impressed  with  machinery  that  looks  well,  and  paint  covers  a  mul- 
titude of  defects. 

In  some  localities  it  is  possible  to  obtain  an  empty  warehouse  or 
barn  in  which  the  various  machines  can  be  stored  while  they  are 
idle,  or  during  the  winter  season.  This  keeps  them  entirely  out  of 
the  weather,  and  also  allows  of  repairs  being  made  under  cover,  which 
means  not  only  quicker,  but  also  cheaper  work. 

For  winter  storage  it  is  also  possible  to  group  a  number  of  machines 
together,  and  build  over  and  around  them  a  temporary  shelter  made 


PROTECTION   AND   UPKEEP   OF   ROAD   EQUIPMENT  197 

of  cheap  boards  and  single  ply  tar  paper,  which  will  last  during  a 
winter  season.  By  using  the  tar  paper,  the  boards  can  be  spread  6 
inches  or  more  apart,  both  on  the  sides  and  roof.  Around  this  tem- 
porary shed  a  ditch  should  be  dug  so  as  to  prevent  surface  water 
from  getting  to  the  machines. 

If  it  is  not  possible  to  protect  the  machines  by  any  of  these  meth- 
ods, then  the  canvas  coverings  can  be  resorted  to,  with  fairly  good 
results.  These  covers  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  shaped  to  the 
machine  upon  which  they  are  to  be  used.  Good  and  substantial 
brass  eyelets  should  be  fastened  in  the  well-bound  edges,  so  that  the 
coverings  can  be  tied  tightly  to  or  under  the  machines,  otherwise 
the  wind  will  flap  them  loose,  soon  beating  the  covering  into  shreds, 
aa  a  flag  is  worn  out  by  the  wind,  and  thus  exposing  the  machine  to 
the  weather.  Canvas  coverings  made  to  fit  any  machine  will  always 
be  found  useful  in  protecting  machines  over  night  or  when  not  in 
use  for  a  few  days. 

Whenever  machines  are  not  stored  for  the  winter  in  buildings,  they 
should  be  stripped  of  their  brass  and  glass  parts,  otherwise  these 
fixtures  will  be  broken  or  stolen,  which  means  a  serious  loss.  The 
parts  from  each  machine  should  be  placed  in  a  separate  box,  nailed 
up,  and  properly  labeled,  the  box  being  stored  away  for  safe  keeping. 
If  the  machines  are  stored  in  a  building,  it  is  not  necessary  to  take 
off  parts,  as  if  anyone  breaks  into  the  building  they  must  go  to  the 
trouble  of  taking  off  the  brass,  while  if  the  parts  are  stored  in  boxes, 
the  rascals  take  box  and  all,  giving  them  much  less  trouble,  and  thus 
assisting  them  in  making  a  clean  sweep  of  all  the  brass  fixtures. 

When  a  new  machine  is  purchased,  there  should  always  be  bought 
at  the  same  time  a  number  of  spare  parts,  which  should  be  kept  on 
hand  to  be  used  as  needed.  No  man  can  build  a  machine  that  will 
not  break  down  in  some  vital  part  sooner  or  later.  A  breakdown  in 
a  construction  job  means  not  only  a  delay,  but  a  waste  of  money, 
for  even  if  men  can  be  laid  off  and  not  paid,  or  can  be  given  other 
work,  yet  the  job  due  to  the  changes  made  necessary  by  the  break- 
down, will  not  be  worked  in  the  most  economical  manner.  It  is 
true  that  many  contractors  do  keep  some  spare  parts,  but  they  sel- 
dom have  on  hand  enough,  or  the  proper  ones,  due  to  the  fact  that 
as  the  parts  are  used  to  replace  broken  ones,  new  ones  are  not  or- 
dered from  the  factory.  Then  either  one  of  two  things  occurs:  the 
job  is  shut  down  or  some  part  of  it,  or  the  machine  is  worked  with 
the  broken  part  until  a  new  one  can  be  ordered  and  put  in  place. 
Thia  means  that  the  machine  is  racked  by  the  work  it  does,  doing 
permanent  injury  to  it. 

A  good  blacksmith  shop  on  the  job,  equipped  with  forge  and  heat- 
ing heavy  steel  and  with  stocks  and  dies  for  bolts  and  pipe,  and 
with  good  drills  and  vises,  will  be  found  to  be  a  great  assistance  in 
the  upkeep  of  road  equipment.  For  heavy  machines  a  few  roller 
bearing  or  small  hydraulic  jacks  will  be  found  useful  in  making  re- 
pairs and  renewals. 


198  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

Small  tools  can  be  repaired  promptly  in  a  blacksmith  shop.  At- 
tention should  be  given  to  these  as  well  as  to  the  larger  machines. 
To  prevent  such  tools  being  lost,  they  should  not  only  be  branded 
with  a  die  of  the  contractor's  name  or  initials,  but  they  should  like- 
wise be  painted  with  a  set  of  colors,  selected  by  the  contractor,  to 
designate  his  equipment  and  advertise  his  business.  These  colors 
can  be  used  on  the  head  of  some  tools,  and  in  most  cases  on  the  handles. 
Tools  can  thus  be  seen  at  some  distance,  and  thus  prevent  their  be- 
ing stolen  or  lost.  All  bright  parts  of  tools  and  machines  that  can't 
be  painted  should  be  well  greased  so  as  to  prevent  rusting. 

Many  of  these  suggestions  seem  useless,  or  more  or  less  self-evi- 
dent, but  anyone  who  has  much  to  do  with  road  construction  knows 
that  tools  and  machines  are  scattered  along  the  entire  line  of  a  piece 
of  new  road  construction,  just  where  they  were  last  used,  and  there 
they  stay,  neglected,  until  they  are  needed  again.  Then  they  are 
found  out  of  order,  and  to  repair  them  frequently  new  parts  must 
be  ordered,  some  days  intervening  before  such  parts  arrive.  The 
tool  or  machine  depreciates  greatly  in  value  by  such  treatment,  and 
thus  contractors  are  compelled  to  figure  a  heavy  plant  expense  item 
against  every  job.  The  cost  of  caring  for  this  equipment  is  much 
less  than  the  depreciation  figured  against  it  from  neglect. 

Such  extra  costs  mean  higher  prices  for  road  work,  and  as  there 
are  many  thousand  miles  of  roads  that  need  improving,  every  dollar 
wasted  means  less  mileage  built  each  year.  Both  engineers  and  con- 
tractors are  interested  in  obtaining  good  roads,  and  they  should  do 
everything  possible  to  save  money  in  the  construction  of  roads. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  If  there  is  no  further  business  before  this  meet- 
ing, this  session  will  be  adjourned  and  the  finance  session  will  be 
called  to  order.  Mr.  Gash,  president  of  the  Illinois  State  highway 
commission,  will  take  the  chair. 


FINANCE  SESSION 

UNDER  AUSPICES  OF  SPECIAL  COMMITTEE  OF  AMERICAN  BANKERS 

ASSOCIATION 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  It  was  not  intended  that  I  should  preside  at 
any  time  during  the  sessions  of  this  Congress,  but  Mr.  William  G. 
Edens,  president  of  the  Illinois  Highway  Improvement  Association, 
is  unavoidably  absent.  His  paper  on  "Financing  Road  Improve- 
ment/' will  be  read. 

FINANCING  ROAD  IMPROVEMENT 

BY  WILLIAM  G.  EDENS 

President,  Illinois  Highway  Improvement  Association 
Chicago,  III. 

The  attention  of  our  people  has  so  recently  been  turned  to  the 
improvement  of  country  roads  that  the  judgment  of  competent  engi- 
neers is  not  yet  definite  as  to  the  best  types  of  road  to  be  constructed, 
particularly  in  the  sections  where  different  soils  and  climatic  condi- 
tions prevail  and  where  experiments  must  be  made  before  it  can  be 
determined  just  what  types  of  road  it  is  best  to  construct. 

The  matter  of  financing  road  improvement,  therefore,  becomes  an 
important  one,  for  in  the  middle  west  particularly  and  hi  portions  of 
the  country  where  the  population  is  sparse,  the  funds  available  for 
taxation,  especially  with  respect  to  bond  issues,  are  not  so  large  as -in 
the  older  eastern  sections  of  the  country  and  the  correct  financing  of 
road  improvement  is  a  serious  and  important  public  question.  The 
people  of  these  sections  are  perfectly  willing  to  improve  the  roads  but 
do  not  care  to  pay  for  extravagant  experiments  which  have  been  tried 
out  in  older  sections  of  the  country  and  in  Europe  and  which,  owing 
to  changing  traffic  conditions,  have  been  found  to  be  failures. 

I  shall  not  attempt  in  these  brief  remarks  to  cover  the  bond  issue 
feature  of  the  subject  as  there  are  a  number  of  gentlemen  on  the  pro- 
gram at  this  session  who  will  deal  with  this  phase  of  the  problem.  As 
a  result  of  my  travel  and  experience,  however,  I  feel  impelled  to  say 
that  the  western  country  will  insist  on  a  thorough  investigation  as  to 
the  best  types  of  road,  their  cost  of  construction  and  maintenance  and 
a  non-partisan,  economical  expenditure  of  the  money  available  for 
road  improvement.  Our  experience  in  the  wasteful  expenditure  of 
money  under  the  old  Elizabethan  system  in  vogue  in  many  of  the 
States,  where  a  large  number  of  highway  commissioners  work  inde- 
pendently of  each  other,  poorly  paid  and  largely  inexperienced  and 

199 


200  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

with  inadequate  funds,  shows  that  this  whole  matter,  to  be  successful, 
must  be  placed  on  a  business  basis. 

In  Illinois  the  opposition  of  the  land-owning  classes  to  the  cam- 
paign for  better  roads  was  founded  on  the  belief  that  the  increased 
taxation  for  the  building  of  better  roads  would  fall  entirely  upon  the 
abutting  land  owners;  hence,  the  Tice  bill  recently  passed  by  our  legis- 
lature was  drawn  on  the  theory  that  money  derived  from  automobile 
licenses  supplemented  by  appropriations  from  the  general  treasury 
raised  through  general  taxation  should  be  used  for  this  purpose.  By 
this  means  it  is  estimated  that  only  27 J  per  cent  falls  on  the  land-own- 
ing classes,  the  remainder  coming  from  corporation  taxes  and  those 
of  the  residents  of  the  cities,  towns  and  villages. 

Senator  Bourne  has  suggested  a  novel  plan  for  financing  road  im- 
provement. Under  his  system  it  is  proposed  to  create  a  fund  to  be 
known  as  the  United  States  highway  fund  to  be  raised  principally 
through  the  issue  upon  a  pro  rata  allotment  basis,  at  not  less  than  par, 
of  government  bonds  of  denominations  of  $20  or  multiples  thereof  ; 
said  bonds  to  be  payable  fifty  years  from  the  date  of  issue  and  to  bear 
interest  at  the  rate  of  3  per  cent,  the  total  issue  not  to  exceed  a  billion 
dollars.  Each  State  before  being  permitted  to  share  in  the  distri- 
bution of  this  money  is  obliged  to  create  by  law  a  State  highway 
commission  having  general  supervision  of  road  construction  and 
improvement. 

It  is  a  debatable  question  whether  or  not  the  national  government 
should  engage  in  such  a  system  of  road  financing  as  that  advocated  by 
Senator  Bourne  and  it  should  be  decided  only  after  careful  thought 
and  consideration  and  further  investigation.  The  recent  action  of 
Congress  in  creating  a  committee  on  roads  in  the  House  would  indi- 
cate that  this  matter  is  to  be  carefully  considered.  To  this  committee 
will  be  referred  all  of  the  information  and  recommendations  of  the 
select  committee  of  which  Senator  Bourne  is  chairman.  Certain  it  is 
that  no  funds  should  be  available  on  the  part  of  the  national  govern- 
ment for  the  improvement  of  roads  in  the  various  States  until  the 
States  themselves  comply  with  the  provisions  of  such  national  legis- 
lation and  the  law  should  be  of  such  a  character  as  would  prevent 
individuals  from  canvassing  or  campaigning  for  nomination  or  re- 
nomination  to  public  office  on  the  theory  that  their  subsequent  elec- 
tion would  result  in  their  securing  public  funds  for  the  construction 
of  roads.  We  must  educate  the  people  who  live  upon  and  use  the 
roads  as  to  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  the  construction  and  main- 
tenance of  an  up-to-date  system  of  highways  and  impress  upon  the 
road  users  that  the  matter  of  improving  the  highways  is  an  important 
part  of  their  duty  as  good  citizens. 

The  imperative  necessity  for  good  roads  has  become  so  generally 
recognized  that  organized  effort  is  being  made  to  establish  a  modern 
system  of  highways.  It  is  realized  that  the  matter  vitally  affects  our 
economic  welfare  and  thus  merits  thoughtful  and  earnest  consid- 
eration. In  bringing  about  an  accomplishment  of  this  reform  we 


FINANCING   ROAD   IMPROVEMENT  201 

ought  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  drainage  and  the  care  of  the  earth 
roads,  a  large  mileage  of  which  will  remain  in  each  agricultural  state 
after  the  principal  roads  are  improved,  are  to  be  included  in  the  pro- 
gram. Rural  members  of  the  legislature  will  not  continue  to  vote 
state  aid  if  the  lateral  roads,  which  must  naturally  remain  of  the  earth 
variety,  are  not  improved  by  drainage  and  dragging  and  a  systematic 
plan  developed  whereby  these  roads  are  made  fairly  usable  the  year 
round  by  organizing  a  force  of  practical  road-builders  and  care-takers 
to  give  them  the  proper  attention. 

In  our  investigation  we,  in  Illinois,  found  that  the  money  of  the  tax- 
payers was  being  wasted  and  that  of  the  $7,000,000  expended  an- 
nually, 37J  per  cent  was  being  spent  without  any  appreciable  benefit, 
and  in  some  counties  even  more.  We  have  proceeded  on  the  theory 
that  effective  work  can  be  accomplished  in  the  matter  of  road  im- 
provement by  a  system  of  state  and  county  cooperation  in  the  con- 
struction and  maintenance  of  main  highways  and  bridges  and  so  our 
bill  provides  for  a  non-political  state  highway  commission,  the  mem- 
bers devoting  all  their  time  to  their  duties. 

The  value  of  the  use  of  convict  labor  in  the  preparation  of  material 
for  road  building  and  in  actual  work  on  the  roads  is  beginning  to  be 
recognized  more  generally  than  heretofore.  In  Colorado,  which  I 
visited  last  year,  such  a  plan  is  followed  and  the  results  obtained  have 
been  highly  satisfactory  and  are  such  as  would  reflect  creditably  to 
any  State.  Warden  Tynan  of  the  State  penitentiary  at  Canyon  City 
told  me  that  of  the  800  inmates  of  the  prison  more  than  400  were  lo- 
cated in  various  camps  throughout  the  State  engaged  in  road  building, 
and  that  statistics  showed  that  80  per  cent  of  those  paroled  or  released 
return  to  useful  occupations  and  make  good  in  their  efforts  to  be  re- 
stored to  citizenship.  During  the  winter  months  the  prisoners  are 
engaged  in  the  preparation  of  road  materials  and  in  the  summer 
months  engaged  in  the  actual  road  construction.  This  is  a  system  of 
road  construction  which  any  State  might  profitably  adopt.  There  is 
great  benefit,  not  only  to  the  State,  but  to  the  convict  as  well,  for  he 
is  enabled  to  be  employed  at  outdoor  work,  which  has  a  tendency  to 
keep  him  in  good  health,  and  after  his  term  of  servitude  has  expired 
he  is  the  better  prepared  to  resume  his  place  in  society. 

Since  the  passage  of  the  Tice  bill  by  the  Illinois  legislature  and  which 
became  effective  July  1,  the  warden  of  the  Joliet,  Illinois  State  prison 
has  organized  a  group  of  road  workers  from  among  the  Illinois  pri- 
soners and  the  experiment  is  now  being  tried  out  in  our  state  under 
the  honor  system.  We  believe  it  will  prove  to  be  successful  and  will 
be  one  of  the  agencies  to  bring  about  a  reform  in  prison  management 
so  greatly  needed  as  well  as  an  aid  in  developing  a  system  of  improved 
county  roads. 


202  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

BOND  ISSUES  FOR  ROAD  IMPROVEMENT 

BY  S.  E.  BRADT 
Member  Illinois  State  Highway  Department 

The  importance  of  road  financing  has  always  been  recognized,  but 
the  underlying  principles  have  been  but  little  discussed.  I  shall 
endeavor  to  present  some  of  the  reasons  for  resorting  to  the  issue  of 
bonds  in  paying  for  road  improvement,  and  the  conditions  precedent 
thereto. 

I  am  going  to  assume  that,  inasmuch  as  our  highways  belong  to  the 
public,  and  that  the  condition  of  these  highways  has  a  very  important 
bearing  upon  the  economic,  social,  educational  and  religious  advance- 
ment of  our  entire  citizenship,  it  therefore  becomes  the  duty  of  the 
people  through  the  public  revenue  to  provide  for  their  improvement 
and  maintenance. 

The  question  arises  whether  the  money  for  this  improvement  shall 
be  provided  by  an  immediate  tax  levy,  or  by  the  issuance  of  bonds, 
and  if  bonds  are  to  be  issued  what  would  be  the  conditions  requiring 
this  method.  Good  public  policy  demands  that  we  should  not  resort 
to  borrowing  money  hi  public  affairs : 

1.  Unless  there  is  urgent  need  for  the  improvement. 

2.  Unless  the  improvement  is  of  such  a  magnitude  as  to  prevent  its 
being  paid  for  through  the  regular  course  of  taxation. 

3.  Unless  the  improvement  shall  be  of    sufficient  permanency 
as  to  give  full  value  to  those  who  shall  be  called  upon  to  repay  the 
indebtedness. 

Let  us  consider  these  three  topics  in  their  order: 

1.  The  urgent  need  for  the  improvement.  The  question  that  con- 
fronts the  world  today  is  the  same  that  has  confronted  it  during  all 
the  past  and  will  undoubtedly  become  more  acute  in  the  time  to 
come,  viz:  the  food  problem.  This  problem  is  so  large  that  every 
fraction  taken  from  the  cost  of  production  or  the  cost  of  transporta- 
tion means  a  saving  of  millions  to  the  people.  While  railroad  rates 
have  been  reduced  from  7f  cents  per  ton  mile  in  1837  to  7.8  mills  per 
ton  mile  in  1905,  a  reduction  of  nearly  90  per  cent;  practically  no  re- 
duction has  been  effected  in  the  cost  of  highway  transportation.  The 
office  of  public  roads  has  estimated  the  total  cost  of  hauling  to  the 
shipping  point  that  part  of  our  agricultural,  forest,  and  miscellaneous 
products,  which  we  market,  to  be  in  excess  of  $500,000,000  annually. 
This  does  not  take  into  account  the  cost  of  hauling  from  the  different 
markets  to  the  farm,  or  from  farm  to  farm.  The  office  further  esti- 
mates that  by  the  proper  improvement  of  our  highways  this  cost  of 
hauling  can  be  reduced  over  50  per  cent,  thus  effecting  a  saving  of 
$250,000,000  annually. 

Again,  the  census  figures  offer  some  valuable  material  showing  the 
need  for  highway  improvement.  These  figures  show  that  in  1890 
36  per  cent  of  the  people  of  this  country  lived  in  cities.  In  1900 


BOND    ISSUES   FOR   ROAD   IMPROVEMENT  203 

40  per  cent  and  in  1910 — 46  per  cent,  an  increase  of  10  per  cent  in  city 
population  as  compared  with  rural  population  in  twenty  years;  thus 
by  this  movement  our  food  producing  population  is  been  depleted  to 
an  alarming  extent.  This  question  of  the  movement  from  the  farm  to 
the  city  cannot  be  solved  until  our  highways  are  improved.  Likewise 
the  development  of  country  social  life,  school  life,  and  religious  wel- 
fare, are  waiting  on  the  improvement  of  our  roads.  These  needs  are 
far  greater  than  the  economic,  but  they  are  not  so  tangible  and  hence 
do  not  appeal  so  readily  to  the  people. 

This  urgent  need  for  roads  is  further  indicated  by  the  insistent 
demand  of  the  people  for  the  improvement  of  our  highways.  The 
evidence  of  this  comes  from  many  sources,  of  which  I  wish  to  mention 
a  few.  As  one  of  the  evidences  of  the  public  demand,  I  want  to  call 
your  attention  to  the  State  of  Missouri  where  300,000  citizens  worked 
for  two  days  with  pick  and  shovel,  with  wagon,  grader  and  drag, 
filling  holes,  building  pikes,  rounding  up  roads,  equalling  600,000  days' 
work  donated  by  the  people,  who  are  insisting  upon  roads  that  are 
usable.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest  demonstrations  of  recent  years, 
but  it  is  only  the  forerunner  of  what  we  shall  see  later  on.  Within  a 
very  short  time  these  300,000  people  will  be  demanding  that  instead  of 
the  continual  repairing  of  dirt  roads  the  State  of  Missouri  shall  inaugu- 
rate a  system  of  road  improvement  along  more  permanent  lines  and 
that  their  work  and  their  money  shall  be  contributed  to  work  that  will 
endure. 

Another  evidence  of  the  demand  for  good  roads  is  found  in  the 
rapidly  increasing  number  of  good  roads  associations,  international, 
national,  State,  county  and  city.  We  have  numerous  national  asso- 
ciations, nearly  every  State  has  a  State  association.  In  some  States 
each  county  has  an  association,  and  no  city  is  too  small  to  boast  of  a 
good  roads  or  automobile  club.  Not  only  that,  but  most  of  the  com- 
mercial organizations,  the  woman's  clubs,  the  farmers  organizations, 
the  bankers  associations,  have  active  good  roads  committees  doing 
effective  work  for  the  cause. 

We  again  see  the  evidence  of  this  demand  in  the  attitude  of  the  press 
of  the  country.  No  great  public  improvement  during  this  generation 
has  received  such  unanimous  approval  from  the  press  as  has  this  good 
roads  movement.  You  can  scarcely  pick  up  a  paper,  whether  a  coun- 
try weekly  or  a  city  daily,  that  does  not  contain  some  favorable 
mention  of  the  project. 

This  urgent  demand  is  again  very  forcibly  shown  by  the  fact  that 
during  the  sessions  of  the  sixty-second  Congress  forty-seven  bills  were 
introduced  looking  toward  the  assistance  by  the  national  government  in 
highway  improvement.  This  surely  indicates  that  it  is  only  neces- 
sary for  the  friends  of  good  roads  in  Congress  to  get  together  on  some 
broad  and  equitable  national  policy  in  order  to  give  the  movement 
the  national  aid  to  which  it  is  entitled. 

This  resume  would  not  be  complete  if  I  failed  to  mention  the  great- 
est factor  in  this  urgent  demand  for  good  roads,  viz.,  the  motor  driven 


204  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

vehicle.  Without  doubt  we  at  some  time  in  the  future  would  have 
had  good  roads  even  though  the  automobile  had  never  been  invented, 
but  the  coming  of  the  automobile  will  give  us  good  roads  twenty-five, 
perhaps  fifty,  years  sooner  than  they  would  have  come  by  reason  of 
all  of  the  other  forces  combined.  Perhaps  the  increase  in  the  use  of 
the  automobile  in  the  rural  districts  can  best  be  illustrated  by  the 
traffic  census  taken  under  the  auspices  of  A.  N.  Johnson,  State  engi- 
neer of  Illinois,  at  a  point  on  the  Central  Transcontinental  Highway 
just  west  of  De  Kalb,  111.  This  census  was  taken  first  during  six 
months  of  1907,  next  during  August  and  September,  1912,  and  again 
during  August  and  September,  1913.  In  1907  the  motor  driven  traf- 
fic was  5  per  cent  of  the  total  traffic.  In  1912  (five  years  later)  the 
motor  traffic  was  50  per  cent  of  the  total.  While  in  1913  the  motor 
traffic  was  60  per  cent,  thus  showing  a  total  increase  from  5  per  cent 
in  1907  to  60  per  cent  in  1913. 

Another  illustration  that  came  under  my  own  observation  was  at 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  De  Kalb  County  Soil  Improvement  Asso- 
ciation. This  meeting  was  held  at  a  point  three  miles  distant  from 
De  Kalb,  111.  The  attendance  was  estimated  at  1100.  Of  this  num- 
ber at  least  90  per  cent  were  farmers  actually  living  on  farms  or  opera- 
ting farms.  By  actual  count  there  were  on  the  ground  26  horse 
drawn  vehicles,  consisting  of  18  single  buggies  and  8  double  buggies,  as 
compared  with  109  5-  and  7-passenger  automobiles.  Thus  it  will  be 
seen  that  not  over  75  persons  of  this  company  of  1100  farmers  came  in 
buggies,  while  approximately  600  came  in  automobiles,  the  remainder 
coming  by  trolley.  You  have  heard,  even  quite  recently,  that  the 
good  roads  movement  was  in  the  interest  of  the  leisure  class  of  the 
cities  and  the  pleasure  seekers,  and  that  the  farmer  was  opposed  to  the 
movement,  because  only  the  residents  of  the  city  received  the  benefit. 
I  bring  this  illustration  to  show  that  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when 
the  farmers  in  proportion  to  their  number  will  own  more  motor  driven 
vehicles  than  the  residents  of  the  cities. 

I  believe,  gentlemen,  that  the  foregoing  is  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
urgent  and  immediate  need  of  better  roads. 

2.  Let  us  now  look  into  the  magnitude  of  the  project.  In  order  to 
determine  whether  this  enterprise  is  too  large  to  be  paid  for  from  the 
ordinary  revenue,  we  must  ascertain  the  amount  required,  and  what 
particular  taxing  bodies  should  stand  the  expense.  The  amount  re- 
quired will  depend  upon  the  number  of  miles  we  expect  to  improve, 
the  character  of  the  construction  to  be  used,  including  width,  etc. 
We  have  in  the  United  States,  according  to  the  office  of  public  roads, 
approximately  2,200,000  miles  of  country  highways.  This  office  has 
ascertained  by  investigation  that  15  to  20  per  cent  of  our  main  high- 
ways carries  from  80  to  90  per  cent  of  the  total  traffic;  further  that  15  to 
20  per  cent  of  our  highways  carries  approximately  60  per  cent  of  all 
farm  traffic.  This  mileage  of  20  per  cent  will  be  sufficient  to  cross 
most  of  the  States  both  north  and  south  and  east  and  west  every  six 
miles,  and  will  include  all  of  the  main  market  roads,  inter-county, 


BOND   ISSUES   FOR   ROAD   IMPROVEMENT  205 

interstate  and  transcontinental  highways.  Fifteen  to  twenty  per 
cent  of  this  2,200,000  miles  would  be  approximately  400,000  miles. 
It  is  estimated  that  11  per  cent  of  our  roads  are  already  improved. 
This,  however,  includes  all  classes  of  improved  roads,  such  as  gravel, 
the  various  types  of  macadams,  brick  and  concrete.  It  is  probable 
that  less  than  5  per  cent  (not  exceeding  100,000  miles)  are  so  improved 
that  they  will  give  a  wear  of  over  ten  years,  even  the  well  maintained. 
We  therefore  believe  that  the  mileage  yet  to  be  improved  is  not  less 
than  300,000  miles. 

Let  us  divide  this  300,000  miles  into  two  classes,  viz:  the  roads 
connecting  all  State  capitals  and  larger  cities,  comprising  approxi- 
mately 50,000  miles;  and  the  main  market  roads  connecting  the 
county  seats,  cities  and  villages  of  the  different  states,  comprising 
approximately  250,000  miles.  The  first  50,000  miles  above  referred 
to,  being  the  main  traveled  roads,  should  be  18  to  20  feet  in  width. 
The  roads  connecting  the  smaller  centers  of  population,  such  as 
county  seats,  could  vary  in  width  from  12  to  16  feet,  depending  upon 
the  probable  traffic. 

The  cost  of  improving  this  system  of  roads  will  depend  not  alone 
upon  the  width  to  be  paved,  but  also  upon  the  material  to  be  used. 

I  have  called  attention  heretofore  to  the  increase  in  the  motor  driven 
traffic,  but  this  only  indicates  the  change  that  has  already  taken 
place.  In  all  probability  the  change  has  but  only  begun  and  in  the 
future  it  will  all  be  in  the  direction  of  a  large  increase,  both  in  the 
number  and  in  the  weight  of  the  motor  vehicles.  Motor  trucks  which 
are  much  more  destructive  to  roads  than  automobiles  will  at  no  far 
distant  day  come  into  general  use,  both  from  the  city  to  the  country  in 
carrying  freight  and  from  the  country  to  the  city  in  the  marketing  of 
farm  products.  Our  main  traveled  roads,  therefore,  must  be  built  to 
standard  grade  if  possible,  with  a  substantial  foundation  and  hard 
wearing  surface,  such  as  brick  or  concrete. 

To  accommodate  the  traffic  the  50,000  miles,  18  to  20  feet  wide,  con- 
structed as  above  indicated,  would  cost  not  less  than  $15,000  per  mile, 
or  a  total  of  $750,000,000  for  the  entire  mileage.  The  250,000  miles, 
averaging  from  12  to  16  feet  would  cost  approximately  $10,000  per 
mile,  or  $2,500,000,000;  thus  making  the  total  cost  of  the  entire  300,- 
000  miles  $3,250,000,000. 

We  are  now  ready  to  consider  what  political  divisions  or  taxing 
bodies  should  be  responsible  for  this  expenditure. 

State  road  legislation  in  its  beginning,  put  the  entire  responsibility 
of  road  improvement  upon  the  smallest  political  divisions,  viz:  the 
townships  or  road  districts,  this  being  based  on  the  theory  that  our 
road  conditions  were  purely  a  local  matter  and  concerned  only  the 
local  communities.  After  a  few  decades  this  manner  of  handling  the 
road  question  (because  of  the  broader  ideas  of  the  people  as  to  the 
value  of  good  roads)  was  found  insufficient.  In  some  States  the 
counties  were  then  made  the  political  divisions  responsible  for  road 
improvement.  A  little  later  the  county  system  was  found  inadequate 


206  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

and  most  of  the  States  through  State-aid  have  joined  the  partnership 
for  road  improvement.  The  enterprise,  however,  is  growing  so  rapidly 
that  it  is  becoming  apparent  that  we  shall  need  the  assistance  of  the 
federal  government  in  carrying  on  this  great  work.  As  I  have  pre- 
viously indicated,  the  people  of  the  United  States  from  one  coast  to  the 
other  and  from  the  north  to  the  south  are  awakening  to  the  fact  that 
road  improvement  is  essential  and  urgent;  that  the  task  is  so  great 
that  all  the  forces  must  combine  for  its  solution. 

The  government  has  about  completed  one  of  the  most  stupendous 
undertakings  of  modern  times,  the  Panama  Canal,  at  a  cost  of  from 
$300,000,000  to  $350,000,000.  The  time  is  now  ripe  for  the  federal 
government  to  undertake  a  greater  work,  one  that  will  be  of  more 
direct  benefit  to  our  people  from  the  standpoint  of  a  higher  citizenship, 
a  contented  farm  life,  as  well  as  from  the  standpoint  of  the  effect  upon 
the  food  supply  of  the  nation,  than  a  score  of  Panama  Canals.  Each 
year  the  government  is  appropriating  very  liberally  for  public  build- 
ings, for  improving  rivers  and  harbors.  Much  of  this  work  is  neces- 
sary, but  none  of  it  would  benefit  the  people  so  much  as  the  same 
amount  of  money  applied  upon  the  proper  development  of  a  well 
planned  and  equitable  system  of  highways. 

As  has  already  been  suggested  by  others,  if  all  the  associations  of 
the  United  States,  national,  State  and  county,  that  are  now  working 
for  road  improvement  could  unite  in  asking  Congress  to  authorize  the 
appointment  of  a  commission  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  conduct  a 
thorough  investigation  and  report  back  to  Congress  a  plan  recommend- 
ing the  extent  to  which  the  government  shall  enter  into  this  work; 
to  report  also  whether  the  government  shall  construct  and  main- 
tain a  system  of  national  highways  or  give  to  each  State  its  propor- 
tion of  assistance  in  improving  State  roads;  and  further  to  provide  a 
plan  by  which  the  roads  to  be  improved  shall  be  designated.  If,  I  say, 
this  plan  could  be  put  into  effect  then  this  great  project  would  soon  be 
under  way. 

If  we  grant  the  premises  in  the  foregoing  discussion  to  be  true,  then 
the  conclusion  is  also  true  that  we  are  warranted  in  asking  that  the 
government  shall  over  a  period  of  fifteen  or  twenty  years  assist  in  this 
road  movement,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  the  cost  of  the  50,000  miles  of 
interstate  highways  which  we  have  estimated  at  $750,000,000.  Con- 
gress has  authorized  the  issuing  of  bonds  for  the  building  of  the  Pana- 
ma Canal,  a  project  of  approximately  half  the  cost  of  this  system  of 
highways;  and  should  the  revenues  of  the  government  require  it, 
bonds  should  likewise  be  issued  for  the  construction  of  our  highways. 
If  the  government  undertakes  to  furnish  this  $750,000,000,  as  above, 
there  would  still  remain  the  sum  of  $2,500,000,000,  to  be  contributed 
and  expended  by  the  States  and  counties,  in  proportion  to  the  total 
mileage  of  each  State.  This  amount  of  money  spread  over  a  period 
of  fifteen  years  would  mean  an  annual  cost  of  $166,000,000  to  the 
States  and  counties  of  the  nation.  This  is  indeed  a  large  annual 
expenditure,  but  let  us  analyze  the  situation. 


BOND   ISSUES   FOR   ROAD   IMPROVEMENT  207 

Let  me  again  call  your  attention  to  estimated  annual  traffic  loss  of 
$250,000,000.  When  we  shall  have  improved  the  roads  that  carry 
80  to  90 per  cent  of  this  traffic,  then  we  shall  be  saving  from  200  to  225 
millions  annually,  hence  from  this  standpoint,  the  improvement  will 
soon  pay  for  itself.  Again,  we  are  now  expending  annually  on  our 
roads  and  bridges  in  the  United  States  a  sum  estimated  at  $180,000,000, 
$150,000,000  of  which  is  being  raised  by  general  taxation  and  $30,000,- 
000  by  bond  issues.  This,  as  you  will  notice,  is  largely  in  excess  of  the 
annual  expenditure  called  for  in  this  proposed  system  of  roads.  Of 
this  sum  $180,000,000,  $100,000,000  is  now  being  expended  in  building 
and  repairing  bridges  and  culverts  and  caring  for  the  earth  roads  and 
$80,000,000  in  the  more  permanent  types  of  road  construction.  These 
earth  roads  are  bound  to  constitute  by  far  the  larger  part  of  our  roads 
to  come,  and  we  must  continue  not  only  to  care  for  them  as  we  have 
done  in  the  past,  but  to  increase  their  efficiency  by  more  thorough  and 
scientific  methods  of  maintenance. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  at  least  25  or  30  per  cent  of  money 
now  expended  on  our  earth  roads  is  being  used  in  a  haphazard  way 
that  brings  no  permanent  benefit  which  would  mean  that  $75,000,000 
economically  administered  would  give  us  a  much  better  system  of 
earth  roads  than  we  have  today  and  leave  $25,000,000  for  other  pur- 
poses. If  this  $25,000,000  could  be  added  to  the  $80,000,000  now 
being  expended  on  hard  roads,  we  would  have  a  sum  of  $105,000,000 
for  that  purpose  and  thus  leave  only  about  $60,000,000  still  to  be  pro- 
vided for.  Without  question  the  taxes  for  the  maintenance  of  State 
governments,  municipalities,  schools  and  roads  are  already  a  sufficient 
immediate  burden  upon  the  people.  I  therefore  feel  justified  in  taking 
the  position  that  this  project  is  too  large  to  be  paid  for  through  the 
regular  channels  of  the  State  and  county  taxes;  and  that  at  least  the 
$60,000,000,  above  referred  to,  in  addition  to  the  $30,000,000  now  be- 
ing raised  by  a  bond  issue  should  be  provided  for  by  the  same  method, 
viz:  the  issuance  of  bonds. 

Our  third  requirement  is  that  the  improvements  shall  be  of  sufficient 
permanency  to  give  full  value  to  those  who  will  be  called  upon  to  re- 
pay the  indebtedness ;  in  other  words,  that  the  maturity  of  the  bonds 
shall  come  within  the  life  of  the  improvement,  or  in  the  language  of 
roads  that  we  should  not  issue  fifty  year  bonds  to  build  fifteen  year  roads. 
This  principle  has  often  been  disregarded  by  States  and  municipalities, 
not  from  a  desire  to  impose  a  burden  upon  those  who  have  to  pay  the 
cost,  but  from  a  lack  of  correct  information  as  to  the  durability  of  the 
work  for  which  the  bonds  were  issued.  I  believe  that  this  has  been 
to  a  considerable  extent  excusable  in  the  matter  of  road  construction, 
because  of  changing  traffic  conditions  that  could  not  be  foreseen. 
Those  in  charge  of  this  construction  have  lived  up  to  the  best  informa- 
tion obtainable  and  built  along  lines  approved  by  the  best  road  en- 
gineers. The  failure  of  this  class  of  roads  to  withstand  the  changing 
traffic  is  not  sufficient  reason,  however,  why  bond  issues  should  not  be 
utilized  within  propr  limits  in  the  future. 


208  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

We  are  today  in  position  to  judge  sufficiently  of  the  traffic  require- 
ments for  the  next  twenty  years  to  be  able  to  build  our  roads  to  meet 
those  requirements.  This  being  true,  it  then  follows  that  inasmuch  as 
the  coming  generation  is  to  share  in  the  benefits  of  the  roads,  equity 
demands  that  it  should  also  share  in  the  cost  which  can  only  be  done 
through  the  issuance  of  bonds. 

We  do  not  hesitate  to  issue  bonds  for  other  public  improvements, 
such  as  water  works,  sewer  systems,  lighting  plants  and  school  build- 
ings. None  of  these  improvements  are  permanent.  All  require  main- 
tenance, many  require  frequent  renewals  to  maintain  efficiency,  but  if 
the  foregoing  principle  is  observed  no  injustice  results.  If  we  shall  at- 
tempt to  build  this  system  of  roads,  spreading  the  work  over  a  period  of 
fifteen  years,  building  one-fifteenth  each  year,  paying  one-half  the  cost 
of  this  portion  by  direct  tax,  and  issuing  fifteen-year  bonds  for  the  re- 
maining one-half,  we  would  distribute  the  cost  over  a  period  of  thirty 
years, -but  each  section  of  road  so  built  would  be  paid  for  within  fifteen 
years  from  the  time  of  its  construction.  The  burden  upon  the  tax- 
payers would  be  but  little  more  than  at  the  present  time;  further  it 
is  evident  that  through  a  proper  organization  of  the  work  by  our  states 
and  counties  with  a  definite  purpose,  the  money  would  be  conserved; 
haphazard  work  would  be  eliminated,  and  the  people  would  receive 
real  value  for  the  money  expended. 

Let  me  summarize  briefly:  I  have  called  attention  to  a  few  of  the 
evidences  of  the  urgent  need,  as  well  as  the  insistent  demand  for  road 
improvement.  I  have  given  you  an  idea  of  the  vast  sum  of  money 
that  will  be  required  and  have  tried  to  show  the  necessity  of  enlisting 
all  of  the  available  forces  in  this  work,  from  the  road  district  to  the 
federal  government.  Further,  we  have  seen  that  the  work  should  not 
be  delayed  indefinitely  but  that,  in  order  to  have  this  generation  re- 
ceive a  share  of  the  benefits,  we  must  resort  to  bond  issues  by  each  of 
the  taxing  units  entering  into  this  work;  also,  it  is  clear  that  equity 
demands  that  through  the  payment  of  bonds  a  share  of  this  burden  be 
placed  upon  the  future  taxpayers,  who  will  enjoy  their  proportion  of 
the  benefits. 

The  people  are  in  earnest  in  their  demand  for  good  roads  and  when 
they  unite  in  demanding  anything  they  always  get  it.  Whether  the 
methods  by  which  they  get  it  are  sane  and  conservative  and  give  the 
people  real  value  for  their  money,  depends  upon  the  leadership.  No 
man  can  lead,  unless  he  has  the  vision.  No  man  should  be  permitted 
to  lead,  unless  the  vision  is  counterbalanced  by  conservatism.  No 
man  should  be  permitted  to  lead,  except  along  the  lines  of  the  newer 
ideals  in  public  affairs,  which  are  nothing  more  than  common  honesty 
and  unselfishness. 

MR.  MYERS  (of  Ohio) :  We  have  discussed  road  construction  and 
maintenance  and  we  have  certainly  profited  very  much.  It  is  a 
national  affair.  We  are  correspondingly  responsible,  with  justice 
to  all.  We  come  down  to  upkeep  and  protection,  which  has  been 


DISCUSSION  209 

discussed  and  which  has  been  very  vital,  and  we  are  now  down  to 
bonds  and  maintenance.  It  occurs  to  me  that  it  is  only  fair  that 
the  farmer,  who  is  assessed  by  the  township  and  by  the  county, 
should  be  protected  in  a  way,  and  while  they  are  expected  to  use 
the  roads  and  they  are  willing  in  the  main  to  be  assessed,  they  are 
not  willing  that  those  roads  that  cost  from  $2000  to  $25,000  a  mile, 
according  to  the  different  methods  employed,  should  be  maintained 
at  an  expense  in  the  issuing  of  additional  bonds,  incurring  additional 
hardship  because  of  that  maintenance  being  severe,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  because  of  the  use  of  motor  tractors  now  used  on  those 
roads  between  our  city  and  Cleveland,  Mansfield  and  Akron,  carry- 
ing six  to  eight  tons — half  as  much  as  we  can.  put  into  an  express 
car,  without  being  assessed  for  commercial  use.  This  does  not 
appear  right  to  me  as  compared  with  the  farmers  use  and  what  he 
is  paying  for  it,  and  I  think  this  being  a  national  affair,  it  is  only 
proper  that  we  should  consider  some  revenue  (instead  of  issuing 
additional  bonds)  accruing  from  those  who  use  the  roads  in  a 
commercial  way.  Those  of  us  who  are  engaged  in  railroad  and 
traction  lines  have  first  got  to  pay  for  the  right  of  way,  we  pay 
$20,000  to  $25,000  for  equipment,  we  are  assessed  very  heavily  as 
you  know,  by  each  township  and  county  through  which  we  pass, 
and  then  we  have  to  pay  tribute  to  the  interstate  commerce  and 
public  utility  and  all  that,  and  here  comes  along  the  department 
stores  or  the  men  who  manufacture  raw  material  and  distribute 
their  wares  over  the  highways  that  are  made  by  assessment  on  the 
common  public,  and  it  occurs  to  me  that  it  is  a  very  important 
matter  that  we  should  take  up  and  see  that  those  who  use  the 
roads  in  a  commercial  way,  for  commercial  gain  from  one  city  to 
another,  such  as  I  have  named,  which  occurs  here  no  doubt  in  Detroit 
and  intermediate  points,  should  be  made  to  pay  by  paying  a  certain 
duty  on  benzine  or  something  which  would  protect  them  or  protect 
the  wayfaring  public  as  against  the  inequality  that  is  existing  and 
will  exist. 

A.  E.  BEABY:  I  believe  in  good  roads.  I  am  a  farmer  over  in 
the  western  part  of  Michigan.  I  own  automobiles;  I  am  willing  to 
help  pay  my  share,  a  goodly  share,  to  build  good  roads,  but  every 
dollar  I  pay  for  good  roads,  I  want  to  be  an  efficient  dollar.  I  don't 
want  to  pay  dollars  to  pay  interest  on  bonds.  I  don't  want  to  be 
bonded  or  have  my  children  after  me  bonded  for  good  roads.  This 
good  roads  question  is  an  everlasting  proposition.  Two  million 
miles  of  roads  in  America — this  emergency  is  continuing,  this  emer- 
gency is  going  to  be  here  for  a  hundred  years  and  there  is  no  more 
good  reason  for  issuing  bonds  for  good  roads  than  there  is  for  issuing 
bonds  for  the  running  expenses  of  the  State  of  Michigan.  In  some 
way  and  somehow,  we  farmers  have  been  getting  our  products  to 
the  market.  Now,  you  may  not  understand  me,  the  language  of  a 
farmer  is  different  from  the  language  of  a  banker;  it  puts  me  in 


210  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

mind  of  an  old  sailor  that  came  into  our  county  years  ago.  Instead 
of  talking  to  his  team  as  the  near  ox  and  the  off  ox,  when  they 
turned  the  yoke  he  says,  "You  blamed  starboard  ox,  you  get  over 
on  the  larboard  side."  We  have  and  have  had  too  many  politicians 
in  this  country  who  were  starboard  fellows  at  home  but  when  they  got 
to  Washington  they  got  on  the  larboard  side.  We  don't  want  $750,- 
000,000,000  of  bonds  issued  to  be  carried  on  the  backs  of  these  people; 
it  will  create  a  higher  cost  of  living  than  anything  you  can  do.  I  am 
willing  to  stand  any  burden  of  direct  tax  that  they  see  fit  or  that 
the  public  is  willing  to  put  on  to  me,  to  make  it  a  direct  application 
for  the  building  of  roads,  but  I  do  not  want  to  see  sixteen-year  bonds 
issued  nor  twenty-year  bonds  issued  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  we 
have  paid  for  2  miles  of  road  and  only  got  1  mile  of  road  built.  Now, 
I  am  interested  in  banks;  I  have  often  been  interested  in  banks  and 
have  always  tried  to  get  my  interest  out  and  am  getting  it  pretty 
near  all  out  of  them  and  I  am  willing  to  stand  a  good  heavy  tax  for 
good  roads.  I  believe  that  money  expended  that  way,  in  a  public 
way,  adds  more  to  human  happiness  and  the  comfort  of  animals 
than  money  expended  in  any  other  way,  but  give  us  a  direct  tax 
and  let  us  pay  as  we  go.  I  thank  you,  gentlemen,  for  your  kind 
attention. 

MR.  BRADT:  They  have  authorized  bonds  for  the  Panama  Canal 
but  have  only  issued  $140,000,000  out  of  an  authorized  issue  of 
$350,000,000.  The  government  revenue  will  take  care  of  it,  and 
this  $50,000,000  over  fifteen  years  or  $37,500,000  over  twenty  years 
will  undoubtedly  be  taken  care  of  through  regular  channels  of  tax- 
ation by  the  government,  just  like  the  Panama  Canal,  and  I  sug- 
gested roads  instead  of  some  other  improvement  the  government  is 
making,  but  not  a  bond  issue;  I  said  that  bonds  should  not  be  issued 
unless  the  life  of  the  improvement  is  within  the  life  of  the  bond,  so 
that  the  man  who  pays  those  bonds  gets  full  value  received  for  his 
money.  Now,  in  its  relation  to  the  farmer,  this  matter  of  the  motor 
traffic,  I  think  that  will  be  taken  care  of  by  our  State  legislature 
through  a  motor  vehicle  tax  which  will  be  graduated  according  to 
the  size  of  the  motor,  but  I  think  this,  that  our  farmers  will  be  using 
these  large  motors  before  many  years  themselves.  I  think  I  have 
shown  that  the  automobile  end  of  it  will  draw  no  line  in  the  future 
between  the  farmers  and  the  residents  of  the  town,  because  the  farmer 
is  going  to  own  more  automobiles  than  the  townpeople,  and  when 
it  comes  to  auto  trucks,  I  think  it  will  be  the  same  in  a  few  years. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey):  Mr.  Bradt  brought  the  paper  up 
to  a  certain  point,  but  in  this  matter  of  issuing  bonds  did  not  go 
far  enough.  We  had  a  case  in  New  Jersey  where  we  had  laid  out 
a  7-mile  road  across  country  to  the  railroad  station.  Before  that 
road  was  built,  they  had  been  carting  one  ton  to  the  load;  since  the 
road  was  built,  they  have  been  carting  three  tons  to  the  load.  An 


HIGHWAY  ACCOUNTING  211 

old  farmer  had  objected  to  it,  and  he  was  the  only  one  along  the 
route  that  did  object  but  he  soon  "tumbled"  and  was  doing  his 
carting  with  the  rest.  We  then  talked  of  another  good  road  and 
proposed  to  issue  bonds  for  $20,000  and  have  this  road  for  use  also. 
Immediately  after  the  first  road  was  built,  the  land  along  it  had 
risen  from  $80  an  acre  to  $100  an  acre,  and  just  as  soon  as  the  State 
road  was  finished,  the  farms  along  there  brought  $100  to  $120  an 
acre.  Then  another  old  farmer  objected  and  brought  up  the  argu- 
ment "Don't  you  think  it  would  be  a  very  mean  trick  for  me  to 
vote  for  them  bonds  and  leave  that  debt  to  my  children  for  an  inher- 
itance?" I  said,  "Your  farm  has  risen  20  per  cent;  you  are  saving 
$450  a  year  in  cartage;  don't  you  think  it  would  be  better  to  build 
the  road  and  issue  the  bonds  and  leave  to  your  children  a  farm 
worth  20  per  cent  more  money?"  He  said,  "Golly  that's  so,  I 
didn't  see  it  that  way,  and  I  will  vote  for  it  sure  pop?" 

MR.  BEABY  :  But  if  that  farmer  had  paid  it  all  and  left  no  bonds 
for  his  children  to  pay,  he  would  be  doing  a  better  act  yet. 

MR.  SMITH:  But  unless  we  had  issued  the  bonds,  we  could  not 
have  had  the  road. 

MR.  BRADT:  Those  children  are  to  get  the  benefit  of  the  road 
and  ought  to  pay  for  it. 

MR.  BEABY:  I  don't  believe  in  bonding  the  unborn  in  this  coun- 
try; I  don't  believe  there  is  any  patriotism  in  that  at  all. 

MR.  BRADT:  They  are  going  to  get  some  benefit  of  what  we  do 
here  and  it  is  no  harm  for  them  to  pay  a  little. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  paper  is  "Highway  Accounting  with 
Special  Reference  to  Maintenance,"  by  Halbert  P.  Gillette,  Chief 
Editor  Engineering  and  Contracting. 

HIGHWAY  ACCOUNTING,  WITH   SPECIAL   REFERENCE 
TO  MAINTENANCE 

BY  HALBERT  P.  GILLETTE,  M.AM.Soc.C.E. 

Chief  Editor  of  "  Engineering  and  Contracting" 

The  tune  is  at  hand  when  accounting  and  cost  keeping  methods 
that  have  proved  so  effective  in  the  management  of  private  enter- 
prises will  also  be  universally  applied  to  public  works.  There  is 
fundamentally  no  economic  difference  between  a  road  and  a  rail- 
way. Hence  accounting  methods  that  have  been  developed  in  the 
construction  and  operation  of  railways  should  prove  efficacious  in 
road  construction  and  maintenance. 


212  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

Every  well  managed  railway  has  an  itemized  plant  or  property 
account.  How  many  ledgers  relating  to  a  system  of  highways 
will  show  the  itemized  investment  in  the  entire  mileage?  Every 
well  managed  railway  has  an  itemized  maintenance  account  that 
shows  the  monthly  and  annual  maintenance  expenses  by  divisions. 
Of  how  many  road  systems  can  the  same  be  said?  Every  well  man- 
aged railway  is  careful  to  distinguish  between  expenditures  that 
add  to  the  investment  in  plant  and  expenditures  that  merely  renew 
superseded  and  worn  out  parts  of  the  plant.  How  many  road  ledgers 
show  equal  care  in  this  vital  matter?  And  it  is  vital,  economically, 
not  to  confuse  renewals  with  betterments;  yet  we  all  know  of  many 
recently  published  statements  of  road  maintenance  costs  wherein 
more  than  half  the  cost  was  not  maintenance  at  all. 

When  an  old  waterbound  macadam  is  scarified  and  enough 
new  metal  added  to  bring  it  to  its  original  thickness,  the  cost  thereof 
is  a  maintenace  expense.  But  if  metal  is  added  in  amount  sufficient 
to  make  the  macadam  8  inches  thick  where  it  was  6  inches  thick 
at  the  time  of  original  construction,  then  the  added  2  inches  is  not 
a  maintenance  expense,  but  is  an  addition  or  betterment  which 
should  be  charged  to  the  property  account.  Even  to  a  more  marked 
degree  is  this  true  when  a  waterbound  macadam  is  given  a  bituminous 
surfacing. 

The  editor  of  at  least  one  prominent  engineering  periodical  has 
recently  written  the  almost  prohibitive  cost  of  road  maintenance, 
and  has  cautioned  the  public  against  bonding  for  road  construc- 
tion because  of  the  short  life  of  modern  roadE.  This  serious  edi- 
torial error  is  the  result  of  inadequate  knowledge  of  proper  accounting 
methods,  for  published  road  maintenance  data  are  apt  to  deceive 
those  who  think  that  "maintenance"  means  what  it  should  mean. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  "maintenance,"  as  commonly  used  today  in 
reference  to  roads,  means  true  maintenance  and  betterments  com- 
bined, and  is  therefore  a  deceptive  term. 

Maintenance  expense  should  never  include  anything  else  than 
repairs  and  renewals.  Any  expenditure  that  adds  to  the  inventory 
cost  of  a  road  is  an  addition  or  betterment  and  should  be  charged 
to  the  property  account.  By  this  criterion  it  follows  that  if  a  worn 
6-inch  macadam  is  scarified  and  increased  in  thickness  to  8  inches, 
the  first  cost  of  a  6-inch  macadam  is  deducted  from  the  first  cost 
of  an  8-inch  macadam  and  this  difference  is  charged  to  the  prop- 
erty account.  The  balance  of  the  expense  involved  in  scarifying, 
metalling,  rolling,  etc.,  should  be  charged  to  the  maintenance  account 
under  the  head  of  renewals. 

The  writer  prefers  to  keep  distinct  the  two  kinds  of  maintenance 
— repairs  and  renewals.  Under  repairs  are  charged  patching,  pa- 
trolling and  other  small  or  continuous  maintenance  expenses.  Under 
renewals  are  charged  general  resurfacing  and  all  renewals  of  large 
parts  or  units.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  a  bridge  the  cost  of  painting 
is  a  repair  expense;  but  the  replacement  of  an  old  bridge  by  a  new 
one  is  a  renewal. 


HIGHWAY  ACCOUNTING  213 

Since  it  is  rare  that  a  highway  official  will  find  a  properly  kept 
set  of  construction  and  expense  ledgers  left  by  his  predecessor, 
the  question  arises  whether  it  is  worth  while  to  inventory  or  ap- 
praise the  existing  road's.  Most  emphatically  it  is  worth  while. 
One  of  the  best  ways  of  rating  the  annual  maintenance  cost  of  any 
structure  or  machine  is  as  a  percentage  of  its  first  cost.  Obviously 
this  cannot  be  done  where  the  first  cost  is  not  even  vaguely  known. 
Estimates  of  future  maintenance  expenses  are  often  best  determined 
by  taking  percentages  of  the  first  cost  of  each  item.  These  reasons 
alone  warrant  making  an  appraisal  of  any  plant,  but,  in  addition, 
the  owners  of  a  plant  are  entitled  to  know  how  much  capital  is  in- 
vested in  it.  Who  can  tell  with  any  degree  of  accuracy  how  much 
capital  is  now  invested  in  the  roads  of  any  large  State  in  America? 

The  writer  has  made  a  rough  estimate  of  the  investment  in  roads 
in  each  state,  and  it  serves  at  any  rate  to  disclose  sad  disparity 
in  capital  invested  in  roads  compared  with  railways.  Accurate 
figures  of  this  sort  for  each  state  should  serve  to  awaken  the  public 
to  realization  of  its  past  niggardliness  in  road  improvement.  Now 
that  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  has  begun  the  appraisal 
of  all  the  railways,  it  will  soon  be  possible  to  contrast  the  investment 
in  railways  with  the  investment  in  roads,  provided  we  begin  soon  to 
appraise  our  highways. 

In  opening  a  property  account  for  a  system  of  roads,  it  will  be 
well  to  study  the  printed  instructions  to  railway  accountants  issued 
by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission;  also  the  printed  instruc- 
tions issued  by  various  state  public  service  commissions. 

The  writer  would  suggest  a  property  account  for  roads  as  follows : 

ROAD   PROPERTY  ACCOUNT 

1.  Engineering,  superintendence  and  inspection. 

2.  Administration  and  legal. 

3.  Real  estate  and  right  of  way. 

4.  Clearing  and  grubbing. 

5.  Grading. 

6.  Retaining  and  slope  walls. 

7.  Bridges,  culverts  and  drains. 

8.  Fences  and  Signs. 

9.  Trees,  sod  and  foliage. 

10.  Paving. 

11.  Buildings  and  fixtures. 

12.  Furniture  and  instruments. 

13.  Stores  and  supplies. 

14.  Tools  and  machinery. 

15.  Miscellaneous. 

16.  Bond  discount. 

17.  Interest  during  construction. 

All  existing  roads  should  be  apppraised  at  the  cost  of  reproduc- 
tion new.  The  depreciated  condition  may  be  ascertained,  but  it 


214  AMEEICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

is  the  cost  new  that  should  always  appear  in  a  plant  account.  It 
is  now  considered  bad  accounting  to  "  write  off"  any  part  of  plant 
value  because  of  depreciation.  Preferably  a  separate  account  called 
depreciation  reserve  is  provided. 

Having  opened  the  construction  ledger  of  a  system  of  highways, 
using  the  appraised  cost  of  reproduction  new  to  start  with,  the 
cost  of  every  new  road  and  every  betterment  should  be  entered 
in  that  account,  item  by  item.  Many  of  the  seventeen  items  above 
given  should  be  classified  into  sub-items.  Of  course  each  new  road 
improvement  should  have  its  own  separate  itemized  account,  and 
it  would  be  well  to  adopt  the  method  used  by  railways  in  designating 
each  improvement  by  a  numbered  A.  F.  E.  An  A.  F.  E.  is  an  "  Au- 
thorization for  Expenditure."  It  is  made  by  filling  hi  a  printed 
blank  with  an  itemized  estimate  of  quantities  and  cost  of  the  pro- 
posed improvement  and  the  reasons  why  the  improvement  should 
be  made.  It  is  given  a  serial  number,  and  signed  by  various  officials. 
Care  should  be  taken  to  keep  the  record  of  actual  cost  in  such  a 
way  that  it  can  be  entered  in  detail  on  the  original  A.  F.  E.  in  a 
column  parallel  to  the  column  of  estimated  cost.  If  the  totals  of  the 
two  do  not  check  within  10  per  cent,  reasons  should  be  given  for  the 
difference.  Instead  of  extending  a  given  A.  F.  E.  to  cover  more  work 
than  was  originally  contemplated,  the  writer  prefers  to  issue  a  sepa- 
rate A.  F.  E.  for  the  extension. 

Corresponding  to  the  A.  F.  E.  for  large  additions  and  improve- 
ments is  the  W.  0.,  or  "Work  Order,"  for  minor  betterments  and 
maintenance.  Work  orders  should  be  numbered  serially,  and,  where 
possible,  should  contain  detailed  estimates  of  cost  as  well  as  the 
actual  cost  in  equal  detail.  In  addition,  a  work  order  should  show 
in  detail  how  the  actual  cost  is  prorated  between  Maintenance  and 
Improvements. 

The  location  of  the  work  should  be  described  on  each  A.  F.  E. 
and  W.  0.,  but,  hi  addition,  there  should  be  a  map  record  of  every 
A.  F.  E.  Care  should  be  taken  to  enter  on  the  map  the  numbers 
of  the  A.  F.  E.  and  on  the  A.  F.  E.  should  be  recorded  the  map 
number.  If  this  is  not  done,  it  often  becomes  difficult  in  subsequent 
years  to  correlate  the  maps  and  A.  F.  E's. 

In  addition  to  a  system  of  accounts  that  find  final  summary 
in  two  sets  of  ledgers,  namely  construction  ledgers  and  mainte- 
nance ledgers,  there  should  be  a  separate  system  of  unit  cost-keeping 
records.  Ledger  accounts  must  be  precise.  Cost-keeping  records, 
however,  need  only  be  approximate;  for  the  mam  object  of  cost- 
keeping  is  to  ascertain  unit  costs  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  deter- 
mine whether  work  is  being  economically  done.  Of  course  unit 
costs  also  serve  for  estimating  the  cost  of  projected  work,  but  this 
is  a  matter  of  small  importance  contrasted  with  the  use  of  unit 
costs  as  a  criterion  of  efficiency.  Accounting  is  a  function  of  book- 
keepers and  accountants,  but  cost-keeping  is  a  function  of  engineers. 
By  this  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  engineers  should  not  understand 


HIGHWAY  ACCOUNTING  215 

accounting,  nor  do  I  mean  that  there  should  be  entire  divorce  of 
accounting  from  unit  cost-keeping.  To  attempt  to  record  in  ledgers 
the  data  needed  in  calculating  all  unit  costs  results  in  greatly  com- 
plicating the  accounting  system.  Moreover,  a  good  accounting 
system  lacks  the  flexibility  so  essential  in  a  good  system  for  recording 
unit  costs.  As  a  rule,  the  engineer  in  charge  of  work  finds  it  desirable 
to  change  the  method  of  recording  unit  costs  to  fit  the  local  condi- 
tions, the  character  and  magnitude  of  the  work,  and  the  sort  of  men 
available  for  keeping  the  records.  An  accounting  system,  on  the 
other  hand,  should  remain  the  same  for  all  jobs  and  from  year  to 
year. 

Of  course  unit  cost  records  should  show  labor  and  material  costs 
separately.  It  is  desirable  that  the  same  separation  should  also  be 
followed  in  the  accounting  system.  When  this  is  done  it  is  pos- 
sible to  check  roughly  the  total  payroll  charged  in  the  ledgers  against 
the  total  labor  cost  recorded  by  the  engineers  on  their  cost  blanks. 
Similarly  with  the  total  cost  of  materials.  Errors  are  thus  fre- 
quent disclosed,  and  occasionally  the  "padding"  of  payrolls  and 
other  dishonest  acts  are  brought  to  light. 

Too  much  stress  can  not  be  laid  on  the  economic  necessity  of 
detailed  unit  cost-keeping.  Even  for  the  smallest  of  jobs,  unit 
costs  should  be  ascertained,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  to  show 
that  unit  costs  on  small  jobs  are  often  several  fold  as  great  as  on 
large  jobs  of  the  same  character.  Much  money  is  annually  wasted 
in  puttering.  Once  the  total  waste  is  expressed  in  dollars  it  usually 
is  seen  that  most  of  the  puttering  can  be  done  away  with  entirely. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  road  maintenance.  The  writer  is  of 
those  who  believe  that  too  much  road  maintenance  consists  of 
patching  in  small  units.  There  is  not  a  little  economic  falsehood 
in  applying  too  literally  the  "  stitch  in  time"  policy.  Unit  costs, 
and  nothing  but  unit  costs,  will  show  to  what  extent  it  is  economic 
to  use  a  parole  system  of  repairing. 

To  unit  costs  we  must  also  look  for  the  answer  to  the  question 
whether  day  labor  or  contract  labor  is  more  economic.  Practically 
all  the  recorded  unit  costs  relating  to  road  construction  indicate 
that  contract  work  is  cheaper  than  day  labor  work.  The  a  priori 
reasons  for  this  are  numerous;  but  since  there  are  not  a  few  men 
who  believe  they  can  "save  the  contractor's  profit"  simple  justice 
demands  that  they  prove  it  by  recording  and  publishing  the  unit 
costs  that  occur  when  they  attempt  to  do  so. 

In  conclusion  the  writer  would  repeat  the  suggestion  that  the 
accounting  methods  of  railways  and  other  public  utilities  be  thor- 
oughly studied  by  those  who  are  in  charge  of  highway  construction 
and  maintenance. 

It  is  not  sufficient  merely  to  know  the  principles  of  double  entry 
book-keeping  as  it  is  commonly  applied  in  business  enterprises. 
Public  utility  accounting  is  a  special  science  that  involves  many 
departures  from  the  ancient  art  of  book-keeping  from  which  it  has 
evolved. 


216  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  This  session  is  going  to  come  to  a  close.  The 
next  is  the  Economics  Session.  Upon  this  question  I  believe  in  the 
principles  of  equality  and  the  right  of  the  people  to  rule.  That 
was  established  in  the  beginning  of  this  government,  as  you  all 
remember,  when  our  forefathers,  under  the  leadership  of  Jefferson, 
said,  "We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  creator  with  certain 
inalienable  rights;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  That,  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  were  insti- 
tuted among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed;"  and  upon  this  question  of  roads,  fe  will  have  the 
kind  of  roads  that  the  people  of  this  government  want  in  every  part 
of  this  Union,  in  every  township  and  county  of  it.  Now,  we  are 
going  to  have  what  the  people  want.  I  take  pleasure  in  introducing 
to  you  Dr.  Joseph  Hyde  Pratt,  who  will  now  preside  over  the  eco- 
nomics session. 


ECONOMICS  SESSION 

UNDER  AUSPICES  OF  AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 
DR.  Jos.  HYDE  PRATT  in  the  chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  will  ask  the  session  of  economics  to  come  to 
order.  We  will  take  up  at  this  session  perhaps  the  most  important 
phase  of  the  road  problem — the  administration  of  road  funds.  No 
matter  how  much  money  you  have  raised  with  which  to  construct 
roads,  or  how  you  have  raised  it,  if  it  is  not  expended  in  building 
good  roads,  and  expended  economically,  you  have  lost  out  on  the 
road  problem.  It  is  absolutely  essential,  in  carrying  out  the  expendi- 
ture of  any  money,  whether  raised  by  direct  tax  or  bond  issue,  that 
that  money  be  expended  under  the  supervision  of  a  man  who  knows 
how,  i.e.,  the  road  engineer.  He  should  be  given  such  authority 
over  the  unit  of  his  jurisdiction,  whether  it  be  a  township,  county 
or  State  as  will  enable  him  to  expend  the  road  money  to  the  best 
advantage  with  regard  to  location,  construction  and  maintenance 
of  the  public  roads  of  the  community  for  which  he  is  working.  Your 
road  commission  may  decide  what  roads  are  to  be  built  first,  what 
places  are  to  be  connected;  but  the  location,  the  method  of  con- 
struction and  the  maintenance  should  be  left  to  the  engineer  who 
has  been  employed  to  take  charge  of  the  road  work  of  the  State  or 
county;  and,  if  he  is  not  capable  of  doing  that,  he  should  get  out 
and  you  should  employ  an  efficient  man.  If  we  carry  out  that 
plan  and  do  put  in  charge  of  our  road  work  the  man  who  knows  how, 
we  will  be  able  to  get  out  of  every  dollar  appropriated  a  dollar's 
worth  of  good  roads. 

Now,  in  order  that  our  engineer  shall  be  able  to  carry  out  and 
do  his  work  to  the  best  advantage,  he  has  got  to  have  under  him 
in  the  State  or  in  the  county  as  the  case  may  be  an  organization  that 
he  knows  will  carry  out  his  instructions  in  regard  to  the  road  work. 
I  believe  in  deciding  upon  what  character  of  road  to  build;  whether 
concrete  or  vitrified  brick;  tar  or  asphalt  macadam;  sand-clay  or 
gravel,  should  be  determined  by  the  amount  of  traffic  that  is  to  go 
over  that  particular  road,  which  of  course  will  determine  the  amount 
of  money  needed  to  construct  that  particular  road.  I  do  not  believe 
that  any  community  should  incur  debt  to  build  the  finest  kind  of 
concrete  or  asphalt  or  vitrified  brick  road  when  the  traffic  over  that 
particular  road  does  not  demand  such  surfacing  material  and  a  sand- 
clay  or  gravel  road  surface  would  serve  the  traffic  that  goes  over  it 
just  as  well. 

There  is  one  thing  in  connection  with  road  work  that  we  should 
always  keep  in  mind,  and  that  is  that  no  road,  however  well  it  may 

217 


218  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

be  constructed,  or  the  surfacing  material  may  be,  is  a  permanent 
road,  i.e.,  it  is  going  to  constantly  need  repairs  and  in  your  organi- 
zation, in  your  plans  for  your  public  road  work,  you  should  always 
arrange  to  have  a  sufficient  fund  at  all  times  ready  with  which  to 
maintain  the  road  you  have  built.  It  is  part  of  the  work  of  the 
engineer  in  making  his  organization  to  work  out  a  plan  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  road  as  well  as  for  its  construction. 

There  is  one  part  of  a  public  road  that  we  might  call  permanent, 
or  at  least  it  should  be  permanent,  and  that  is  the  location.  This 
is  especially  so  as  to  sections  of  this  country  that  are  being  built 
up.  When  the  road  is  once  located,  if  it  is  located  by  a  competent 
engineer — a  man  who  knows  how — you  have  it  in  a  permanent  place 
and  there  should  be  no  question  about  re-locating  that  particular 
road.  Then,  when  you  come  to  surface  that  road,  if  the  traffic  at 
a  particular  time  simply  demands  a  sand-clay  or  gravel  surface  put 
it  on;  and,  later,  in  fifteen,  twenty  or  thirty  years,  say,  if  the  traffic 
becomes  so  great  as  to  require  some  other  surfacing  material,  such 
as  tar  or  asphalt  macadam  or  concrete  or  vitrified  brick,  you  have 
a  foundation  for  the  new  surface  in  that  you  have  a  good  location 
and  grade;  and  you  will  have,  on  account  of  increased  traffic,  accumu- 
lated wealth  sufficient  to  give  the  money  or  the  revenue  with  which 
to  put  on  the  different  surfaces  required  by  the  increased  traffic. 
The  location,  therefore,  is  the  only  part  of  the  road  that  we  can  call 
permanent,  and  we  should  see  to  it  that  in  all  road  work  location  be 
made  as  permanent  as  it  is  possible  to  do  it  with  scientific  skill  and 
intelligence.  I  believe  you  will  agree  with  me  that  the  subject 
now  under  discussion  in  this  session  of  Economics  of  Road  Work 
is  as  important  as  any  that  we  have  taken  up. 

We  have  not  a  long  program  today,  and  I  would  like  to  ask  Mr. 
Shirley,  of  Maryland,  if  he  is  in  the  audience,  to  come  on  the  plat- 
form, and  Mr.  Wilson,  if  he  is  here,  and  also  Mr.  Atkinson,  if  he  is 
here,  to  come  on  the  platform.  I  have  a  copy  of  Mr.  Shirley's 
paper,  the  title  of  which  is  "  Systematizing  the  Purchase  of  Road 
Materials  and  Equipment."  This  paper  has  been  printed,  and  as 
Mr.  Shirley,  apparently,  is  not  here,  the  paper  will  not  be  read  except 
by  title,  but  it  will  be  open  for  discussion  by  any  of  you  who  want 
to  take  part  in  discussing  this  subject.  In  order  to  start  that  dis- 
cussion, there  is  just  one  word  I  would  like  to  say  in  regard  to  this 
paper,  and  that  is  that  I  am  heartily  in  accord  with  practically  all 
that  Mr.  Shirley  has  stated  in  his  paper  in  regard  to  systematizing 
the  purchase  of  road  materials  and  equipment.  I  want  to  carry 
that  thought  into  what  I  said  before  regarding  the  engineer.  I 
believe  that  the  road  engineer,  who  is  in  charge  of  road  work  in  the 
State  or  county,  should  also  have  direct  supervision  of  the  purchase 
of  all  equipment  and  materials  to  be  used  in  connection  with  the 
road  work  under  his  supervision.  I  don't  care  what  character  of 
men  compose  your  county  or  road  commission,  who  have  charge 
of  the  road  work  and  to  whom  the  engineer  is  responsible,  there  is 


SYSTEMATIZING   ROAD   MATERIALS  AND   EQUIPMENT  219 

no  man  on  any  such  commission  who  knows  what  you  need  for  your 
road  work  as  well  as  your  engineer  who  is  in  direct  touch  with  every 
single  phase  of  the  road  work.  I  am  going  to  illustrate  by  one 
thing  that  happened  in  my  own  State,  in  a  county  where  the  county 
was  a  unit  in  road  work  and  had  their  own  engineer.  The  commis- 
sioners, who  had  charge  of  the  road  work  and  employed  the  engineer, 
did  give  him  the  authority  over  all  the  road  work  except  at  the  start 
in  regard  to  the  purchase  of  supplies,  materials  and  equipment, 
He  insisted  that  the  cost  of  all  materials  and  supplies  used  upon 
the  road  work  were  items  of  cost  that  had  to  be  estimated  in  aver- 
age cost  per  mile  of  his  work  and  he  must  know  what  was  being 
ordered  and  what  was  being  paid  for  the  materials  ordered.  He 
insisted  that  he  must  have  that  authority  or  else  he  would  not  hold 
the  position.  They  gave  it  to  him  and  the  first  bill  that  he  went 
over  he  saved  that  county  his -first  year's  salary.  Now  you  can 
imagine  what  they  were  going  to  pay  for  the  materials  ordered.  I 
may  say  that  county  had  a  bond  issue  of  $400,000  to  spend  on  its 
roads  and  were  buying  equipment  commensurate  with  that  bond 
issue. 


SYSTEMATIZING  THE  PURCHASE  OF  ROAD 
MATERIALS  AND  EQUIPMENT 

BY  HENRY  G.  SHIRLEY 

Chief  Engineer,  State  Roads  Commission  of  Maryland 

The  great  increase  in  road  construction,  and  the  large  amount  being 
expended  by  many  States  and  cities  for  material  and  equipment,  makes 
the  systematizing  of  all  purchasing  a  necessity.  All  materials  and 
equipment  should  be  purchased  by  asking  for  bids  and  awarding  the 
contract  to  the  lowest  responsible  bidder.  A  purchasing  agent  should 
have  full  charge  of  the  purchasing  department,  and  should  make  all 
purchases.  The  system  used  by  the  State  roads  commission  of 
Maryland,  and  inaugurated  in  July,  1912,  under  the  present  purchas- 
ing agent,  is  as  follows: 

1.  A  requisition  is  made  out  in  duplicate  (see  form  on  p.  221)  by  a 
resident  engineer,  superintendent,  or  a  head  of  a  department.     The 
duplicate  is  retained  by  the  maker  for  his  files,  and  the  original  is  sent 
to  the  chief  engineer,  who  examines  and  approves  the  requisition,  or 
strikes  out  such  items  as  he  thinks  unnecessary.     The  requisition  is 
then  submitted  to  the  chairman  of  the  commission  for  his  approval, 
and  then  to  the  purchasing  agent  for  his  signature. 

2.  After  the  purchasing  agent  has  signed  the  requisition,  he  immedi- 
ately gets  in  touch  with  the  material  or  machinery  people,  (as  the  case 
may  be),  and  requests  that  bids  he  submitted  by  a  certain  specified 
time. 


220  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

The  requisition  shows  whether  the  material  or  equipment  is  to  be 
used  by  the  construction  or  maintenance  departments;  the  contract 
number  of  the  work  on  which  such  material  or  equipment  is  to  be  used; 
the  person  or  persons,  name  or  names  to  whom  the  article  or  articles  are 
to  be  shipped,  as  well  as  the  railroad  station,  section  of  road  on  which 
same  will  be  used,  and  the  name  of  the  county  in  which  the  road  is 
located.  The  requisition  also  shows  the  quantity  or  number  of  items 
desired,  and  a  brief  description  of  each.  Satisfactory  bids  having 
been  received,  opened  and  tabulated,  the  contract  is  awarded  to  the 
lowest  responsible  bidder,  and  the  order  for  material  or  equipment  is 
made  out  on  the  order  blank  (see  p.  222). 

On  the  order  sheet  is  specified  each  item,  the  requisition  number, 
and  to  whom  the  material  or  equipment  is  to  be  shipped.  The  fol- 
lowing printed  instructions  on  the  back  of  the  order  sheet,  instruct  the 
consignee  how  to  ship: 

1.  Send  all  invoices  to  601  Garrett  Building,  Baltimore,  Md.     Do 
not  unduly  delay  shipment  of  order  to  complete  same,  but  if  necessary, 
forward  in  installments.     Mail  invoices  with  bill  of  lading  promptly 
after  each  consignment.     Order  and  requisition  number  must  be 
marked  plainly  on  each  package  and  invoice.     The  number  of  pack- 
ages should  be  marked  on  invoice. 

2.  INVOICE  blanks  will  be  mailed  on  application. 

3.  Do  not  send  more  goods  than  are  ordered,  as  they  will  not  be 
paid  for,  but  will  be  returned  at  the  expense  of  the  consignor. 

4.  Accounts  will  be  closed  on  the  25th  of  each  month  and  paid  on 
the  first  of  the  following  month,  and  bills  received  after  the  25th  will 
go  into  next  month's  account,  regardless  of  the  date  they  may  bear. 
No  drafts  are  authorized  or  paid. 

5.  This  commission  will  not  be  responsible  for  any  goods  shipped, 
unless  covered  by  an  official  order  from  the  purchasing  agent. 

6.  Render  monthly  statements  direct  to  purchasing  agent. 

7.  Orders  must  not  be  filled  at  an  advance  in  price  over  last  quota- 
tion without  first  notifying  this  office  and  obtaining  our  consent. 

8.  All  material  ordered  is  subject  to  test  and  inspection.     If  re- 
jected, it  will  be  returned  at  the  shipper's  expense  and  must  be  re- 
placed with  material  which  will  strictly  comply  with  our  specifications. 

9.  The  option  is  reserved  on  my  part  of  cancelling  this'  order  if  not 
filled  within  10  days  from  date,  unless  otherwise  specified. 

10.  Render  separate  bills  for  each  order. 

Along  with  the  order,  the  following  three  bill  forms  are  sent  (see 
p.  223). 

The  original  bill  gives  the  order  number,  the  requisition  number, 
the  date  of  shipment,  the  name  of  the  party  to  whom  the  shipment 
was  made,  the  car  number  and  initials,  the  name  of  the  firm  from 
whom  the  articles  were  purchased,  and  the  date  on  which  the  purchase 
was  made. 

It  is  required  that  the  name  and  kind  of  equipment  purchased,  be 
clearly  and  intelligently  stated  in  the  body  of  the  bill,  and  no  money 


SYSTEMATIZING   ROAD    MATERIALS  AND   EQUIPMENT  221 

REQUISITION  No. ORIGINAL  REQUISITION 

STATE  ROADS  COMMISSION 

. DEPARTMENT 

Baltimore,  Md., 191 

To  the  State  Roads  Commission : 

Please  order  the  following  for  use  in  this  department  to  be  de- 
livered to_ 


Ship  by 
Contra* 

Addrraft 

-t  ISfn-                                                   County 

Quantity 

Description  of  Articles 

Ordered  of 

Order  No. 

Req.  No. 

rSigtiflturA^                                                  fOffirffll  TitlA) 

NOTE. — Requisitions  will  be  made  on  this  form  only  by  heads  of  Departments,  or  such 
omcers  as  they  shall  designate.  The  quantity,  quality,  value,  size  or  pattern  required 
should  be  fully  and  definitely  stated,  and  in  cases  where  packages,  kegs  or  cases  are  ordered, 
the  number  of  articles  or  pounds  therein  should  be  stated. 

Correct Approved 

Chief  Engineer 

Correct Approved. 


Purchasing  Agent  Chairman 


NOTE— Fac-eimile  of  Requisition.     Size  of  original,  8J  x  11  inches.    In  duplicate. 


222  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

STATE  ROADS  COMMISSION 

PURCHASING  DEPARTMENT 


8-9-13 


E.  H.  ZOUCK, 

PURCHASING  AGENT. 


THIS  NUMBER  MUST  BE  PLACED 
ON  EACH  PACKAGE 

Req.  No.  

ORDER 

Baltimore,  Md., 191 


Please  send  to  THIS  COMMISSION  THE  FOLLOWING  Material  and  forward  bill  of  same  in 
accordance  with  instructions  on  back  of  this  order,  which  must  be  strictly  complied  with. 

See  Notice  on  Back;  which  please  read  carefully. 


Above  Material  is  purchased  f .  o.  b. 

Freight  must  be  prepaid  on  all  orders  shipped. 

Ship  to 


State  Roads  Commission 


Care  of 


If  you  cannot   fill   this  order   by  date 
named,  please  advise  me  at  once. 

F.  H.  ZOUCK, 

Purchasing  Agent. 

Per 


NOTE— Fac-simile  of  Order  Blank.    Size  of  original,  8  J  x  11  Inches.    In  duplicate. 


SYSTEMATIZING   ROAD   MATERIALS  AND    EQUIPMENT              223 
(ORIGINAL)  DEPT.  No 

STATE  ROADS  COMMISSION 


Order  No Req.  No 

Date  Shipped 

Shipped  to 


.191 


BOUGHT  OF 

Address  I  

Car  No...  ...Initial...  (Street  and  Number)     


NOTICE— All  Bills  against  this  Commission  for  supplies  ordered  by  the  Purchasing 
Agent  must  be  made  out  upon  these  forms,  AND  SENT  TO  PURCHASING  AGENT'S  OFFICE, 
Baltimore,  Md.,  with  Bill  of  Lading. 

STATE  NAME  AND  KIND  OF  MATERIAL  CLEARLY  AND  INTELLIGIBLY. 


Checked: 
Purchasing  Dept.  by 

I  hereby  certify  that  the 
above  goods  were  purchased 
upon  approved  requisitions 
and  that  the  account  Is  cor- 
rect. 


Purchasing  Agent. 


Dept.  Receiving,  by 
I  certify  that  the  above 

supplies  were  received 

19    ,  quantities, 

quality  and  weights  correct. 


Aud.  Disbursements,  by 
CORBECT,  CHARGE  TO 


NOTE— Fac-sunUe  of  Invoice  Blank.    Size  of  original,  7J  x  8J  Inches.    In  triplicate. 


224  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

will  be  paid  put  for  material  or  equipment  purchased,  unless  the  bill 
is  made  out  in  triplicate  by  the  consignor,  on  the  forms  furnished  by 
the  purchasing  agent.  When  these  forms  have  been  properly  filled 
out,  the  original  is  forwarded  to  the  purchasing  agent,  together  with 
the  bill  of  lading.  The  duplicate  and  triplicate  bills  are  sent  by  the 
consignor  to  the  person  for  whom  the  material  or  equipment  has  been 
purchased,  who  signs  the  duplicate  copy,  thus  showing  that  the  arti- 
cles named  on  the  bill,  were  received,  and  the  date  on  which  they  were 
received.  He  then,  at  once,  forwards  the  duplicate  bill  to  the  head  of 
the  department,  keeping  the  triplicate  bill  for  his  own  files.  Likewise, 
the  purchasing  agent  forwards  the  original  bill  to  the  head  of  the  de- 
partment, who  certifies  that  the  supplies  were  received  on  a  certain 
date,  and  that  the  quantities,  quality,  and  weights  are  as  ordered. 
The  original  bill  is  then  returned  to  the  purchasing  agent,  who  certi- 
fies that  the  articles  shown  on  the  bill  were  purchased  under  an  ap- 
proved requisition,  and  that  the  account  is  correct.  The  bill  is  then 
sent  to  the  auditing  department  for  disbursement,  after  the  name  of 
the  county,  the  contract  number,  and  the  item  number  to  which  it  is 
to  be  charged,  has  been  placed  on  it. 

The  system  is  very  simple,  as  the  requisitions,  orders,  and  bills 
are  all  printed  with  the  proper  headings  and  directions,  and  it  is  only 
necessary,  therefore,  to  fill  out  the  blanks  with  the  proper  dates, 
numbers,  items,  etc.,  thus  giving  the  minimum  amount  of  labor  for 
making  up  the  order  and  bills. 

Too  much  stress  cannot  be  placed  on  the  great  importance  of  sys- 
tematically purchasing  materials,  and  equipment,  and  this  can  only  be 
done  by  having  an  experienced  purchasing  agent,  who  will  keep  in 
close  touch  with  the  market,  and  who  knows  from  whom  the  most 
advantageous  purchases  can  be  made. 

A  purchasing  agent  should  be  a  man  who  has  had  experience  in 
purchasing  equipment  and  material,  and  of  unquestionable  honest} 
and  integrity.  Aside  from  the  large  amount  saved  by  the  systema* '  •, 
purchasing  of  materials  and  equipment  by  an  experienced  purchasing 
agent,  the  cash  discounts  for  cash  payments  made  within  ten  days, 
allowed  on  many  bills,  will  pay  the  expenses  and  salary  of  the  pur- 
chasing agent  and  his  department. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  paper  of  Mr.  Shirley  is  now  open  for  dis- 
cussion. If  there  is  no  discussion  of  Mr.  Shirley's  paper,  I  will  call 
upon  the  next  speaker  who  will  discuss  the  subject  of  "The  Labor 
Problem  in  Road  Construction."  I  take  pleasure  in  introducing  to 
you  Captain  P.  St.  J.  Wilson,  State  highway  commissioner  of  the 
State  of  Virginia. 


LABOR  PROBLEM  IN  ROAD  CONSTRUCTION          225 

THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  IN  ROAD  CONSTRUCTION 

BY  P.  ST.  J.  WILSON 

State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Virginia 

Most  of  the  problems  in  connection  with  labor  in  road  work  are 
identical  with  those  in  other  similar  work,  and  are  familiar  to  all 
who  are  accustomed  to  handling  labor.  I  therefore  feel  that  I  can 
be  of  little  service  in  laying  before  you  my  troubles  in  this  connection, 
having  only  a  partial  suggestion  as  to  the  remedy. 

Road  work,  hi  order  to  get  the  best  results,  requires  a  certain 
amount  of  skilled  labor,  and  also  a  certain  amount  of  skill  in  all  the 
labor  used.  The  men  who  cut  the  ditches,  shape  the  road  bed  and 
do  almost  any  other  work,  can  materially  aid  the  progress  by  doing 
skillfully  the  work  to  which  they  are  assigned.  The  real  labor  prob- 
lem, as  I  have  found  it,  is  to  secure  regularly  the  amount  of  skilled 
and  common  labor  necessary  to  carry  on  the  work  economically. 
My  case  is  probably  an  extreme  one.  In  Virginia  most  of  our  work 
has  been  remote  from  the  cities,  in  sparsely  settled  communities, 
where  they  are  few  laborers  without  more  or  less  regular  employment; 
yet  the  work  is  so  scattered  that  many  of  the  pieces  are  too  small  to 
justify  importing  laborers  from  any  considerable  distance  and  mak- 
ing provision  for  their  maintenance.  We  have  therefore  been  com- 
pelled to  rely  largely  on  local  labor,  and  are  often  seriously  handicapped. 
Not  infrequently  has  it  happened  that  we  have  been  compelled  to 
shut  down  work  for  a  month  or  more  during  the  best  road  building 
season,  while  the  labor  went  to  harvest  the  crops  in  the  neighborhood. 
When  you  are  told  that  our  joint  State  and  county  fund  in  a  few  coun- 
ties is  as  small  as  $1200  per  year  (ranging  from  this  up  to  about 
$20,000),  it  may  readily  be  seen  how  little  work  can  done  in  some 
places.  In  a  number  of  instances,  where  the  amount  of  work  was 
sufficient  to  justify  the  importation  of  labor,  parties  in  the  neighbor- 
ho<|d,  even  farmers  interested  in  the  road,  have  taken  the  labor  away 
byyoffering  higher  wages  than  we  were  justified  in  meeting,  consider- 
ing the  price  of  labor  locally  and  generally  throughout  the  State. 
With  us  there  are  few  contractors  equipped  for  road  work,  and 
although  we  always  advertise  for  bids  on  our  work,  we  often  have  no 
bids  at  all,  and  still  more  frequently,  the  bids  are  so  high  that  we  are 
forced  to  reject  them,  and  the  consequence  is  that  much  work  is 
done  directly  by  the  commission.  During  last  August  one  hundred 
and  thirty  pieces  of  work  were  under  way  at  the  same  time,  scat- 
tered over  sixty  counties,  and  only  twenty-eight  of  this  number  were 
under  contract.  To  supply  the  necessary  number  of  competent  fore- 
men and  operatives,  as  well  as  laborers  for  these  various  pieces  of 
work,  has  been  probably  the  most  difficult  task  we  have  had  to 
contend  with.  On  account  of  the  small  amount  of  funds  available, 
many  of  the  jobs  last  only  a  few  months,  the  majority  not  continu- 
ing through  the  usual  outdoor  working  season,  which  in  our  State 


226  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

is  from  eight  to  ten  months,  and  but  few  of  them  last  throughout  the 
year.  Where  the  work  is  of  short  duration,  we,  of  course,  so  far  as 
practicable  use  one  organization  on  two  or  more  pieces  of  construc- 
tion; but  notwithstanding  this,  we  are  forced  to  the  necessity  to  a 
certain  extent  of  reorganizing  pur  forces  each  year.  We  endeavor, 
as  far  as  possible,  by  transferring  the  best  men  to  the  longest  jobs, 
to  keep  a  nucleus  of  foremen  and  operators  from  year  to  year.  Some- 
times, where  it  is  practicable,  we  use  the  county  superintendents  or 
foremen  in  our  State  work,  but  it  is  generally  the  case  that  these 
men  are  occupied  with  the  county  work  at  the  tune  we  could  use 
them. 

As  to  the  common  labor,  we  have  found  it  necessary  to  practically 
build  up  a  new  force  annually  in  each  county,  though  we  frequently 
get  back  some  of  the  local  men  we  have  used  the  year  before. 

This  is,  in  brief,  the  labor  situation  as  we  have  it  in  Virginia  today, 
and  there  are  doubtless  other  States  contending  with  more  or  less 
similar  conditions.  The  solution  of  the  problem  has  not  been  reached 
fully  by  us.  As  to  what  we  may  call  the  skilled  labor,  time  has 
helped  us  much  and  we  have  a  certain  number  of  trained  foremen 
and  operatives  which  is  increasing  from  year  to  year  and  which 
will  in  time,  I  hope,  be  sufficient  to  meet  the  demand,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  we  lose  some  of  them  every  year  on  account  of  the 
irregularity  of  the  work.  But  I  must  express  the  hope  that  in  what 
has  proven  so  far  our  nearest  solution  of  the  common  labor  prob- 
lem, we  shall  never  have  enough  men  to  supply  our  demand.  Other- 
wise there  must  be  a  great  increase  in  crime.  So  far  as  they  are 
available,  the  convict  practically  solves  the  problem  for  us — with 
them  we  have  no  pay  day  drunks,  no  strikes,  except  now  and  then 
an  escape,  and  many  of  the  irregularities  connected  with  the  attend- 
ance of  the  free  labor  are  avoided. 

There  are  at  work  on  the  roads  of  Virginia  about  fifteen  hun- 
dred convicts.  They  are  divided  into  forces  varying  in  numbers 
from  forty  to  seventy-five,  according  to  the  class  of  work  they  are 
engaged  in.  Altogether,  there  are  twenty-seven  of  these  forces, 
each  in  a  different  county.  While  we  may  have  some  labor  prob- 
lems with  these,  the  chief  one  is  eliminated  on  the  work  on  which 
the  convicts  are  placed,  viz:  that  of  keeping  a  sufficient  amount  of 
labor.  We  are  better  able  to  keep  good  foremen  on  these  jobs  also 
because  they  are  kept  going  all  the  year  round.  While  as  a  matter 
of  economy  we  have  to  close  down  free  labor  work  during  the  severe 
weather  of  winter,  we  find  it  economical  to  keep  the  convict  work 
going  on  continuously,  as  the  men  have  to  be  cared  for  whether  at 
work  or  not.  Certain  classes  of  work  can  be  found  to  be  done  in 
winter,  such  as  quarrying  and  heavy  rock  grading  in  mountainous 
sections  of  the  State  and  in  the  lower  sections  where  no  stone  is 
available,  the  climate  is  milder  and  sufficient  work  can  be  done  to 
justify  the  additional  outlay  for  working  when  both  men  and  teams 


LABOR  PROBLEM  IN  ROAD  CONSTRUCTION          227 

have  to  be  cared  for  in  any  event.  In  January  of  this  year  72  per 
cent  of  possible  working  days  was  made,  while  in  July  90  per  cent 
was  made.  These  percentages  are  based  on  an  eight-hour  day  in 
January  and  ten-hour  day  in  July.  Among  the  convicts  we  not  in- 
frequently find  men  capable  of  running  steam  rollers,  engines,  drills, 
etc.,  and  a  large  percentage  are  made  trusties  and  used  as  team- 
sters, messengers,  etc.  The  average  cost  of  the  convict  labor  per 
ten-hour  working  day  for  the  past  three  years  has  been  52  cents, 
as  compared  with  wages  ranging  from  $1.25  to  $1.50  for  free  com- 
mon labor.  To  offset  this  discrepancy  in  cost  to  some  extent,  there 
are  some  disadvantages  in  working  convicts,  the  chief  one  of  which 
is  the  necessity  of  keeping  them  always  immediately  under  the 
eye  of  the  guard,  thereby  in  a  measure  crippling  their  usefulness; 
sometimes,  too,  partially  crippled  men  or  semi-invalids  are  sen- 
tenced to  the  roads,  which  reduces  the  general  efficiency  of  the 
force.  Notwithstanding  these  handicaps,  however,  these  fore- 
men and  contractors  who  have  worked  convicts  under  our  system 
very  generally  express  a  preference  for  them  over  free  labor,  and 
I  am  satisfied  they  are  fully  90  per  cent  as  efficient  as  the  average 
hired  labor.  Recently  we  have  had  voluntary  applications  from 
three  contractors  for  convict  labor  to  be  furnished  to  them  and 
charged  on  their  estimates  at  $1  per  day  per  man,  which  is  the 
established  rate  when  this  labor  is  used  by  contractors.  All  felony 
convicts,  not  considered  too  dangerous,  and  all  inmates  of  the  jails 
are  subject  to  duty  in  the  State  convict  road  force.  This  force  is 
fed,  clothed,  guarded  and  transported  at  State  expense  and  is  furn- 
ished to  the  counties  on  the  requisition  of  the  State  highway  com- 
missioner as  one  form  of  State  aid,  and  is  worked  under  the  super- 
vision and  direction  of  the  highway  commissioner.  Under  our 
statutes  the  convicts  are  at  all  times,  whether  working  for  contrac- 
tors or  otherwise,  under  the  supervision  and  control  of  the  State 
prison  authorities,  which  insures  the  proper  food  and  treatment  and 
eliminates  the  possibilities  of  the  many  cruelties  which  have  been  re- 
ported in  connection  with  prison  contracts  in  the  past.  The  men 
are  worked  in  the  open,  well  fed  and  housed  in  sanitary  quarters, 
with  the  result  that  they  are  greatly  improved  physically  and  cap- 
able of  earning  a  living  when  discharged. 

After  a  close  study  of  this  question  and  seven  years'  experience 
in  the  work,  I  am  convinced  that  so  far  as  they  are  available,  the 
use  of  convicts  in  road  work  under  conditions  as  we  have  them 
in  Virginia  solves  the  problem  of  labor  in  road  construction  and 
also  goes  far  towards  solving  the  problem  of  what  to  do  with  our 
convicts. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  this  subject  will  be  continued 
by  Mr.  W.  E.  Atkinson,  State  highway  engineer  of  Louisiana.  I 
take  pleasure  in  introducing  Mr.  Atkinson  to  you. 


228  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

LOUISIANA  HIGHWAYS 

BY  W.  E.  ATKINSON 
State  Highway  Engineer 

There  has  been  a  general  awakening  in  Louisiana  to  the  neces- 
sity of  better  roads.  Whether  this  awakening  is  due  to  the  extended 
use  of  motor  vehicles,  to  the  spirit  of  progressiveness  which  is  now 
sweeping  through  the  State,  or  to  the  special  activity  of  the  State 
through  its  highway  department,  it  is  hard  to  say;  but  the  awaken- 
ing has  taken  place  and  may  be  the  result  of  a  combination  of  all 
these  causes. 

Nearly  every  parish  in  the  State  has  voted  a  special  tax  for  high- 
way improvement  or  is  about  to  do  so,  and  twenty-one  parishes 
have  applied  to  the  State  for  aid  out  of  the  revenues  of  1913.  Ap- 
portionments have  been  made  to  thirteen  of  these  parishes  and  the 
department  hopes  to  be  able  to  make  apportionments  to  the  others  in 
the  near  future.  The  apportionments  already  made  embrace  the 
construction  of  about  215  miles  of  highways,  to  cost  approximately 
one-half  million  dollars.  From  January  1,  1913,  to  September  1, 
1913,  the  department  has  completed  four  highways,  representing  a 
mileage  of  108  miles.  There  are  at  this  time  four  highways  under 
construction,  aggregating  a  mileage  of  about  95  miles. 

The  act  creating  the  highway  department  is  considered  to  be  a 
model  of  State  road  laws.  It  not  only  creates  the  department, 
but  provides  the  department  with  funds  with  which  to  operate  and 
with  which  to  lend  State-aid,  and  bestows  upon  the  department  such 
powers  and  privileges  as  render  the  whole  system  most  effective. 

These  general  remarks  are  made  simply  to  give  you  an  idea  of 
the  volume  of  work  being  accomplished  on  the  highways  of  Louisiana 
and  the  keen  interest  taken  in  this  subject.  As  requested  by  this 
Congress,  I  will  now  endeavor  to  tell  you  in  detail  concerning  con- 
vict labor  as  applied  to  highway  construction  in  Louisiana  and  you 
may  draw  your  own  conclusions  as  to  its  efficiency. 

One  of  the  most  effective  and  interesting  features  of  the  act  creat- 
ing this  department  is  the  use  of  State  convicts.  With  us,  the 
greater  part  of  the  State  convicts  are  negroes,  who,  when  properly 
controlled,  make  very  good  laborers.  They  are  treated  with  every 
consideration,  well  fed,  clothed  and  groomed,  and  are  made  to  keep 
regular  hours  and  to  observe  all  hygienic  laws  and  regulations. 

The  penitentiary  laws  of  this  State  are  the  best  of  their  kind, 
and  permit  the  use  of  convicts  on  the  levees  and  the  roads,  but 
always  under  the  care  and  supervision  of  the  board  of  control,  a 
State  institution.  Those  not  necessary  on  the  farms  and  planta- 
tions owned  by  the  State  and  operated  by  the  board  of  control,  are 
sent  to  work  on  the  public  levees  and  roads.  While  at  work  on  the 
levees,  they  earn  revenues  for  the  board  of  control,  as  the  work  is 


LOUISIANA   HIGHWAYS  229 

done  under  contract  at  an  agreed  price  per  cubic  yard.  However, 
they  earn  absolutely  nothing  for  the  board  of  control  when  at  work 
upon  the  roads.  The  entire  expense  of  their  maintenance,  while  road 
building,  is  paid  by  the  parish  employing  them.  With  the  gratis  serv- 
ices of  the  engineering  corps  of  the  highway  department,  the  par- 
ishes have  an  excellent  form  of  State-aid  in  addition  to  that  secured 
in  a  monetary  way. 

The  floods  of  the  last  two  years  caused  much  damage  to  the  1600 
miles  of  levees  in  Louisiana  and  in  consequence,  the  State  found 
it  necessary  to  withdraw  all  convicts  employed  on  the  highways,  in 
order  that  the  levees  could  be  made  safe  as  soon  as  possible.  Now 
that  this  work  is  completed,  I  do  not  think  that  it  will  be  long  before 
the  State  highway  department  will  be  permitted  to  use  a  large  force 
of  convicts  for  highway  construction. 

About  175  miles  of  highways  have  been  constructed  with  con- 
vict labor  in  Louisiana;  most  all  of  the  roads  so  constructed  were  of 
the  improved  earth  and  sand-clay  type.  While  constructing  these 
roads,  it  was  necessary  to  move  camp  frequently  and  the  loss  of  time 
occasioned  thereby,  together  with  other  expenses  in  connection,  made 
the  cost  of  construction  just  that  much  more.  However,  the  saving 
effected  by  employing  convicts  as  compared  to  similar  work  let 
by  contract,  is  fully  40  per  cent  and  in  some  instances  50  per  cent, 
and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  a  greater  saving  could  be  effected  in 
constructing  highways  of  a  more  permanent  nature,  which  would 
not  require  the  moving  of  camp  so  frequently. 

In  addition  to  the  cost  of  maintenance  of  the  convicts,  the  prin- 
cipal items  of  expense  in  operating  a  convict  camp  are  the  salaries 
of  captains,  foremen  and  guards,  which  are  paid  monthly,  as  follows : 
captains,  $75;  foremen,  $40;  guards,  $30. 

The  following  figures  are  taken  from  the  official  records  of  the 
board  of  control,  State  penitentiary: 

Average  number  of  convicts  employed  on  public  highways  1909 — 71.8 

Cost  of  maintenance,  per  man  per  year $68 .82 

Cost  of  operating,  per  man  per  year 82.45 

Cost  of  general  expense,  per  man  per  year 16.91 

Total  cost $168 . 18 

Average  number  of  convicts  employed  on  public  highways  1910 — 147-8 

Cost  of  maintenance,  per  man  per  year $68 .82 

Cost  of  operating,  per  man  per  year 86 .71 

Cost  of  general  expense,  per  man  per  year 16 .91 

Total  cost $172.44 

Average  number  of  convicts  employed  on  public  highways  1911 — 140.0 

Cost  of  maintenance,  per  man  per  year $63 .70 

Cost  of  operating,  per  man  per  year 90 .85 

Cost  of  general  expense,  per  man  per  year 16 . 25 

Total  cost..  .  $170.80 


230  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

With  proper  handling  and  with  the  cooperation  of  the  board 
of  control  of  the  State  penitentiary,  there  is  no  doubt  in  my-  mind  that 
convict  labor,  properly  organized  and  equipped,  will  prove  efficient 
and  economical,  as  has  already  been  demonstrated  in  my  State.  Of 
course,  I  am  speaking  of  conditions  as  they  exist  in  my  State,  and 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say  whether  this  class  of  labor  would  prove 
profitable  or  economical  in  other  States. 

I  know  from  actual  results  obtained  that  our  department  would 
be  able  to  double  the  mileage  of  State  highways  constructed  if 
we  were  to  use  convicts  exclusively.  Believing  that  the  State  would 
receive  indirectly  greater  benefits  and  value  from  roads,  I  would,  if 
this  matter  was  left  to  me  to  decide,  place  every  able-bodied  male 
convict  to  work  on  the  public  roads,  until  the  proposed  system,  em- 
bracing the  construction  of  4500  miles  of  State  highways  now  con- 
templated by  the  highway  department,  is  completed. 

If  the  convicts  were  available,  and  with  proper  organization 
and  equipment,  I  believe  that  70  per  cent  of  the  parishes  would  avail 
and  tax  themselves  to  maintain  a  camp  of  fifty  men  each,  until  the 
roads  in  their  respective  parishes  were  built. 

FORCE  ACCOUNT  LABOR  AND  CONTRACT  LABOR 

Now,  as  to  force  account  labor  and  contract  labor,  and  to  state 
which  is  the  better,  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  very  difficult  question  to 
decide.  My  experience  with  both  methods  has  taught  me  to  judge 
each  project  on  its  own  individual  merits,  taking  into  consideration 
the  character,  extent  and  available  equipment  that  could  be  used  in 
its  construction. 

Both  force  account  and  contract  labor  have  their  advantages  and 
disadvantages,  and  the  question  of  deciding  which  is  the  most  eco- 
nomical and  practical,  should,  as  a  general  rule,  be  determined  by  the 
engineer  in  charge. 

Work  performed  under  force  account  oftentimes  results  in  the 
better  and  more  permanent  construction  and  at  a  less  cost  than  under 
contract,  and  again,  in  some  instances,  resulting  in  more  expensive 
construction,  yet  invariably  as  good  or  better  and  more  permanent 
than  that  done  under  contract.  Better  work  because  you  are  not 
restricted  as  a  contractor  would  be  to  the  specifications,  but  would 
if  you  so  desired,  do  extra  work  and  add  extra  or  better  material  as 
the  conditions  require.  While  employing  force  account  labor,  the 
question  of  using  inferior  materials,  the  desire  to  rush  the  work  to 
completion  and  not  giving  the  proper  attention  as  to  workmanship, 
is  almost  eliminated. 

If  the  contractor  and  his  equipment  are  employed  under  force 
account,  he  would  not  have  any  motive  for  substituting  inferior 
material  or  workmanship,  so  long  as  he  is  getting  paid  for  services 
rendered.  Again,  if  a  contract  is  taken  at  a  low  figure  and  the  con- 
tractor sees  that  he  is  going  to  lose  money  on  the  job,  you  will  in- 


LOUISIANA   HIGHWAYS  231 

variably  have  more  or  less  trouble  in  having  the  work  done  according 
to  contract  and  specifications.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  work  is 
undertaken  under  force  account  with  poor  or  inadequate  equipment 
and  inexperienced  labor  and  the  work  to  be  done  is  not  sufficient  in 
extent  to  warrant  the  purchase  of  additional  equipment  or  justify  the 
organizing  and  establishing  the  necessary  discipline,  then  in  that 
case,  contract  labor  is  unquestionably  the  most  economical  and 
satisfactory. 

Therefore,  I  reiterate  that  each  project  must  be  studied  and  de- 
cided by  the  engineer  or  owner  as  to  which  method  is  the  more  suit- 
able and  economical. 

A  contractor  bidding  on  a  small  project  will  be  inclined  to  bid 
higher  for  the  same  class  of  work  than  if  he  were  bidding  on  a  large 
project,  and  notwithstanding  the  increase  in  the  price  bid,  it  is  in 
many  instances  advisable  to  award  the  contract,  for  the  reason 
that  the  amount  that  would  be  saved  in  employing  force  account  labor 
would  not  warrant  the  delay  occasioned  in  equipping  an  outfit  to  do 
this  work. 

The  act  creating  the  highway  department  in  my  State  is  very 
broad  and  covers  more  or  less  this  phase  of  labor  and  force  account 
construction.  We  have  in  my  State,  construction  work  that  is  being 
prosecuted  under  free  labor,  parish  prison  labor,  force  account  labor, 
and  contract.  All  free  and  force  account  labor  is  classified;  that 
is,  we  place  skilled  labor  on  work  requiring  such  and  common  labor  on 
work  requiring  this  kind,  and  so  on.  The  State  owns  a  road  outfit, 
consisting  of  teams,  wheelers,  scrapers,  road  machines,  traction  en- 
gine, ballast  cars,  etc.;  in  connection  with  this  outfit,  we  are  em- 
ploying day  teams,  giving  us  a  larger  equipment. 

In  the  parish  of  Sabine,  where  the  State's  outfit  and  force  account 
labor  is  in  operation,  we  have  a  road  that  is  being  constructed 
under  contract,  also,  this  work  being  of  the  same  character  and 
practically  the  same  in  extent.  The  road  that  we  are  building  under 
force  account,  free  labor  and  parish  prisoners  is  being  constructed 
at  less  cost  than  the  other  road  of  the  same  character  under  contract. 

In  addition  to  these  two  roads,  we  are  having  constructed  in  the 
same  parish,  another  road  some  eleven  miles  long,  under  force  ac- 
count and  free  labor.  We  have  employed  a  road  grading  outfit,  pay- 
ing the  contractor  so  much  per  day  for  his  teams  and  labor,  but  be- 
fore proceeding  with  the  construction  of  this  road  under  this  method, 
the  department  advertised  for  bids  for  the  work  to  be  done  under  con- 
tract. The  price  bid  on  this  work  was  32  cents  per  cubic  yard.  This 
price  being  too  high,  and  out  of  line,  the  Department  rejected  all 
bids  and  proceeded  under  free  labor  and  force  account,  feeling  con- 
fident that  the  work — including  re-inforced  concrete  bridges  and 
culverts — could  be  done  at  less  cost  than  the  price  bid. 

It  is  true  that  free  labor  and  force  account  labor  creates  more 
work  for  the  department  and  more  worry  and  also  makes  it  necessary 
to  employ  more  engineer  assistants,  time-keepers  and  superintendents. 


232  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

The  department  places  on  each  job  an  engineer  assistant  and  any  other 
necessary  assistants  that  may  be  required,  and  he  is  looked  to  for  re- 
sults; he  in  turn  looks  to  the  foreman.  If  the  foreman  does  not 
deliver  the  goods,  "Out  he  goes."  So  far,  however,  we  have  had  very 
little  trouble  with  foremen  and  superintendents,  as  all  of  our  work  has 
progressed  satisfactorily  under  this  method. 

The  highway  department  of  Louisiana  was  formally  organized 
February  1,  1911,  and  although  we  have  studied  and  solved  many 
problems  relative  to  highway  construction,  there  still  remains  a  num- 
ber which  will  require  more  time  and  study  for  us  to  arrive  at  a  satis- 
factory solution. 

In  conclusion,  I  will  state  that  force  account  labor  and  contract 
labor  are  both  good  and  it  is  a  question  of  judgment  as  to  which 
should  be  employed.  You  will  note,  gentlemen,  that  we  in  Louisiana 
are  using  both. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    The  subject  is  now  open  for  general  discussion. 

MR.  W.  P.  EIRICK:  There  are  just  a  few  of  us  here  and  we  are 
here  because  we  are  interested.  If  you  will  permit  me,  I  would 
like  first  to  explain  why  I  am  here  so  that  you  may  know  that  I 
am  interested  and  that  I  know  what  I  am  talking  about.  I  was 
county  commissioner  in  Cuyahoga  County,  of  which  Cleveland  is 
the  county  seat,  for  eight  years.  During  my  term  of  office,  almost 
all  of  the  brick  roads  in  Cleveland  were  built.  I  am  not  going  into 
a  discussion  as  to  which  is  the  best  kind  of  pavement;  that  is  for 
you  to  consider  and  determine  yourselves.  I  do  not  care  whether 
it  is  a  gravel  road,  a  macadam  road,  a  bitulithic  road,  a  concrete 
road,  an  asphalt  road,  or  a  brick  road — what  you  are  interested  in  is 
good  roads  and  everyone  of  them  is  good,  but  some  are  adapted  for 
a  better  purpose  than  others.  Now  we  are  discussing  economics. 
I  say  that  the  question  of  economics  comes  in  at  this  point — if  you 
build  a  good  road,  Do  you  get  your  money  back?  That  is  the  ques- 
tion of  economics.  I  do  not  think  the  question  of  economics  is, 
Is  the  money  well  spent?  That  is  a  question  for  you  as  taxpayers 
to  demand  of  your  elected  officials.  The  question  of  graft  in  public 
improvements  should  be  set  aside,  and  if  it  is  not  set  aside,  it  is  your 
fault  as  taxpayers.  You  should  elect,  as  officials,  men  who  transact 
your  business  honestly  and  give  you  a  hundred  cents  on  the  dollar 
for  every  dollar  they  spend  for  you;  so  the  question  of  economics 
comes  back — not  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  pavements?  If 
you  pave  roads,  Do  you  get  your  money  back?  That  is  the  econom- 
ical question.  It  is  the  question  that  comes  up  before  the  people  of 
every  State  on  every  bond  issue.  What  do  we  do  in  our  county? 
When  I  was  commissioner  in  1904,  Cuyahoga  County  had  a  tax 
valuation  of  $240,000,000;  it  has  got  a  tax  valuation  now  of  $1,000,- 
000,000,  not  caused  by  good  roads  entirely,  don't  misunderstand 
me,  but  on  that  account  also.  Cleveland  has  grown  rapidly  and 


DISCUSSION  233 

the  suburbs  have  also  grown;  it  has  grown  out  in  the  country,  but 
what  do  we  do  about  pavements  and  the  absence  of  it?  I  am  not 
here  to  argue  for  a  brick  pavement  because  we  put  brick  pavements 
in.  You  may  like  macadam  pavements  or  a  concrete  pavement, 
it  may  be  more  adaptable  for  your  particular  purpose  or  location, 
but  the  question  involved  is,  Do  you  get  your  money  back?  as  I 
said  before,  and  I  will  show  you  how  you  get  it  back.  "Back  to 
the  farm"  is  the  slogan.  The  rich  man  in  the  city  says  "I  will  go 
out  in  the  country  and  buy  a  farm  and  live  there  and  go  home  in 
an  automobile;"  and  a  man  who  stands  on  this  platform  and  tells 
you  that  an  automobile  is  a  damage  to  a  good  road,  makes  a  serious 
mistake.  It  is  the  automobile  owner  principally  who  pays  the  high- 
est part  of  your  taxation  for  good  roads.  He  is  the  man  that  comes 
along  at  the  crucial  moment  and  says,  if  he  has  made  some  money 
in  the  city,  "I  will  buy  me  a  farm  out  in  the  country."  And  what 
does  he  do?  Does  he  buy  a  farm  for  $50  an  acre?  No,  he  goes 
out  on  an  improved  road  and  takes  an  old  piece  of  land  that  sold 
for  $50  or  $60  an  acre  and  pays  $300  for  it  and  it  raises  the  valua- 
tion out  in  that  district,  and  along  comes  his  friend  and  buys  some 
more  of  the  land.  That  is  economics  in  road  construction.  I  say 
that  the  question  at  stake  in  your  good  roads  convention  is  this, 
Do  you  get  your  money  back  if  you  spend  it  for  road  improvement? 
There  is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  your  money  should  not  be 
honestly  spent,  but  you  should  nevertheless  look  over  your  tax  du- 
plicates. I  went  into  the  commissioner's  office  as  a  layman.  I  sold 
logs  for  a  living.  I  knew  nothing  about  road  improvement;  I  learned 
it  after  I  was  there.  My  thought  was,  as  a  business  man  looking 
after  the  interests  of  my  constituents,  Can  we  get  our  money  back? 
Not  what  kind  of  a  road — I  was  not  interested  in  that  side — but, 
if  we  improve  this  road,  Can  we  get  our  money  back?  And  I  said 
to  this  man — and  there  was  an  engineer  from  that  county  who  spoke 
to  you  today.  Give  us  the  road  that  we  need,  that  is  the  point 
involved.  Somewhere  in  the  State  you  want  a  water  bound  mac- 
adam and  should  have  it.  Somewhere  in  the  United  States  you 
want  a  gravel  road  and  should  have  it.  Somewhere  else  you  want 
an  asphalt  pavement  and  should  have  it;  different  conditions  merit 
different  kinds  of  pavement,  but  the  serious  thought  should  always 
be,  Do  we  get  our  money  back?  I  can  take  you  to  Cuyahoga 
County  and  show  you  from  the  tax  duplicates  while  I  was  commis- 
sioner there  for  eight  years — and  I  am  only  out  of  office  two  months 
to  go  into  business — we  can  show  you  that  we  got  our  money  back 
tenfold  before  the  ten  years  expired  that  they  paid  for  these  improve- 
ments, the  tax  increase,  together  with  the  levy,  brought  back  more 
than  the  county  put  in  the  road.  That  is  my  idea  of  economics  in 
road  construction. 

MR.  LYMAN:    I  just  want  to  ask  a  question,  how  they  take  care 
of  those  prisoners  in  the  State  of  Utah?    We  use  prison  labor  on 


234  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

the  roads,  but  our  camp  equipment  is  so  expensive  that  I  don't  see 
how  we  could  move  as  frequently  as  these  people  seem  to  move, 
and  I  would  like  to  know  how  they  take  care  of  those  prisoners,  what 
kind  of  camp  they  have? 

MR.  ATKINSON:  We  have  small  houses  or  cages  built  on  four  or 
eight  wheel  log  wagons  and  we  also  have  cheaply  constructed  stock- 
ades built  of  rough  lumber  and  logs.  The  prisoners  are  also  guarded 
at  night.  The  small  houses  or  cages  and  the  stockades  are  provided 
with  ample  openings  and  are  screened  so  as  to  afford  plenty  of  venti- 
lation and  be  free  from  flies,  gnats  and  mosquitoes.  The  work  that 
has  been  performed  under  the  convict  system  has  been  principally 
improved  earth  highways.  This  requires  the  movement  of  camp 
more  or  less  frequently,  thereby  increasing  the  cost  per  cubic  yard 
in  grading  above  what  it  might  cost  if  the  work  was  of  a  more  per- 
manent nature  and  the  yardage  greater,  thereby  not  requiring  the 
movement  of  camp  so  frequently. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey):  Do  you  use  the  guards  to  any 
great  extent  or  merely  as  a  matter  of  form? 

MR.  ATKINSON:  Yes  sir,  re  have  guards  and  we  have  to  be  on 
the  alert  at  all  times.  We  have  trusties  among  the  convicts  used 
as  teamsters  and  drivers  in  hauling  gravel  and  material;  they  are 
also  used  around  the  camp  as  "flunkies"  and  cooks. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey):  About  what  percentage  do  you 
lose  in  the  way  of  runaways? 

MR.  ATKINSON:  Why,  we  lose  one  occasionally,  but  the  per- 
centage is  very  small,  I  would  judge  about  5  per  cent. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey):  In  some  places  they  are  dropping 
the  striped  suits  altogether  and  putting  the  convicts  "on  trust." 
In  the  South  we  had  to  use  the  guards  because  the  State  law  com- 
pelled it,  but  in  Colorado  they  even  take  their  stripes  off  and  put 
them  entirely  on  honor,  except  in  a  few  particular  cases. 

MR.  ATKINSON  :  Most  of  our  prisoners  are  negroes  and  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  have  someone  to  watch  them.  It  is  true  that 
we  have  a  few  trusties  among  them,  but  as  a  whole,  if  they  are  not 
guarded,  they  will  run  away. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  might  say  that  in  Colorado,  they  have,  of 
course,  been  selecting  the  convicts  that  they  put  on  the  public  road. 
They  allow  them  a  certain  number  of  days — commute  their  sentence 
so  much  per  month  according  to  the  work  they  do  and  work  them 
without  stripes  and  without  guards.  They  now  have  certain  con- 
victs that  are  trying  to  become  available  for  work  in  these  convict 


DISCUSSION  235 

camps.  In  a  talk  with  the  superintendent  at  Canon  City,  who  has 
charge  of  the  convict  camps,  I  was  told  that  they  have  had  six  or 
eight  men  try  to  escape  but  only  one  or  two  ever  succeeded.  Four 
of  them  came  back  of  their  own  accord,  and  in  the  end  they  got  all 
the  men  back.  If  a  man  attempts  to  escape,  he  is  taken  away  from 
the  camp  and  put  back  in  the  penitentiary  and  all  the  time  that 
has  accumulated  toward  reducing  his  sentence  is  taken  away;  and 
he  has  to  serve  out  his  full  sentence.  Now,  if  we  should  try  to 
inaugurate  any  such  plan  in  the  South,  we  would  have  to  do  the 
same  thing,  pick  out  at  first  a  certain  number  of  the  convicts,  and 
try  it  with  them  and  let  the  others  see  the  advantages  that  the  man 
who  is  trusted  and  put  on  his  honor  derives  over  those  who  cannot 
be  trusted,  and  I  believe  in  the  end  that  we  can  work  a  large  or 
fairly  large  number  of  the  convicts  in  the  South  in  the  same  way. 
I  might  answer  your  question  regarding  how  we  take  care  of  the 
convicts  by  mentioning  what  we  have  in  North  Carolina  at  one  of 
our  camps  what  I  call  a  temporary  camp.  The  camp  is  located  on 
the  section  of  road  to  be  worked. 

This  camp,  which  is  located  near  Bat  Cave  on  the  Bank  of  Broad 
River,  Henderson  County,  consists  of  a  bunk  house,  or,  as  it  is  some- 
times called,  a  "Cell  house"  30  by  60  feet,  in  the  center  of  which  is 
a  double  deck  platform  called  the  cell,  upon  which  are  arranged  the 
beds  of  the  convicts.  There  is  a  clear  space  of  12  feet  between  each 
end  of  the  building  and  double  platform,  and  6  or  8  feet  clear  between 
the  cell  and  the  side  walls.  The  space  between  the  two  platforms 
is  approximately  5  feet.  Each  man  is  allowed  a  single  mattress, 
so  that  he  has  plenty  of  room  for  sleeping  purposes.  Four  chains 
run  the  length  of  the  platform  cell:  one  each  side  for  the  lower  tier 
and  one  each  side  for  the  upper  tier.  To  these  chains  the  convict  is 
fastened  by  a  light  weight  ankle  chain  at  night.  This  is  so  arranged 
that  there  is  little  or  no  weight  on  the  ankle  and  he  can  turn  in  any 

C'tion  he  wishes  while  sleeping.  The  construction  of  such  a  bunk 
se  depends  on  the  time  of  the  year  and  length  of  time  it  is  to  be 
occupied;  but  it  is  always  built  so  that  there  is  a  plenty  of  air  circu- 
lating through  the  building  and  that  it  may  be  kept  warm  and 
comfortable  in  cold  weather.  Guards  are  on  duty  in  this  building 
at  night,  one  at  each  end. 

Near  to  this  building  is  the  dining  hall,  kitchen  and  store  house. 
Surrounding  these  two  buildings  and  enclosing  an  area  of  about 
one-fifth  of  an  acre  is  a  six-strand  barbed  wire  fence.  Just  outside 
of  this  fence  at  opposite  corners  armed  guards  are  stationed  during 
the  day.  At  night  the  only  guards  are  within  the  bunk  house.  The 
sleeping  houses  for  the  superintendent,  steward  and  guards  are  a 
little  distant  from  the  enclosed  area.  The  food  supplied  to  the 
prisoners  is  the  same  quality  as  that  supplied  the  guards  and  the 
steward.  It  is  necessary  that  pure,  wholesome  food;  clean  and  well- 
cooked  should  be  furnished  to  prisoners,  and  that  is  what  this  camp 
tries  to  do. 


236  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

In  a  camp  of  this  sort,  the  men  have  free  run  of  the  building  and 
of  the  area  within  the  fence  during  the  daytime.  We  give  our  men 
at  the  present  time  one  week  out  of  every  four  for  good  work.  As 
yet  we  have  not  been  able  to  arrange  to  give  them  any  per  diem  for 
the  work  they  do,  but  we,  not  only  in  North  Carolina,  but  I  think 
in  every  State  throughout  the  whole  country,  are  beginning  to  real- 
ize that  the  work  of  a  State  in  regard  to  its  convicts  is  not  simply 
to  get  work  out  of  them  but  to  make  them  men  capable  of  becoming 
good  citizens  when  their  sentence  is  over,  and  that  is  the  plan  we 
are  trying  to  work  on  in  connection  with  the  work  of  the  convicts 
in  North  Carolina.  In  Virginia  and  in  certain  parts  of  North  Caro- 
lina, we  have  men  who  formerly  worked  on  the  roads  and  who  are 
now  foremen  in  charge  of  free  labor  in  building  roads.  In  other 
parts  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  we  have  other  men  now  em- 
ployed by  farmers  who  watched  them  at  work  on  public  roads  and 
kept  track  of  them  when  their  sentence  was  over  and  who  came  and 
offered  them  positions  to  go  with  them  and  work  on  the  farm  because 
they  knew  they  were  good  laborers.  The  idea  is  to  build  them  up 
and  make  them  men  capable  of  becoming  citizens  of  the  community 
after  their  sentence  has  expired,  and  we  believe  that  is  one  function 
of  the  State  with  regard  to  the  treatment  of  its  convicts.  We  believe 
that  the  best  solution  of  the  convict  problem  is  to  work  them,  where 
they  are  able-bodied,  on  the  public  roads. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey) :  I  had  occasion  to  visit  a  number  of 
the  camps  in  the  South  and  talked  with  the  men,  and  found  that 
they  feel  they  are  being  benefited  morally,  physically  and  mentally. 
Physically  the  convict  is  very  much  better  off  than  in  confinement 
and  morally  he  is  getting  better;  they  are  becoming  good  citizens, 
and  more  than  that  we  are  creating  a  nation  of  road  builders  through 
these  convicts.  When  a  man  comes  out  of  jail,  usually  he  don't 
know  what  to  do  with  himself,  but  now  he  has  learned  a  trade  while 
he  is  doing  this  work  and  has  a  good  trade  by  which  he  can  earn 
$1.50  a  day  as  a  free  laborer.  Do  you  agree  with  that,  Doctor? 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    Yes,  sir.     Is  there  any  further  discussion? 

MR.  GASH:  In  Illinois  we  have  just  started  to  use  convict  labor 
on  the  construction  of  the  public  highways.  We  take  the  men  out 
and  put  them  on  their  honor  and  they  have  been  working  now  some- 
thing like  a  month,  about  forty-seven  men,  I  believe  at  one  place, 
and  men  who  have  been  sentenced  for  serious  crimes  for  a  long  term 
of  years  have  been  allowed  to  go  with  wagons  far  away  from  the 
camp  by  themselves  and  the  men  are  all  put  upon  their  honor  and 
not  a  convict  has  left  or  attempted  to  leave  the  camp.  We  are 
going  to  establish  other  camps  throughout  the  State,  and  this,  of 
course,  will  be  extremely  economical  labor.  It  will  not  interfere 
with  other  labor  in  the  least,  but  will  be  a  means  of  constructing  good 


DISCUSSION  237 

roads  on  an  economical  basis.  If  it  was  not  so  late,  I  might  go  ahead, 
but  I  think  we  ought  to  adjourn,  we  have  been  here  long  enough. 
I  thank  you. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  will  say  in  regard  to  Illinois,  I  have  been  very 
much  gratified  to  get  the  report  that  I  did  a  week  ago  regarding 
what  was  being  done  in  Illinois,  in  working  the  State  convicts  on 
public  roads.  That  is  the  ideal  method  of  working  convicts,  putting 
the  man  on  his  honor.  When  I  say  putting  him  on  his  honor,  I 
mean  putting  the  convict  on  his  honor.  We  have  no  guard  what- 
ever, no  stripes  and  no  man  with  a  pistol  in  his  pocket  walking 
around  among  them  to  see  that  they  do  not  escape. 

MR.  GASH:  The  chief  thing  about  that  is  not  only  the  getting 
of  the  good  roads,  but  putting  those  men  out  there  on  their  honor — 
and  none  have  been  allowed  to  go  out  except  those  whose  sentences 
were  less  than  five  years  or  whose  term  of  sentence  expires  within 
five  years.  I  think  that's  a  mistake;  some  of  the  best  men  for  any 
kind  of  work  that  have  never  committed  but  one  crime  and  that 
was  murder,  inadvertently  it  might  be,  in  the  opinion  of  the  authori- 
ties would  be  the  very  best  men  to  send  out  on  this  work,  men  who 
never  would  commit  another  crime  if  they  were  to  get  put  of  prison; 
but  the  chief  benefit  of  all  this  thing,  in  addition  to  giving  us  good 
roads — that's  a  mere  bagatelle — is  that  it  gives  to  the  men  self- 
respect.  The  moment  you  put  them  out  there,  they  have  raised 
their  heads  and  got  their  own  self-respect,  and  when  they  leave  the 
prison,  they  will  leave  there,  not  as  criminals,  because  men  are 
coming  down  there,  manufacturers  from  Chicago  and  other  cities, 
and  saying  to  these  men  that  they  will  give  them  employment  when 
they  get  away  from  the  prison,  men  that  will  go  out  on  their  honor 
and  prove  that  they  have  some  honor  yet  in  life  can  get  a  good  posi- 
tion after  they  come  away  from  the  prison;  that  is  the  chief  benefit 
of  this  system  to  society.  If  you  go  into  all  the  States — it  will 
ultimately  be  the  method  of  reforming  those  who  are  so  unfortunate 
in  life  that  they  commit  crimes  and  are  sent  to  the  various  penal 
institutions  of  our  country.  I  thank  you. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  paper  is  "California's  $18,000,000 
State  Highway  System,"  by  Austin  B.  Fletcher,  State  Highway  En- 
gineer of  California. 


238  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

CALIFORNIA'S  $18,000,000  STATE  HIGHWAY  SYSTEM 

BY  AUSTIN  B.  FLETCHER,  M.AM.Soc.C.E. 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  California 

The  sum  of  $18,000,000  for  a  State  highway  system  seems  huge,  but 
California  is  a  huge  State.  Its  area  is  158,360  square  miles,  and  from 
the  Oregon  State  line  on  the  north  to  the  Mexican  border  on  the 
south  the  shortest  line  that  can  be  drawn  is  more  than  700  miles  long. 

In  their  usual  optimistic  and  expansive  way,  the  people  having  de- 
cided hi  the  year  1910  that  they  wanted  a  system  of  State  highways, 
the  State  was  bonded  by  a  referendum  vote  in  an  amount  which  they 
thought  would  be  enough  to  build  a  complete  system,  and  they 
put  no  limit  on  the  sum  which  should  be  expended  in  a  single  year. 

ORGANIZATION 

The  legislature  of  1911  passed  an  enabling  act,  and  in  the  fall  of 
that  year  the  work  was  organized  and  placed  in  charge  of  Messrs. 
Burton  A.  Towne,  Charles  D.  Blaney,  and  Newell  D.  Darlington, 
constituting  the  California  highway  commission,  and  the  writer  was 
appointed  to  be  the  highway  engineer.  Overseeing  the  work  of  the 
commission  is  an  advisory  board  of  which  His  Excellency,  Hiram  W. 
Johnson,  Governor,  is  the  head. 

The  highway  engineer  was  made  the  executive  officer  of  the  com- 
mission, corresponding  in  his  relations  to  the  different  departments  of 
the  commission  to  the  general  manager  of  a  large  private  corporation. 
Without  reference  to  the  public  character  of  this  work,  the  plan  of 
dividing  responsibility  is  along  the  same  lines  as  if  this  commission 
were  a  private  corporation  engaged  in  the  business  of  building  roads. 
The  highway  engineer  has  directly  responsible  to  him  the  following 
divisions  or  departments  of  the  work : 

ENGINEERING  DEPARTMENT 

Which  is  under  the  working  supervision  of  the  assistant  highway 
engineer.  The  work  of  this  department  is  divided  into  eight  subdivi- 
sions; namely,  the  headquarters,  the  division  numbers,  I,  II,  III, 
IV,  V,  VI,  and  VII,  which  represent  the  headquarters  of  work  in  the 
different  parts  of  the  state.  Each  one  of  these  divisions  is  in  charge 
of  a  division  engineer,  reporting  directly  to  the  headquarters  office. 

PURCHASING   DEPARTMENT 

Reporting  directly  to  the  highway  engineer  is  the  purchasing  de- 
partment, which  is  hi  charge  of  all  purchases,  materials,  equipment, 
etc.,  and  which  also  has  control  and  direction  of  the  traffic  work  when 
the  department  is  transferring  materials  and  equipment  from  one 
place  to  another. 


CALIFORNIA  S   STATE   HIGHWAY   SYSTEM 


239 


ACCOUNTING   DEPARTMENT 

Reporting  directly  to  the  highway  engineer  is  the  accounting  de- 
partment, which  is  responsible  for  the  records  and  accounts  of  the 
commission.  The  work  of  this  department  is  transacted  chiefly  in 
the  headquarters  office,  building  up  from  records  and  reports  sent  in 
from  the  division  offices. 


FINANCE   AND   DISBURSING   DEPARTMENT 

This  department  reports  directly  to  the  highway  engineer,  and  is 
responsible  for  the  disbursing  of  all  moneys  from  both  the  head- 
quarters and  division  offices. 

LEGAL  DEPARTMENT 

This  department  reports  directly  to  the  highway  engineer,  and 
handles  all  matters  in  which  legal  rulings  are  involved,  such  as  deci- 
sions on  legal  problems  that  are  constantly  confronting  the  highway 
engineer,  and  such  matters  as  rights  of  way,  condemnation  suits,  etc. 

The  following  table  shows,  classified,  the  employees  of  the  commis- 
sion on  August  15,  1913. 


HEAD- 
QUAR- 
TERS 

i 

ii 

m 

IV 

V 

n 

vn 

TOTAL 

Secretary  

1 

1 

Assistant  secretary 

1 

1 

First  assistant  highway  engineer  
Second  assistant  highway  engineer  .  . 
Office  engineer 

1 
1 
1 

1 

1 
1 

Attorney 

1 

1 

Chief  accountant                         

1 

1 

Purchasing  agent           .  .         

1 

1 

Geologist                   .         

1 

1 

Division  engineer              

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

7 

Resident  engineer  

3 

4 

6 

1 

3 

4 

21 

Assistant  resident  engineer 

3 

4 

19 

1 

7 

2 

36 

Right  of  way  agent                            • 

1 

1 

2 

Accountants  and  clerks 

3 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

10 

Stenographers                                  .... 

5 

1 

1 

1 

1 

9 

Typist 

1 

Messenger                               

1 

Testing  engineer            

1 

jLiaboratory  assistant 

1 

Asphalt  inspector  

1 

Blue  printer 

1 

Draftsmen  and  computers           

3 

6 

7 

9 

9 

5 

3 

12 

54 

Chiefs  of  party                         

? 

3 

2 

1 

3 

4 

15 

Instrument  men  .               

4 

3 

?, 

1 

4 

14 

Rodmen  

9 

6 

4 

3 

3 

1 

13 

39 

Axmen                                              .   .  . 

15 

1 

3 

1 

4 

24 

Teamsters                                      

4 

1 

1 

5 

11 

Cooks  

3 

4 

4 

11 

Totals  

26 

48 

31 

31 

4f} 

18 

19 

56 

275 

240 


AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 


On  day  labor  work 


IV 

VII 

TOTAL 

Superintendent.         

2 

2 

Timekeeper  

3 

3 

Foreman  

14 

2 

16 

Enginemen 

8 

1 

10 

Carpenters 

6 

6 

Teamsters  . 

41 

1 

42 

Laborers  .       ... 

152 

5 

157 

Water  boy  

1 

1 

Cooks  

1 

1 

Total  

227 

10 

237 

LOCATING   THE   ROUTES 

Eighteen  million  dollars  did  not  look  so  large  after  the  commission 
had  made  an  examination  into  the  requirements  of  the  "  State  high- 
ways" act  and  the  needs  of  the  State,  and  it  was  soon  understood  that 
the  system  could  not  be  so  expensive  as  many  people  expected. 

The  act,  undoubtedly,  contemplates,  first,  the  construction  of 
two  main  or  trunk  roads,  one  along  the  coast  and  the  other  traversing 
the  great  Sacremento  and  San  Joaquin  Valleys;  and,  second,  that 
the  county  seats  of  such  counties  as  lie  east  and  west  of  the  trunk 
lines  shall  be  connected  to  the  trunk  lines  by  lateral  and  tributary 
highways. 

The  object  of  the  statute,  in  so  far  as  the  two  trunk  lines  are  con- 
cerned, is  by  directness  to  afford  a  means  of  communication  so  that 
the  people  of  the  north  may  be  in  touch  with  the  people  of  the  south 
in  the  shortest  interval  of  time  and  space,  and  at  the  same  time  link- 
ing together  those  county  seats  and  centers  of  population  which  can 
practicably,  and  without  materially  sacrificing  directness,  be  so 
joined  in  a  trunk  line  running  north  and  south  through  the  State. 

The  laterals  are  provided  for  in  "State  highways"  act  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  furnishing  ingress  and  egress  to  and  from  the  trunk 
lines  for  such  county  seats  as  can  not  practicably  be  reached  by  a 
direct  trunk  line;  and  that  the  ultimate  scheme  of  the  State  highway 
system  is  to  cover  the  State  of  California  with  a  net  work  of  highways 
which  will  compact  the  whole  State  for  the  purpose  of  intercommuni- 
cation of  the  residents  of  every  part  of  the  State,  and  so  that  no 
longer  will  counties  be  spoken  of  as  being  "remote  or  inaccessible." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  State  highway  of  California  under  the 
present  legislation  at  least,  will  be  but  the  skeleton  for  the  road  sys- 
tem of  the  State,  and  that  local  county  needs  are  to  be  supplied  by 
county  systems. 

These  county  systems  are  being  rapidly  provided  for,  and  it  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say  that  before  the  State  highway  system  is  complete 
the  counties  will  have  provided  for  an  expenditure  of  more  than 
double  the  $18,000,000  which  the  State  will  spend. 


CALIFORNIA'S  STATE  HIGHWAY  SYSTEM  241 

LENGTH  OF  SYSTEM 

It  was  found  that  to  comply  with  the  terms  of  the  act  not  less  than 
2760  miles  of  road  must  be  taken  into  the  system,  which  means  that 
the  average  cost  per  mile  of  road  built  must  not  exceed  about  $6500, 
including  expenses  of  administration.  Since  this  sum  per  mile  is 
nearly  $5000  per  mile  less  than  some  of  the  eastern  States  are  paying 
for  their  State  highways,  it  follows  that  relatively  cheap  roads  must 
be  built  in  some  parts  of  the  State,  and  that  it  will  not  be  possible  to 
pave  the  surfaces  of  all  the  roads. 

After  months  of  study  the  following  allotment  of  the  fund  was 
agreed  upon  tentatively: 

Trunk  lines 

1305  miles,  requiring  paving,  at  $8,620 $11,249,246 .00 

480  miles  surfaced  with  local  materials,  at  $5944 2,852,905 .00 

Laterals 

785  miles  at  $2,881 2,261,485 .00 

Already  improved  county  roads,  190  miles,  at  0 

Add  10  per  cent  for  administration,  surveys  and  engi- 
neering        1,636,364.00 

Total  bond  issue $18,000,000.00 

Fortunately  nearly  every  county  in  the  State  has  agreed  to  build 
and  pay  for  the  bridges  along  the  State  highway  routes,  and  to  fur- 
nish without  cost  to  the  State  all  land  needed  for  the  locations  of  the 
State  roads.  In  total  such  donations  amount  to  many  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars. 

Without  this  county  assistance  and  without  the  extremely  low  rate 
for  the  haulage  of  materials  which  the  railroads  have  granted,  the  task 
of  completing  the  system  with  the  sum  of  $18,000,000  would  have  been 
hopeless  indeed. 

TYPES   OF   WORK 

For  a  large  portion  of  the  roads  the  commission  has  adopted  a 
pavement  consisting  of  a  Portland  cement  concrete  base  of  a  mini- 
mum thickness  of  4  inches  and  15  feet  wide  with  shoulders  at  least 
3  feet  wide  on  each  side  of  the  concrete.  The  concrete  base  is  covered 
with  a  thin  coating  of  asphaltic  oil  of  special  quality  and  stone  screen- 
ings, forming  a  bituminous  carpet  from  f  to  J  inch  in  thickness  to 
serve  as  a  wearing  surface  and  to  protect  the  concrete. 

An  effort  is  made  in  every  instance  to  adjust  the  type  of  road  to 
fit  the  needs  of  the  traffic,  and  no  arbitrary  standard  has  been  or  is 
likely  to  be  followed. 

While  the  bulk  of  the  mileage  now  under  contract  is  being  built  as 
described  above,  in  the  environs  of  San  Francisco  and  elsewhere 
thicker  bases  and  thicker  wearing  surfaces  are  specified. 

In  every  case  the  roads  are  being  carefully  graded  and  the  drain- 
age is  given  much  study.  Briefly  stated,  the  commission  has  been 
guided  by  the  following  general  principles: 


242  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

1.  A  re-adjustment  of  the  road  locations  or  rights  of  way  so  as  to 
secure  proper  alignment,  and  to  obviate  the  necessity  for  traveling 
around  section  corners. 

2.  Rights  of  way  uniform  width,  preferably  not  less  than  sixty  feet. 

3.  Maximum  gradients  in  the  mountainous  country  of  7  per  cent 
and  minimum  radii  on  the  center  lines  of  such  roads  of  50  feet,  with 
all  curves  opened  out  as  much  as  possible  by  flattening  slopes  and 
removing  brush  and  such  trees  as  interfere  with  the  view.     A  clear 
sight  of  at  least  150  feet  should  be  secured  wherever  it  is  practicable. 

4.  The  construction  of  permanent  culverts,  gutters  and  ditches 
wherever  they  are  needed  to  prevent  water  from  standing  on  the 
roadsides  and  on  grades  to  prevent  gullying  due  to  the  water  being 
carried  too  far  in  the  gutter  and  thus  accumulating  in  volume. 

5.  The  construction  of  bridges  of  a  permanent  character,  prefera- 
bly of  reinforced  concrete,  such  bridges  to  be  at  least  21  feet  wide  in 
the  clear,  and  so  designed  that  they  will  carry  16  ton  traction  engines 
with  a  reasonable  factor  of  safety. 

6.  A  minimum  width  of  roadway  of  16  feet,  which  may  be  travelled 
safely,  such  width  to  apply  only  to  those  places  in  the  mountains 
where  there  is  so  much  rock  as  to  make  a  greater  width  prohibitive  on 
account  of  its  cost.     An  average  width  throughout  the  remainder  of 
the  State  of  24  feet  on  embankments,  of  21  feet  in  through  cuts  and 
22|  feet  where  the  road  is  part  cut  and  part  fill. 

7.  A  crown  or  cross-camber  varying  from  1  inch  to  the  foot  where  no 
surfacing  is  applied  to  less  than  f  inch  where  bituminous  surfaces  are 
used,  in  all  cases  the  crown  to  be  the  least  needed  to  cause  the  water 
to  run  quickly  from  the  road  into  the  gutters. 

8.  Such  type  of  surfacing  as  the  needs  of  the  locality  require  vary- 
ing from  the  graded  road  to  the  highest  type  of  asphalt  paving  and 
varying  in  width  from  15  to  24  feet. 

9.  The  erection  of  guard  rails  at  dangerous  points  on  grades  and 
on  high  embankments. 

10.  The  proper  trimming  of  slopes  along  the  road  sides,  both  old 
and  new,  so  as  to  prevent  the  unsightly  gashes  now  so  noticeable  along 
the  roads.     Also  the  planting  of  suitable  trees,  indigenous  to  the  lo- 
cality, and  properly  caring  for  them. 

11.  The  placing  of  proper  permanent  monuments  at  the  time  of 
construction  along  the  roads  to  mark  accurately  the  limits  of  the 
right  of  way.     Also  the  erection  and  maintenance  of  guide  boards 
marked  to  show  places  and  distances  accurately. 

PAVING   COSTS,   ETC. 

The  following  table  shows  the  different  kinds  of  paving  which  the 
commission  had  under  contract  August  1,  1913,  together  with  the 
lengths  and  costs.  The  figures  do  not  include  the  costs  of  grading, 
culverts,  etc.,  nor  do  they  include  the  expenses  of  administration. 


CALIFORNIA  S   STATE   HIGHWAY   SYSTEM 


243 


MILKS 

COST 
PER    MILE 

COST  PER 
SQUARE 
YARD 

Asphalt  on  concrete  base  

6  6 

$14  920 

$1    06 

Asphalt  on  macadam  base  

11  5 

8  403 

0  716 

Three-eighths  inch  surface  on  concrete  base.  .  .  . 
Bituminous  macadam 

198.1 
19  1 

6,394 
6  364 

0.712 
0  723 

W^aterbound  macadam 

7  6 

4  303 

0  489 

THE   THIN   ROADS 

As  will  be  noted  in  the  foregoing  table  nearly  200  miles  of  the 
State  highway  is  being  constructed  with  a  f-inch  wearing  surface 
on  a  concrete  base. 

The  specifications  for  this  kind  of  work  provide  that  the  base  shall 
be  of  a  minimum  thickness  of  4  inches,  but  discretion  is  given  to  the 
highway  engineer  to  increase  the  thickness  of  the  base  whenever  he 
considers  a  greater  depth  of  concrete  to  be  desirable. 

A  base  so  thin  as  this  would  not  met  the  approval  of  the  writer  for 
use  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  but  in  the  moderate  climate  of  those 
parts  of  California  where  the  work  is  now  under  way  it  will  doubtless 
be  adequate  for  all  time.  Great  care  is  employed  in  securing  a  rigid 
sub-grade  and  an  effort  is  made  to  secure  a  high  grade  of  concrete. 

The  concrete  is  laid  without  "expansion"  joints.  It  is  observed 
that  at  intervals  of  about  30  feet  natural  contraction  cracks  develop. 
These  cracks  are  filled  with  heavy  bituminous  material  as  soon  as  they 
are  wide  enough  to  receive  it.  It  is  believed  that  with  the  thin  wear- 
ing surface  it  is  much  better  policy  to  omit  the  artifically  made  joints 
and  that  the  road  surface  will  be  much  smoother  to  ride  upon  because 
of  such  omission. 

Some  objection  has  been  made,  chiefly  by  certain  not  disinterested 
contractors,  to  the  thin  bituminous  wearing  surfaces  adopted  in  so 
many  instances  by  the  commission.  Derisively,  but  perhaps  not 
inaptly,  they  have  called  the  roads  "painted  concrete." 

These  contractors  insisted  that  the  asphaltic  surfaces  should  be  not 
less  than  2  inches  in  thickness,  and  that  they  should  consist  either  of 
sheet  asphalt  or  one  of  the  "bitulithic  '"variants.  Were  it  considered 
desirable  to  adopt  their  suggestions,  there  is  not  money  enough  in  the 
appropriation  to  complete  but  a  small  part  of  the  system  in  that  man- 
ner and  do  justice  at  the  same  time  to  the  remainder  of  the  State, 
and  the  commission  has  concluded  to  continue  with  the  thin  surface, 
renewing  it  so  often  as  is  necessary.  The  thick  surfaces  would  cost 
more  than  ten  times  as  much  as  the  thin  originally,  and  it  seems  prob- 
able that  the  interest  on  the  excess  cost  of  the  thick  surface  over  the 
cost  of  the  thin  will  pay  all  of  the  cost  of  renewing  the  thin  wearing 
surface  as  often  as  it  needs  it. 

Some  of  the  so-called  "painted  concrete"  has  been  under  traffic 
about  eight  months,  with  a  complete  satisfaction  of  all  requirements. 


244  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

MAINTENANCE 

The  "State  highways"  act  provides  that  the  State  highways  shall 
be  maintained  by  the  State,  and  no  provision  is  made  for  the  sharing 
of  the  burden  by  the  counties. 

To  provide  the  money  for  the  purpose  the  legislature  of  1913  passed 
a  new  law  relative  to  the  operation  of  automobiles,  one  feature  of 
which  sets  up  a  system  of  graded  fees  for  the  annual  registration  of 
motor  vehicles.  By  the  first  of  January,  1914,  when  the  act  takes 
effect,  there  will  be  not  less  than  100,000  motor  vehicles  in  operation 
on  the  highways,  and  the  total  fees  received  will  doubtless  be  in 
excess  of  $1,000,000  for  the  year  1914.  After  the  expenses  of  the  re- 
gistering department  are  deducted,  one-half  of  the  remainder  goes  to 
a  fund  for  the  maintenance  of  the  State  highways,  the  other  half 
being  appropriated  for  the  maintenance  of  county  roads.  Thus,  for 
the  year  1914,  it  is  estimated  that  more  than  $450,000  will  be  availa- 
ble for  the  upkeep  of  the  State  highways. 

PROGRESS   OF  THE  WORK 

At  this  date  most  of  the  surveying  work  has  been  accomplished  on 
the  trunk  lines.  The  laterals  also  have  received  due  attention,  and 
within  a  few  months  all  of  the  surveys  preliminary  to  letting  con- 
tracts will  be  complete. 

Nearly  all  of  the  construction  now  in  progress  has  been  let  on  the 
contract  basis,  but  because  of  the  failure  of  several  of  the  contractors 
the  commission  has  taken  over  the  contracts  in  such  cases,  and  those 
roads  are  being  completed  by  day  labor. 

The  writer  had  confidently  expected  that  by  this  date  more  than  500 
miles  of  the  system  would  be  under  contract,  but  the  financial  condi- 
tions of  the  country  have  prevented.  The  California  State  highway 
bonds  pay  but  4  per  cent,  and  they  may  not  be  sold  at  less  than  their 
par  value.  For  some  months  the  bond  buyers  have  looked  askance  at 
State  bonds  paying  so  little,  and  although  the  local  bankers  have,  in 
a  most  public-spirited  manner,  subscribed  for  more  than  $2,000,000, 
the  work  of  the  commission  has  been  handicapped  seriously.  The 
total  amount  of  the  bonds  sold  to  date  is  $4,700,000. 

In  any  event,  California  will  have  many  miles  of  the  State  highway 
to  show  her  guests  who  come  in  1915  to  the  exposition  at  San  Fran- 
cisco and  San  Diego. 

DIRT  ROADS  AND  POLITICS 

October  1,  8  p.m. 
BY  CHARLES  P.  LIGHT 

I  am  more  than  glad  to  see  all  of  you  who  are  here  tonight,  and  I 
feel  that  those  who  are  not  here  will  have  missed  an  evening's  enter- 
tainment that  they  will  regret.  I  simply  want  to  have  your  atten- 


DIRT   ROADS   AND    POLITICS  245 

tion  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  while  I  sort  of  start  this  thing  off 
and  get  you  in  a  receptive  frame  of  mind  for  Mr.  Warren  and  the 
pictures  that  will  be  shown  on  this  screen  tonight,  and  I  want 
to  talk  seriously  to  you  a  little  while,  because  this  Road  Congress 
that  is  here  has  met  for  a  purpose,  and  I  want  to  say  to  you  gentle- 
men who  are  in  this  hall  now  and  who  have  come  here  and  made 
this  Congress,  by  your  presence,  one  of  the  greatest  that  has  ever 
been  held  in  the  world's  history.  I  want  to  say  to  you  men  who 
are  here  and  who  have  taken  part  in  the  exhibition  end  of  it,  you 
have  given  to  the  people  who  have  attended  this  Congress  one  of 
the  greatest  expositions  ever  given  and  it  is  worth  a  lot  of  money 
to  those  people  who  have  come  here  who  are  road  supervisors  or  city 
or  county  engineers  or  have  any  official  position.  You  have  a  com- 
mercial interest  in  it,  you  are  not  giving  the  Congress.  The  Ameri- 
can Highway  Association,  the  American  Automobile  Association,  the 
Michigan  State  Good  Roads  Association  and  the  two  dozen  other 
associations  associated  with  them  are  giving  the  Congress,  but  we 
could  not  have  the  Congress  without  an  exhibition  of  machinery. 
My  subject  here  tonight  is  "Earth  Roads  and  Politics/'  and  the 
point  I  want  to  make  is  the  effect  of  partisan  politics  on  road  con- 
ditions or  legislative  conditions  that  pertain  to  road  matters  in  the 
country.  There  is  not  a  man  in  this  room  who  has  paid  any  atten- 
tion whatever  to  highway  conditions  in  this  country  with  reference 
to  men  who  are  employed  either  as  State  highway  commissioners, 
engineers  or  in  any  other  position  down  the  line,  that  has  not  been 
affected  or  who  has  not  realized  the  baneful  effect  partisan  politics 
have  on  various  State  highway  departments  as  well  as  local  depart- 
ments. The  American  Highway  Association  was  organized  three 
years  ago  and  it  had  two  distinctive  objects  in  view,  first  to  see  that 
efficient  men  were  put  in  charge  of  the  expenditure  of  road  and  street 
funds,  especially  road  funds  in  the  country,  and  second,  that  the 
men  in  charge  should  be  removed,  as  far  as  possible,  from  political 
influence.  We  are  not  advocating  any  one  kind  of  road  or  any  road 
from  one  place  to  another;  those  things  will  take  care  of  themselves, 
when  we  realize  that  in  this  country  we  are  wasting,  through  ineffi- 
cient systems  in  the  various  States  and  counties,  about  $40,000,000 
a  year.  In  other  words,  we  have  heard  a  good  deal  of  talk  about 
the  Lincoln  Highway  and  the  Highway  from  Dakota  to  Texas  that 
Mr.  Nickerson  is  interested  in;  we  have  heard  about  the  Miami- 
Quebec  Highway.  We  are  wasting  enough  money  annually  in  this 
country  through  haying  inefficient  men  in  charge  of  the  work  or 
by  changing  the  various  departments  every  now  and  then,  to  build 
the  Lincoln  Highway  and  a  road  half  way  across  this  country  north 
and  south.  This  matter  is  a  great  economic  one  and  the  people  of 
the  country  are  awakening  to  it  in  every  State.  There  is  more  inter- 
est in  it  today  than  ever  before  in  the  country,  not  only  in  the 
United  States  but  in  Canada.  Just  think  of  it,  and  I  am  not  cast- 
ing any  aspersions  on  any  man  here  tonight,  but  think  of  what  is 


246  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

happening  in  the  great  State  of  New  York;  they  have  changed  the 
heads  of  the  highway  department  in  the  State  of  New  York  three 
times  in  the  last  four  years.  Think  of  it,  a  great  State  like  New 
York!  Colonel  Sohier  said  last  year  at  the  American  Road  Congress, 
that  the  most  valuable  thing  in  a  highway  department  was  tenure 
of  office,  that  he  had  men  in  his  department  who  had  been  there 
fifteen  or  seventeen  years.  You  take  a  great  railroad — George  Panell 
of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  is  in  this  room,  and  Mr. Rich- 
ardson, of  the  Southern  Railway;  take  old  Tom  Fitzgerald,  who  was 
with  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  for  forty  years — why  wasn't  he  fired 
when  Grover  Cleveland  was  elected,  and  why  wasn't  somebody  else 
fired  who  succeeded  him  when  McKinley  was  elected?  It  is  absurd, 
it  is  foolish,  and  I  don't  see  why  the  business  men  of  the  country 
will  permit  this  thing;  I  don't  see  why  they  don't  unite  and  do  so 
in  the  near  future,  and  stop  this  thing  of  upsetting  a  highway  depart- 
ment simply  because  Teddy  or  Woodrow  or  Bill  is  put  in.  Have 
an  efficient  man  and  keep  him  there.  We  have  got  to  take  these 
things  to  heart  and  think  about  the  cost.  It  is  costing  us  a  lot  of 
money  in  the  country.  There  are  highway  commissioners  today  in 
this  country  who  are  good  men,  and  I  know  them  and  some  of  you 
know  them,  and  they  don't  know  today  how  secure  their  positions 
are.  It  means  this,  that  our  engineering  schools  are  turning  out 
men  who  are  not  taking  highway  engineering  seriously,  because  tney 
have  no  assurance  that  the  positions  they  get  will  be  at  all  secure. 
I  want  to  tell  you  frankly  that  it  is  hard  to  get  today  an  efficient 
engineer  for  a  State  highway  department;  I  know  that,  and  the  time 
is  coming  when  the  office  of  State  highway  engineer  will  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  honorable  and  important  of  any  in  the  State. 
I  come  from  a  State  that  I  am  proud  of  and  our  motto  is  Montani 
semper  liberi — the  State  of  West  Virginia — some  of  my  people  are 
here  tonight,  but  I  want  to  tell  you  frankly  that  in  the  county  where 
I  was  born  and  where  my  people  have  lived  for  170  years,  the  county 
changed  politics  and  the  complexion  of  the  county  court  changed 
at  the  last  election  and  the  man  who  was  county  engineer  was  turned 
out  of  office  today  and  two  other  men  who  voted  the  other  ticket, 
were  put  into  office.  The  objection  was  raised  two  years  ago  that 
that  office  was  not  necessary,  and  now  there  are  two  men  drawing 
$1900  a  year,  whereas  that  man  only  drew  $700  a  year.  The  man 
who  was  fired  today  ought  to  have  been  kept,  because  he  knew  about 
the  roads  in  the  county.  Take  Sam  Rice;  he  has  charge  of  the 
right  of  way  for  the  Richmond,  Fredericksburg  and  Potomac  Rail- 
road, running  from  Washington  to  Richmond,  and  he  told  Mr.  Page, 
the  president  of  this  Congress,  and  myself,  two  years  ago,  that  he 
had  been  with  the  Richmond,  Fredericksburg  and  Potomac  Road 
since  1867,  that's  forty-six  years  ago,  and  as  we  stood  on  the  back 
end  of  a  train  going  to  Richmond,  he  said  "I  know  every  crosstie 
on  this  road."  Of  course  he  was  valuable  to  them.  We  ought  to 
take  it  out  of  politics,  absolutely  take  it  out  of  politics.  Now,  there 


DIET   ROADS   AND    POLITICS  247 

is  another  thing,  a  man  is  never  going  to  make  a  success  of  anything 
nor  will  he  be  successful  in  life  unless  he  believes  in  what  he  is  doing. 
I  belong  to  a  church  that  teaches  a  young  man  when  he  enters  the 
seminary,  that  teaches  that  young  man  this  one  thing  the  first  year 
—the  man  that  enters  the  seminary  to  study  for  the  ministry — experi- 
mental religion;  in  other  words,  our  idea  being  that  a  man  must 
first  realize  a  thing,  appreciate  it  himself  before  he  can  teach  it  to 
others,  and  as  the  president  of  that  institution  told  me  once  lately, 
a  man  has  got  to  burn  before  he  can  shine.  You  will  never  get  any 
more  out  of  a  thing  than  you  put  into  it,  don't  forget  that  you  have 
got  to  put  your  life  into  this  thing.  A  man  went  to  a  church  to 
preach  for  another  minister  one  night  and  he  knew  the  sexton  well, 
an  old  man  who  had  lived  for  a  long  time  in  that  community.  This 
man  used  to  live  there,  and  after  service  was  over,  he  talked  to  the 
sexton — he  had  a  little  girl  with  him  about  eight  years  old,  she  went 
back  to  the  door  and  was  looking  at  a  box  while  her  father  was 
talking  to  the  sexton;  finally  he  came  to  the  door  and  Bessie  was 
still  looking  at  this  box  and  the  box  had  written  on  it  "Contribu- 
tions," and  she  said,  "I  can't  make  that  out,  what  does  it  say?" 
He  said,  "It  means  contributions,"  and  he  gave  her  a  nickel  which 
she  put  in  the  box.  The  sexton  came  out  about  that  time  and  said, 
"Dr.  Smith,  we  have  established  a  new  practice  in  our  congregation 
since  you  used  to  be  here;  instead  of  passing  the  plate,  which  some- 
times embarrasses  people  because  they  don't  like  the  one  sitting 
next  to  them  to  see  what  they  are  giving,  we  cut  out  the  plate  and 
let  every  man,  as  he  goes  out  the  door,  drop  his  contribution  into  the 
box  and  his  left  hand  doesn't  have  to  know  what  his  right  hand  is 
doing,  and  whoever  preaches  here  gets  what  is  in  the  box.  I  have 
the  key  and  will  open  the  box  and  whatever  is  there  is  yours  for 
preaching  tonight."  And  he  took  the  key  and  opened  the  box  and 
in  it  there  was  this  nickel  and  that's  all  there  was  in  the  box,  and  his 
little  daughter  Bessie  said,  "Father,  if  you  had  put  more  in  the 
box,  you  would  have  got  more  out."  That  is  absolutely  true  with 
everything  in  life,  and  you  men  know  it.  Now  I  am  just  as  thor- 
oughly convinced  that  the  solving  of  the  highway  problems  of  our 
country  is  essential  in  order  that  the  prophecy  that  is  recorded  in 
Amos  and  Isaiah — and  every  man  in  this  room  knows  what  Amos 
I  am  talking  about  and  what  Isaiah  I  am  talking  about,  and  it  reads 
this  way,  "And  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  ploughshares  and 
their  spears  into  pruning  hooks  and  they  shall  not  learn  war  any 
more."  What  does  that  mean?  It  means  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
agriculture  and  you  cannot  have  agriculture  triumph  in  any  country 
unless  we  have  the  very  best  transportation  facilities  it  is  possible 
for  us  to  have.  Why,  this  thing  of  paying  23  cents  a  ton  a  mile  to 
haul  stuff  from  the  farms  to  this  country  to  the  nearest  shipping 
station  and  have  the  average  length  of  haul  9.5  or  9.4  miles.  In 
other  words,  when  we  have  to  put  up  $2.16  a  ton  for  each  ton  hauled 
on  an  average  in  this  country,  as  against  $1 .74  to  ship  that  stuff  from 


248  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

that  station  to  New  York  and  then  to  Liverpool,  think  how  much 
we  are  paying  for  transportation  over  our  roads.  We  have  got  to 
consider  those  things,  we  must  do  it,  there  is  no  escape  from  it.  This 
Congress  is  going  to  have  a  great  effect  on  the  country,  for  this 
reason,  and  I  want  the  men  who  are  here  representing  the  various 
trade  and  technical  papers  to  hear  me;  there  never  has  been  a 
meeting  of  this  kind  held  anywhere,  where  as  many  technical  and 
trades  papers  and  agricultural  papers  are  represented  and  where 
the  results  of  this  meeting  will  have  the  circulation  among  the  people 
who  ought  to  have  it,  that  this  meeting  will  have.  I  am  not  going 
to  take  any  more  of  your  time,  because  Mr.  Warren  is  here,  and  I 
simply  want  to  close  by  saying  this — if  you  fellows  have  had  as  good 
a  time  at  this  meeting  as  I  have  had,  you  have  had  a  corking  good 
time.  I  thank  you  very  much. 


ROAD  USERS  SESSION 

October  2,  10  a.m. 

UNDER  AUSPICES  AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 

GEORGE  C.  DIEHL,  Chairman 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Before  introducing  the  chairman  of  the  morning, 
there  are  two  gentlemen  here  from  Canada  whose  company  and 
hospitality  many  of  us  have  enjoyed,  and  it  is  desired  that  before 
they  return  to  Canada,  that  they  say  one  or  two  words  to  us  regard- 
ing a  subject  which  they  wish  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  con- 
vention, and  it  gives  me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  to  present,  first, 
Mr.  Magrath  the  chairman  of  the  special  highway  commission  of 
the  Province  of  Ontario. 

ADDRESS  BY  MR.  C.  A.  MAGRATH 

Chairman  Special  Highway  Commission  of  Ontario 

I  am  being  presented  in  the  wrong  order;  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbell 
who  represents  Canada,  should,  in  my  judgment,  be  asked  to  speak 
first.  However,  he  has  insisted  that  I,  as  representing  the  highway 
commission  of  Ontario,  should  address  you  for  a  moment  or  two. 
We  realize  that  your  program  is  very  full,  that  it  is  going  to  take  all 
the  time  available  to  get  through  the  subject  to  be  discussed,  but  I 
feel  personally  that  I  cannot  return  to  Canada  without  saying  how 
deeply  we  appreciate  the  treatment  we  have  received  at  your  hands, 
and  I  wish  to  publicly  acknowledge  before  you  our  indebtedness, 
as  a  commission,  to  Mr.  Carlisle  and  his  associates  from  the  State 
of  New  York.  We  had  the  pleasure  of  going  to  Albany  a  few  days 
ago,  and  there  is  no  place  on  earth  that  we  could  go  to  where  we 
could  possibly  be  better  received  than  at  the  hands  of  these  gentle- 
men, and  it  is  due  to  him  that  a  public  acknowledgment  should  be 
made  on  behalf  of  Ontario.  It  gives  me  very  great  pleasure  to  do 
so.  Now  we  are  neighbors  and  we  are  interested  in  good  roads  and 
I  realize  that  you  must  be  just  as  much  interested  in  our  work  as 
you  are  in  your  respective  States.  I  suppose,  sir,  the  greatest  com- 
pliment that  can  be  paid  to  any  man  is  to  ask  him  into  your  home 
life,  into  your  home  and  we  want  to  put  before  you  that  idea,  that 
you  keep  in  view,  probably  the  year  after  next,  the  idea  of  coming 
to  Canada,  to  our  home,  where  we  hope  we  will  treat  you  in  such  a 
way  that  you  will  want  to  continue  to  come  there.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  there  are  many  of  us  in  Canada  who  hold  the  opinion  that  you 

249 


250  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

are  better  Canadians  than  those  born  in  the  country,  at  least  so  far 
as  activities  in  western  Canada  are  concerned.  I  feel  personally 
that  your  people  are  doing  more  to  build  up  our  great  country  than 
many  of  our  own;  therefore  that  is  practically  all  I  have  to  say  to  you 
gentlemen  this  morning,  that  we  sincerely  hope  that  you  will  allow 
us  next  year  to  put  before  you,  in  a  serious  way,  an  invitation  to 
come  either  to  our  national  capital,  Ottawa,  or,  say,  the  city  of 
Toronto,  to  the  capital  of  the  province  of  Ontario.  The  question 
of  good  roads  I  am  not  going  to  discuss  now;  you  have  too  much  to 
think  of,  we  like  you  because  of  that,  and  in  leaving  you,  we  insist 
that  you  must  come  to  Canada  and  hold  a  meeting. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  Magrath  has  stated  that  the  Americans 
are  to  some  extent  building  up  Canada,  more  than  the  Canadians 
themselves.  It  is  a  fact  that  there  are  one  or  two  Canadians  who 
have  done  as  much  to  help  the  road  movement  in  the  United  States 
as  any  American  road  enthusiast.  One  of  those  Canadians  who  has 
done  that  is  the  next  speaker,  he  has  spoken  as  many  times  on  good 
roads  as  many  of  the  good  roads  men  here.  The  subject  has  been 
dear  to  his  heart,  he  has  given  it  careful  study,  and  the  people  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  and  the  Province  of  Ontario  have  appreciated 
his  great  labors  in  that  direction  and  made  him  the  minister  of 
public  works.  As  many  of  you  have  heard  him,  it  is  hardly  fitting 
for  me  to  introduce  him,  as  you  all  know  him  better  than  you  know 
me,  and  I  call  on  the  Honorable  Mr.  Campbell  as  the  next  speaker. 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  A.  W.  CAMPBELL 

Minister  of  Public  Works 

I  just  come  forward  for  perhaps  a  few  words  by  way  of  seconding 
the  suggestion  that  has  been  made  by  Mr.  Magrath.  Now  I  might 
say  that  in  the  Province  of  Ontario,  as  in  some  of  your  States,  the 
question  of  the  desirability  of  good  roads  has  been  settled.  The 
provincial  legislature  has  appropriated  $5,000,000  to  be  expended  in 
connection  with  the  work  of  road  improvement  to  aid  the  different 
municipalities  in  carrying  on  that  work,  but  how  best  to  make  that 
expenditure  of  course  is  a  very  great  question.  The  money  is  there, 
they  want  to  spend  it,  but  they  don't  want  to  waste  it  and  they  want 
to  see  that  every  dollar  that  has  been  expended  or  appropriated  will  be 
expended  so  as  to  produce  a  dollar's  worth  of  results.  Now,  for  that 
purpose,  Mr.  Magrath  and  his  commission  have  been  appointed  by 
the  legislature  to  frame  the  most  desirable  plan  that  can  be  laid 
down  to  govern  that  expenditure,  and  that  expenditure  will  be  made 
under  the  direction  and  supervision  of  this  commission,  outside  of 
any  other  influence  whatever.  We  do  believe  that  when  this  com- 
mission makes  its  report,  that  these  recommendations  will  be  of 


ADDRESS   BY   A.   W.    CAMPBELL  251 

such  a  character  as  to  assure  that  even  better  roads  will  be  built 
in  the  province  of  Ontario  than  are  now  being  built  in  the  adjoining 
States  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  from  which  we  have  taken 
so  many  lessons.  New  York  I  suppose  has  been,  and  Massachusetts 
has  been  a  pioneer  in  this  direction,  and  we  watch  every  mile  of  road, 
you  might  say,  that  they  build.  We  study  how  they  build  it,  what 
the  result  is,  and  then  we  try  to  avoid  some  of  the  mistakes  which 
they  have  made,  and  in  that  way  we  receive  a  very  great  deal  of 
benefit  from  the  very  free  information  that  is  always  given  gratu- 
itously by  Mr.  Diehl  and  his  commission.  Certainly  we  do  admire 
the  work  that  has  been  done  there  and  we  watch  them  closely.  Now 
then,  when  this  commission  has  made  its  report,  we  expect  in  the 
province  of  Ontario,  that  that  money  will  be  so  expended  as  to  make 
some  of  the  most  up-to-date  roads  on  the  continent  of  America. 
Now  the  Dominion  government  is  willing,  as  soon  as  the  provinces 
are  in  a  position  to  handle  the  expenditure  fairly,  to  make  an  appro- 
priation there,  and  we  do  not  question  how  many  millions  it  is  going 
to  take,  we  are  not  thinking  about  that  at  all;  what  we  want  is  a 
competent  plan  for  the  expenditure  of  the  money  and  then  we  will 
make  State  roads  and  National  roads  and  good  roads.  We  are  work- 
ing at  this  and  we  now  have  many  miles  of  very  good  roads.  We 
have  one  or  two  cities  over  there  that  are  bright,  prosperous,  live 
cities,  with  all  the  accommodation  that  is  necessary,  almost  equal  to 
that  of  Detroit  for  entertaining  a  congress  such  as  this.  Geo- 
graphically we  are  favorably  situated,  and  we  came  here  designing 
to  capture  this  convention,  if  possible,  and  bring  it  to  Canada  next 
year,  and  if  it  is  possible,  to  affiliate  ourselves  with  you  so  as  to 
absorb  some  of  the  extremely  valuable  information  which  is  dis- 
seminated at  these  meetings,  but  we  find  that  there  is  already  on 
foot  a  very  live,  healthy,  active  campaign  among  one  or  two  of  your 
cities  for  the  convention  next  year;  consequently  we  think  we  are 
defeated  and  we  are  going  to  give  you  advance  notice  that  at  the 
next  annual  meeting  of  your  congress,  we  are  going  to  make  a  more 
strenuous  fight  to  have  the  congress  held  in  1915  either  in  the  city 
of  Toronto  or  the  city  of  Ottawa,  where  we  will  give  you  a  right 
royal  good  welcome,  a  good  time,  and  possibly  give  you  or  assist 
in  giving  you  some  information  that  will  lead  to  the  betterment  of 
your  roads  and  our  roads. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  sure  that  if  we  could  put  the  question 
now  we  would  all  vote  to  go  to  Canada.  The  only  trouble  would 
be,  I  warn  the  honorable  minister,  if  he  ever  gets  us  there,  he  will 
have  hard  work  getting  rid  of  us;  we  are  apt  to  stay  a  month;  I 
know,  because  I  have  been  there  before.  You  all  know  that  New 
York  is  spending  more  money  for  highway  improvement  than  any 
other  State  in  the  United  States,  or  I  think  I  am  safe  in  saying,  it 
is  spending  more  and  has  more  to  expend  than  any  country  in  the 
world.  There  are  results  in  New  York  of  which  we  are  proud  and 


252  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

others  of  which  we  are  not  proud.  The  reason  for  some  of  the  fail- 
ures has  been  the  frequent  changes  in  office  by  reason  of  frequent 
changes  in  State  control.  The  State  started  the  road  work  fifteen 
years  ago,  and  since  that  time  there  have  been  nine  changes  in  ad- 
ministration. When  the  present  executive  of  New  York  was  elected, 
he  looked  all  over  the  State  to  find  a  man  to  put  at  the  head  of  the 
highway  department  whose  standing  would  insure  to  the  people  of 
New  York  an  efficient  and  economical  and  wise  expenditure  of  public 
money.  The  scandal  resulting  from  mal-administration  had  so  forced 
the  good  roads  question  into  the  public  eye  that  the  people  were 
aroused  as  never  before  to  the  importance  of  the  work  of  the  State 
highway  department,  and  the  governor  selected  a  gentleman  who 
had  been  known  for  years  as  a  public  spirited  and  patriotic,  a  live 
and  energetic  man  who,  in  the  northern  section  of  the  State,  was 
looked  upon  as  the  one  best  versed  in  public  affairs,  and  it  was  to 
the  great  satisfaction  of  all  the  people  throughout  the  State  that  he 
selected  a  man  who  was  so  good  an  executive  and  so  careful  in  his 
methods  as  to  insure  a  proper  expenditure  of  the  highway  funds. 
It  is  with  some  little  embarrassment  that  I  speak  in  these  glowing 
terms  of  the  chairman,  as  he  once  in  a  while  allows  himself  to  be 
controlled  by  friendship  rather  than  by  sound  business  principles, 
and  when  he  appointed  Colonel  Washington,  the  handsome  gentle- 
man at  my  rear,  and  myself  on  the  advisory  board,  he  committed 
one  of  these  errors  of  judgment  and  acts  of  friendship,  and  I  do  not 
want  anybody  to  think  that  I  am  returning  it  by  trying  to  say  some- 
thing about  Mr.  Carlisle;  because  he  deserves  all  I  can  say  of  him 
and  a  great  deal  more,  and  it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  present,  as  the 
chairman  of  the  morning,  the  Hon.  John  N.  Carlisle,  chairman  of  the 
commission  of  highways  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

ADDRESS  BY  JOHN  N.  CARLISLE 

Chairman  Commission  of  Highways  of  New  York 

When  we  have  completed  in  New  York  State  the  type  of  roads 
we  are  going  to  build  and  open  up  to  the  people  of  this  world  the 
possibility  of  their  being  able  to  come  to  our  State  and  take  in  all 
these  diversified  scenic  effects,  there  is  no  doubt  but  what  we  are  not 
yet  able  to  appreciate  the  wonderful,  tremendous  influx  of  travelers 
that  will  come  into  New  York  State.  Next  year,  by  December  31, 
1914,  we  expect  and  I  believe  we  will  be  able  to  complete  practically 
the  great  through  routes  of  New  York  State,  so  that  you  gentlemen 
from  the  west  can  come  into  New  York,  can  go  to  Buffalo,  from 
there  you  can  go  through  the  cities  of  Rochester,  Utica  and  Albany, 
down  the  Hudson  River  to  New  York,  or  you  can  turn  and  go  by 
Lake  George  and  Lake  Champlain  to  Rouse's  Point  into  Canada,  if 
you  desire  and  come  back  down  to  the  Great  Lakes  and  Buffalo,  or 
you  can  take  route  No.  4,  and,  by  an  entirely  different  route  from 


ADDRESS   BY   JOHN  N.    CARLISLE  253 

what  you  came  from  the  west  going  east,  you  can  go  back  through 
the  entire  length  of  our  State.  Now  these  problems  in  New  York 
State,  as  you  see,  are  very  hard  problems  to  solve  but  very  inter- 
esting, because  of  the  different  types  of  roads  that  we  have  to  con- 
struct. We  have  the  ocean  sands  on  Long  Island  that  call  for  one 
particular  type  of  road.  We  have  near  there  the  largest  city  in  the 
United  States  with  a  tremendous  automobile  traffic  that  comes  out 
of  that  city,  passing  over  those  roads.  We  have,  in  northern  New 
York,  our  heavy  clays  and  in  the  southern  sections  our  shales.  We 
have  tremendous  valleys  where  but  one  road  can  pass  through, 
where  we  cannot  build  full  width  roads,  and  we  have  our  mountain 
sections,  where  we  have  to  climb  them  by  divers  routes  in  order  to 
get  up  through  those  mountain  passes;  so  in  the  State  we  are  in  a 
different  situation,  somewhat,  from  what  you  gentlemen  are  in  the 
western  States  where  you  have  a  flat  country  and  the  same  kind  of 
soil  all  over  the  State.  We  are  confronted  with  every  condition  of 
soil  and  different  characters  of  roads  and  great  climatic  changes. 
The  southern  part  of  our  State  is,  in  a  way,  remarkably  mild;  the 
northern  part  has  very  severe  winters,  and  to  design  roads  which 
will  stand  up  is  a  very  great  problem  to  solve.  When  I  was  ap- 
pointed, I  determined  that  if  there  was  any  way  in  the  world  we  could 
solve  this  problem  before  we  started  again  on  the  expenditure  of 
this  large  amount  of  money,  we  would  try  and  solve  it  in  an  intelli- 
gent way.  The  legislature  in  1913  had  changed  the  law,  abolishing 
what  was  then  a  commission  in  New  York,  and  provided  for  a  single 
headed  commissioner  and  to  put  upon  one  man  the  expenditure  of 
this  large  amount  of  money,  was  a  proposition  that  would  make 
any  man  tremble  to  tackle  it,  and  I  insisted  on  the  appointment  of 
an  advisory  board  of  engineers  that  would  take  up  with  me  these 
problems,  and  I  think  I  was  very  fortunate  in  the  board.  I  got  Mr. 
Diehl,  who  had  been  county  superintendent  of  Erie  County  for  a 
good  many  years.  It  didn't  make  any  difference  whether  the  board 
of  supervisors  was  democratic  or  republican,  they  always  took  Diehl. 
I  went  to  Massachusetts  and  got  Mr.  Parker  and  I  got  Colonel 
Washington,  of  New  York,  and  we  started  to  go  out  over  New  York 
State  from  one  end  to  the  other  to  try  and  study  the  problems  relat- 
ing to  our  State  so  that  we  would  know,  in  each  section,  what  we 
were  up  against,  what  confronted  us  with  regard  to  problems  of 
traffic,  what  type  of  roads  we  ought  to  build,  taking  into  consider- 
ation the  locality,  the  material  available  for  constructing  roads  in 
those  localities  and  the  probable  demands  upon  those  roads  in  the 
near  future  in  connection  with  the  traffic  which  is  bound  to  come 
upon  good  roads  the  minute  you  complete  them  and  open  them  up 
and  this  advisory  board  has  been  working  all  summer  long.  When 
I  get  back  to  Albany,  I  expect  to  get  their  report  and  know  that 
every  single  man  here  will  be  interested  in  it,  because  in  that  report 
we  are  trying  to  work  out  practically  an  entire  reorganization  of 
the  highway  department  of  the  State  of  New  York  to  put  it  upon  a 


254  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

plane  of  efficiency  that  we  think  and  hope  will  result  in  our  being 
able  to  solve  the  problems  in  our  State.  Today  New  York  State 
has  4000  miles  of  improved  roads,  already  built.  These  roads  were 
constructed  a  number  of  years  ago,  some  of  them;  they  were  con- 
structed when  nobody  anticipated  the  traffic  they  now  have  to  bear, 
and  it  is  a  problem,  not  only  of  the  maintenance  of  those  4000  miles 
of  road,  but  the  great  problem  is  that  we  have  to  rebuild  a  good 
many  miles  of  roads  because  the  roads  were  built  several  years  ago 
and  what  was  then  a  proper  type  of  construction  will  not  stand  up 
now,  and  to  show  you  where  the  maintenance  problem  comes  in, 
the  highway  department,  in  order  to  maintain  4000  miles  of  roads 
in  New  York  State,  asked  the  legislature  last  year  for  $7,000,000  to 
take  care  of  maintenance  alone.  They  gave  us  $3,500,000  for  main- 
tenance on  those  roads  in  New  York  State,  and  that  amount  is  not 
sufficient  to  properly  maintain  those  roads  to  the  degree  of  efficiency 
we  desire,  and  take  care  of  the  rebuilding  of  some  that  have  abso- 
lutely gone  to  pieces  and  are  now  in  a  shape  where  we  cannot  repair 
them  and  any  attempt  to  do  so  would  simply  be  foolish.  We  are 
now  building  1600  miles  of  roads  in  New  York  State  outside  of  the 
4000  miles  already  in  construction.  Those  contracts  involve  $20,- 
000,000  and  our  payments  to  contractors  in  this  month  for  construc- 
tion work  in  New  York  State  in  the  month  of  August  amounted  to 
over  $2,700,000.  The  payroll  of  the  department  in  the  State  of 
New  York  is  over  $1,200,000,  and  besides  that  we  are  paying  out  to 
the  poor  towns,  to  help  them  in  building  their  town  highways,  over 
$2,000,000  so  that  the  problems  that  relate  to  New  York  State  are 
problems  that  are  so  vast  that  I  knew  I  was  justified  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  advisory  board  and  I  know  I  am  going  to  be  justified 
in  the  entire  reorganization  of  the  department  from  beginning  to 
end.  In  our  State,  under  the  old  law,  we  had  six  divisions  with  a 
division  engineer  in  charge  of  each  division.  Our  maintenance  was 
separate  from  our  construction;  a  different  force  handled  mainte- 
nance and  construction.  Under  our  proposed  scheme,  we  are  going 
to  have  nine  divisions  in  New  York  State,  each  division  of  which 
will  be  larger  than  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and  spending  more 
money  in  construction  in  the  next  ten  years,  and  in  maintenance 
than  many  States  do,  so  you  can  imagine  the  problems  that  con- 
front a  division  engineer  in  New  York  State  with  the  building  and 
upkeep  of  these  good  roads.  We  are  not  afraid  of  construction;  we 
think  we  are  going  to  be  able  to  build  types  of  roads,  taking  into 
consideration  what  science  has  taught  us  up  to  date  in  regard  to 
road-building;  the  great  trouble  is  maintenance,  to  keep  those  roads 
up  to  a  proper  degree  of  efficiency,  and  when  New  York  gets  through 
building  its  system  of  12,000  miles  of  roads,  the  maintenance  prob- 
lem will  be  a  very  important  one  and  it  must  be  studied  now  to  see 
to  it  that  when  we  spend  this  enormous  amount  of  money  in  build- 
ing these  roads,  we  don't  let  them  go  down  to  where  they  will  be  a 
disgrace.  Today  the  people  demand  efficiency;  they  demand  of 


ADDRESS   BY   JOHN   N.    CARLISLE  255 

those  who  hold  public  office  and  have  charge  of  public  work,  that  that 
work  shall  be  done  efficiently.  Now,  our  system  in  New  York  is 
somewhat  unique,  and  I  think  a  good  many  of  you  gentlemen  here 
who  have  been  talking  about  the  problems  and  the  way  to  handle 
roads — possibly  we  may  have  figured  out  a  pretty  fair  scheme  in 
connection  with  it.  We  first  have  a  system  of  4000  miles  approxi- 
mately, of  State  roads  that  were  laid  out  by  the  legislature  of  New 
York  State,  and  under  the  last  referendum,  that  particular  4000 
miles,  3800  and  some  miles,  must  be  built  as  laid  out  on  the  map. 
We  build  those  roads,  pay  every  dollar  of  the  cost  of  building  them 
and  of  maintaining  them,  so  we  have  on  our  map,  as  we  call  it,  our 
State  routes  numbering  4000  miles,  then  we  have  a  system  of  what 
we  call  county  highways,  and  these  are  roads  laid  out  by  the  boards 
of  supervisors  of  each  county  in  the  State,  for  the  department  at 
Albany  has  the  veto  power  as  to  whether  or  not  they  lay  out  a  proper 
system  of  connecting  roads.  Thus  county  highways  of  8000  miles 
are  built  in  the  same  way  as  the  State  routes,  that  is  the  departments 
at  Albany  builds  the  roads  and  maintains  them,  but  the  counties 
pay  a  part  of  the  cost  of  building  those  roads,  and  that  cost  runs 
from  35  per  cent  down  to  9  per  cent,  and  the  difference  in  the  cost 
which  the  county  pays  toward  the  building  of  a  county  highway 
depends  upon  the  population  of  that  county  in  connection  with  its 
area  and  mileage,  so  that  in  all  the  counties  of  our  State  where  we 
have  a  city,  the  county  pays  35  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  building  those 
county  highways,  and  in  counties  where  there  are  no  cities  and  the 
population  is  small  and  the  assessed  valuation  is  light,  it  varies  until 
in  one  county,  Sullivan,  the  State  pays  91  per  cent  of  the  cost  of 
building  the  highways  of  Sullivan  County  and  the  county  pays  9 
per  cent.  This  county  money  is  paid  by  the  county  as  a  whole, 
not  assessed  upon  the  towns  or  individuals,  but  the  county  itself 
raises  its  share  of  the  money  to  build  this  system  of  county  roads, 
and  we  maintain  and  build  the  roads  exactly  in  the  same  way  and 
by  the  same  men  as  our  State  roads,  and  in  regard  to  maintenance, 
the  towns  in  which  the  highways  are  located,  pay  $50  per  mile  per 
year  for  maintenance,  which  is  a  mere  bagatelle  so  far  as  the  cost 
is  concerned,  at  the  present  time.  Besides  that,  we  give  directly 
to  the  towns  themselves  this  year '$1,781,000  of  money.  In  this 
way,  if  a  town  raises  $1500  of  money  to  improve  its  town  roads 
outside  of  these  county  and  State  highways,  the  State  of  New  York 
pays  directly  to  the  town  board  $1500  and  duplicates  their  money. 
There  is  a  divergency  there.  If  a  town  is  a  rich  town  with  a  small 
population,  we  don't  give  them  as  large  a  percentage  of  money  as 
we  do  a  poor  town  with  a  large  population,  but  it  practically  means 
that  every  one  of  our  towns  in  New  York  State,  the  State,  by  means 
of  a  direct  payment  out  of  its  treasury,  duplicates  the  money  that 
the  town  raises  for  good  roads,  and  because  of  the  fact  that  we  dupli- 
cate the  money  that  the  town  raises,  we  have,  in  a  way,  a  supervisory 
scheme  of  looking  after  the  distribution  of  that  money  in  the  towns. 


256  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

We  have  a  department  under  the  charge  of  a  deputy  known  as  the 
bureau  of  town  highways,  who  travels  around  the  State  with  a  corps 
of  inspectors,  advising  the  county  or  town  superintendents  as  to 
the  proper  methods  of  taking  care  of  their  purely  town  highways 
and  bridges  and  culverts,  and  I  want  to  say  there  has  probably  been 
no  better  work  done  in  New  York  State  today  than  has  been  done 
in  the  last  five  or  ten  years  among  the  poor  towns  of  the  counties 
and  in  the  typical  cross  roads  towns  of  New  York  State  by  means 
of  supervisory  work  done  by  county  superintendents  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  department  at  Albany  and  by  the  helping  of  these  poor 
towns  by  a  direct  giving  of  money  to  them  for  improving  their  roads. 
This  money  is  paid  directly  to  the  supervisors  of  the  town  and  the 
town  board  can  disburse  it  in  the  building  of  roads,  bridges,  culverts 
or  any  other  method  they  want  to  adopt,  so  you  see  the  activities 
of  the  highway  department  of  New  York  reach  out  to  and  cover 
every  road  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  our  mileage  there  is  about 
80,000  miles.  In  regard  to  bridges,  a  wonderful  development  has 
taken  place  there.  You  all  know  the  bridge  game  in  the  past.  I 
know  one  town  alone,  when  I  went  with  the  third  deputy,  there  was 
a  bridge  135  feet  long  built  seven  or  eight  years  ago,  and  we  took 
care  of  it  by  seven-foot  culverts.  Under  the  [law  today,  no  town 
can  buy  a  bridge  unless  the  county  superintendent  at  least  approves 
it,  so  we  have  got  some  kind  of  a  check  in  New  York  State  upon  the 
policy  of  building  these  tremendous  bridges  over  streams  where  they 
are  absolutely  not  required  at  all.  In  addition,  if  any  town  wants 
a  bridge  built  and  they  apply  to  our  department,  we  will  prepare 
the  plans  and  specifications  without  charge  and  furnish  them  either 
for  the  building  of  a  culvert  of  concrete  or  a  steel  structure,  so  we 
have  tried  to  work  out  in  New  York,  and  I  think  fairly  well,  not 
only  the  scheme  of  taking  care  of  what  a  good  many  people  criti- 
cize as  the  building  of  roads  simply  for  the  automobile  and  the  rich 
man,  but  we  have  gotten  up  a  scheme  that  reaches  right  down  to 
and  gets  upon  every  road  in  our  State,  no  matter  how  small  it  is 
or  how  poor  a  section  it  is  located  in,  and  in  some  way  try  to  get 
them  to  improve  their  local  town  roads  in  the  backwood,  as  we 
call  them.  Now  we  have  also  located  at  Albany,  and  I  think  that 
is  an  important  thing  for  you  gentlemen  to  take  up,  a  bureau  of  tests 
whereby  not  one  particle  of  material  can  go  upon  a  road  in  our 
State  until  that  material  is  tested  in  our  department  at  Albany  by 
our  own  men.  No  tar,  no  asphalt,  no  cement,  no  stone,  no  sand, 
nothing  whatever  of  any  possible  nature,  gravel  or  anything  else 
can  go  upon  our  roads  until  that  material  is  tested  in  our  own  depart- 
ment at  Albany  by  our  own  men  under  our  own  supervision,  and  I 
want  to  assure  you  that  it  is  a  wonderful  advance  in  regard  to  road 
building  when  you  know  that  the  materials  that  go  on  a  road  are 
materials  that  are  going  to  last,  or  materials  that  are  not  going  to 
pieces  within  a  comparatively  short  time,  and  that  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  subjects  we  have,  and  we  are  now  having  a  man 


ADDRESS   BY   JOHN   N.    CARLISLE  257 

travel  our  State  from  beginning  to  end  who  is  doing  nothing  except 
looking  into  the  problem  in  regard  to  materials  for  road  construc- 
tion, finding  out  every  gravel  bank  there  is,  sending  the  material 
to  Albany  and  having  it  tested,  and  there  is  not  over  half  the  gravel 
that  will  stand  the  test  we  require.  Lots  of  gravel,  when  subjected 
to  the  test,  will  not  stand  up  and  we  won't  permit  it  to  be  used. 
We  test  all  the  sand  and  we  are  trying  to  locate  all  the  stone  quarries 
in  New  York  that  may  possibly  be  made  available  for  construction, 
so  that  we  can  tell  our  contractors  "You  can  get  this  material  at  a 
certain  place."  We  are  trying  to  get  options  on  these  stone  quarries 
and  gravel  pits,  so  they  cannot  be  held  up  for  any  exorbitant  price, 
and  I  submit  to  you  gentlemen  who  have  charge  of  State  work,  that 
one  of  the  most  important  factors  that  you  ought  to  get  into,  no 
matter  how  small  you  get  into  it,  you  ought  to  have  at  your  head- 
quarters some  kind  of  a  bureau  of  tests  whereby  you  yourself  know 
without  taking  anybody  else's  word  for  it,  because  this  highway  game 
has  pretty  nearly  developed  in  a  highwaymen's  game  in  a  good  many 
sections  of  the  country,  and  you  have  got  to  be  careful  and  know 
that  what  you  put  into  the  road  is  what  you  want  to  put  into  it  and 
not  what  somebody  else  wants  you  to  put  in  because  he's  got  some- 
thing to  sell.  We  have  put  that  department  on  the  basis  of  a  very 
high  degree  of  efficiency,  and  one  of  the  greatest  advantages  is  the 
knowledge  that  when  we  build  our  roads  in  the  future,  we  are  going 
to  know,  when  we  put  any  material  into  the  road,  that  that  is  mate- 
rial that  we  believe  will  effectively  do  the  work  it  is  called  upon  to 
do.  In  our  State,  the  maintenance  problem,  as  I  said  before,  is 
the  great  problem.  We  have  tried  to  take  care  of  it  in  the  past 
by  a  patrol  system,  that  is,  we  have  assigned  men  an  average  of  about 
five  miles  of  road  each.  Those  men  go  upon  these  roads;  they  have 
a  horse  and  cart  and  are  supposed  to  look  after  the  road,  but  we 
became  convinced  that  the  patrol  system  does  not  bring  the  results 
which  we  want  to  have  for  the  expenditure  of  that  amount  of  money. 
Our  patrol  system  in  the  State  of  New  York  this  year  cost  us  $600,000, 
and  I  think  we  might  as  well  have  taken  about  $500,000  of  that 
money  and  dumped  it  in  the  river  so  far  as  results  are  concerned, 
and  we  are  determined  in  the  future  to  try  and  handle  this  question 
of  maintenance  on  an  entirely  different  basis,  organize  section  gangs 
of  men  and  try  to  follow  the  policies  adopted  by  the  steam  and 
street  railroads  in  the  methods  by  which  they  keep  their  property 
up.  They  would  never  go  back  to  a  proposition  of  putting  a  man 
in  charge  of  five  miles  of  road  and  expect  every  man  to  have  their  lines 
kept  up.  We  will  organize  section  gangs  and  give  them  a  steam 
roller,  an  automobile  truck  and  any  other  equipment  necessary  to 
let  them  go  on  these  roads  and  put  them  in  the  shape  in  which  they 
ought  to  be  maintained,  and  we  believe  in  New  York  and  are  very 
hopeful  that  by  means  of  the  advice  given  us  by  the  advisory  board 
and  the  new  specifications  we  expect  to  put  in  force  within  a  week 
for  the  building  of  our  roads  in  the  future,  we  are  going  to  be  able, 


258  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

we  hope,  to  solve  the  problem  a  little  bit  better  in  New  York,  where- 
by we  can  build  good  roads,  maintain  them,  keep  them  up  to  the 
proper  degree  of  efficiency  required  by  the  people  and  try  to  give 
the  people  a  dollar  for  every  dollar  that  is  spent. 

(Mr.  Carlisle  then  took  the  Chair.) 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  a 
distinguished  citizen  from  the  western  part  of  the  United  States 
who  has  been  interested  all  his  life  in  good  roads  and  who  is  going 
to  speak  to  you  upon  the  national  old  trail  roads,  Judge  Lowe  of 
Missouri. 

NATIONAL  OLD  TRAIL  ROADS 

BY  JUDGE  J.  M.  LOWE 

I  am  almost  always  introduced  and  assigned  to  that  subject  and 
rarely  ever  touch  upon  it  except  incidentally  by  way  of  illustration. 
I  ought  not  to  be  and  seriously  protested  against  being  called  upon 
this  morning  to  again  address  this  convention.  I  had  the  pleasure 
and  the  honor  of  addressing  you  the  other  day,  the  first  day  of  the 
convention.  I  am  on  the  program  again  tomorrow,  Michigan  day, 
and  so  I  am  liable  to  become  stale  and  unprofitable;  you  will  get 
tired  of  hearing  one  man  talk  too  much;  but  as  it  is  insisted  upon, 
if  you  have  the  patience,  I  believe  I  have  the  nerve  and  the  courage 
to  talk  to  you  for  a  few  moments,  and  in  the  beginning  I  will  supple- 
ment, for  a  purpose,  the  splendid  address  just  delivered  by  your 
chairman,  Mr.  Carlisle.  He  was  dealing  only  with  one  phase  of 
the  question,  and  that  a  practical  one  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
He  did  not  tell  you,  as  I  now  tell  you,  that  80  per  cent  of  the  $100,- 
000,000,  at  his  disposal  in  the  State  of  New  York  is  paid  by  the  city 
of  New  York.  I  am  saying  that  to  my  farmer  friends.  The  time 
was  in  the  history  of  road  legislation,  that  the  farmer  was  unduly 
burdened  with  road  maintenance  and  road  construction.  In  the 
evolution  of  events,  that  is  no  longer  true  and  it  ought  not  to  be 
true.  The  cities,  the  towns  and  the  villages  are  using  the  public 
roads  now  as  they  never  did  before,  and  they  ought  to  help  build  and 
maintain  them  and  they  are  doing  it  willingly  so  far  as  I  know. 
New  York  first  voted  $50,000,000  of  bonds.  There  was  some  criti- 
cism on  its  expenditure  and  it  was  not  sufficient.  They  submitted 
another  $50,000,000  proposition.  The  first  $50,000,000  was  carried 
largely  by  the  vote  of  New  York  City;  the  farmers  pretty  generally 
voted  against  it.  Notwithstanding  their  experience,  when  it  was 
submitted  the  second  time  it  was  carried  almost  unanimously.  Now 
that  $50,000,000  bond  proposition  is  pending  in  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  I  understand  they  have  expressly  exempted  farmlands. 
That  is  wrong,  absolutely  wrong,  if  that  is  true.  No  kind  of  property 


NATIONAL   OLD    TRAIL   ROADS  259 

ought  to  be  exempted  from  an  equitable  division  of  the  burdens  of 
taxation,  especially  for  great  internal  improvements,  but  they  will 
carry  it,  I  hope,  and  expend  it  wisely.  Now,  in  Missouri,  where 
I  come  from,  we  submitted  a  proposition  authorizing  and  empower- 
ing the  county  courts  to  levy  25  cents  upon  the  $100  of  valuation  to 
raise  a  road  fund.  Most  of  our  people  in  the  rural  communities 
voted  against  it.  I  am  a  farmer  myself  and  have  a  right  to  talk 
about  it.  We  are  naturally  shy.  I  am  not  an  automobile  owner, 
either,  and  have  a  right  to  talk  about  them;  I  don't  know  whether 
I  ever  will  be  an  automobile  owner  or  not.  I  am  not  connected  in 
any  way,  shape  or  form  with  any  commercial  interest  under  the  sun, 
and  never  have  been,  so  that  I  am  a  free  lance  on  all  these  questions 
and  can  afford  to  tell  the  truth,  if  I  know  what  it  is.  Now  we  shied 
naturally  at  increased  taxation  and  voted  against  it.  Kansas  City 
and  St.  Louis  carried  it  and  adopted  it,  with  the  result  that  in  Jack- 
son County,  Kansas  City  pays  95  per  cent  of  the  road  taxes  which 
are  building  a  magnificent  system  of  highways  in  that  county.  They 
had  not  yet  realized  that  this  movement  means  that  the  cities,  the 
towns  and  villages,  the  merchants,  the  manufacturers,  everybody 
shall  contribute  to  the  building  and  maintenance  of  the  roads  of 
the  country.  Now  let  us  utilize  that  situation,  make  the  most  of 
it,  and  when  these  propositions  are  submitted  to  you,  let  us  meet 
them  half  way.  Now,  to  clear  up  some  mystification  that  is  thrown 
around  these  questions  in  this  convention,  the  future  historian  will 
enjoy  himself  when  he  comes  to  write  the  history  of  this  great  move- 
ment, at  the  rapid  progress  it  has  made  and  the  peculiar  psychologi- 
cal growth  of  the  road  subject.  I  began  just  where  some  of  the 
speakers  at  this  convention  left  off  a  year  ago,  in  believing  that  the 
national  government  ought  to  take  a  hand  in  this  great  movement 
on  condition  that  the  States  and  the  counties  contributed  their  share. 
My  God!  haven't  they  contributed  their  share?  Whose  money  is 
this  about  which  we  are  talking?  Where  does  it  come  from?  It 
is  a  false  idea,  a  false  conception.  The  national  treasury  is  not  dis- 
tinct and  separate  from  the  State  treasury  except  in  the  ingenious 
manner  in  which  the  taxes  are  collected;  that  is  all,  and  you  are 
contributing  every  time  you  turn  around,  to  build  up  the  national 
treasury,  doing  it  unconsciously.  But  some  of  them  seem  to  have 
the  idea,  that  old  miserable,  worn  out  idea,  that  there  is  some  kind 
of  antagonism  between  the  national  government  and  the  State  gov- 
ernment, and  some  of  them  will  say  "Let's  do  this,  let's  insist  that 
the  government  do  it  provided  the  State  will  do  so  and  so,"  and  we 
will  send — they  used  to  call  them  ambassadors — from  the  States, 
the  Senators,  the  ambassadors  from  the  States,  to  work  upon  the 
general  government  and  plead  with  it  for  a  part  of  our  own  money. 
Now,  that  is  an  altogether  false  conception  of  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment, of  the  duties  of  government.  My  theory  now  is,  and  if  it  is 
not  yours,  it  will  be,  because  I  have  traveled  exactly  over  the  same 
road  that  some  of  you  are  still  traveling — I  listened  to  a  tremendously 


260  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

distinguished  and  highly  accomplished  and  educated — a  real  states- 
man— the  other  day,  and  I  said  "Why,  he  is  fine,"  and  still  he  is 
growing  rapidly,  he  is  now  in  the  kindergarten  class,  he  will  graduate 
by  and  by  and  be  an  out  and  out  national  road  man;  there  isn't  a 
shadow  of  doubt;  it  is  like  a  Texas  steer,  if  you  once  get  him  in  the 
chute  and  prod  him,  he  will  go  right  on.    Just  one  other  idea;  I 
have  been  sitting  on  this  rostrum  here  and  this  thought  occurred  to 
me;  there's  the  greatest  highway  in  all  the  world,  I  don't  except 
any,  right  there.    Why  not  turn  it  over  to  the  State  of  Michigan? 
Why  not  let  Michigan  take  care  of  that  great  highway  and  control 
it?    Can  you,  for  the  life  of  you,  draw  a  distinction  between  that 
highway  and  any  other  great  national  highway  in  this  country? 
The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  said  recently  that  there 
is  no  distinction  under  the  commerce  clause  of  the  constitution,  no 
distinction  between  transportation  by  water  and  by  land.     Congress 
has  found  no  difficulty,  no  constitutional  difficulty,  in  contributing 
more  than  $600,000,000  to  the  water  highways  of  this  country,  to 
the  rivers  and  harbors,  more  than  half  of  which  has  been  wasted; 
but  when  you  ask  them  to  contribute  something  to  the  building  of 
national  roads,  they  at  once  meet  you  with  the  proposition  that 
we  are  in  favor  of  doing  that  provided  you  will  contribute  an  equal 
amount.    We  will  let  you  have  some  of  your  money  if  you  will  raise 
an  equal  amount  with  what  you  have  already  paid.    You  did  not 
resort  to  that  in  the  passage  of  the  rivers  and  harbors  bill;  neither 
did  you  when  you  voted  away  more  than  200,000,000  acres  from  the 
public  land  States  of  this  country  to  the  railroads.     I  ask  you  and 
I  am  going  to  continue  to  ask  you,  where  do  the  railroads  of  this 
country  stand  on  this  great  question?    Are  you  with  us  or  are  you 
against  us?    If  you  are  behind  the  Shackleford  idea,  then  I  know 
where  you  are.    I  know  where  you  have  been  on  the  rivers  and 
harbors  legislation  of  this  country,  but  if  they  can,  this  question 
will  be  put  just  where  the  rivers  and  harbors  legislation  has  been 
for  the  last  fifty  years — in  the  pork  barrel.    They  have  kept  it  there 
and  I  know  why,  and  I  know  that  that  is  the  scheme  in  Congress 
now.    Why,  when  we  passed  a  resolution  through  the  last  Congress 
in  Washington  in  favor  of  appropriating  national  revenues  to  the 
building  of  a  system  of  national  highways,  it  was  moved  to  amend 
it  by  turning  it  over  to  such  roads  as  Congress  might  decide  in  favor 
of.    What  did  that  mean?    It  meant,  we  will  take  this  money,  we 
will  vote  in  favor  of  this  appropriation  provided  it  is  distributed 
among  the  congressional  districts.    Now  they  take  offense,  some  of 
them,  at  the  statement  that  they  are  pork  barrel  statesmen.     Let 
me  show  you — and  I  quote  their  own  figures.    Suppose  Congress 
shou  d  decide  to  appropriate  $3,000,000  to  the  building  of  a  national 
highway  across  the  State  of  Missouri,  about  300  miles.    At  $10,000 
a  mile,  it  would  cost  $3,000,000.     If,  instead  of  doing  that,  they 
would  turn  it  over  to  the  State  legislature  to  be  parceled  out  among 
the  counties,  it  would  give  $30,000  to  each  county,  with  that  they 


NATIONAL   OLD   TRAIL   ROADS  261 

could  build  just  three  miles  of  road  in  each  county.  Under  the  other 
plan,  they  would  build  one  great  highway,  at  least,  clear  across  the 
State.  Suppose  they  built  eight  roads?  Then  the  government 
would  have  built  2400  miles  in  the  State;  at  $10,000  a  mile  it  would 
come  to  $24,000,000.  That  amount,  divided  up  again  among  the 
counties  would  give  $240,000  to  each  county,  or  24  miles  of  road 
in  each  county.  Twenty  miles  is  an  average  across  each  county. 
The  nation,  under  that  principle  would  build  160  miles  of  national 
roads,  while  under  the  Shackleford  idea,  if  the  money  was  distributed 
and  all  of  it  put  into  roads  instead  of  into  the  pockets  of  a  lot  of 
road  officials  for  political  purposes  they  would  build  24  miles  of  road 
instead  of  160.  Now  that  is  it  exactly,  brother.  I  am  a  conserva- 
tive of  the  conservatives,  yet  they  talk  about  me  being  a  radical, 
every  once  in  a  while.  Mr.  Shackleford  says  that  in  five  years  he 
proposes  to  build  a  million  miles  of  road  with  the  national  revenues. 
What  does  that  mean?  At  $10,000  a  mile,  that  means  an  appro- 
priation of  $10,000,000,000  in  five  years,  $2,000,000,000  annually. 
That  means,  if  it  means  anything,  absolute  national  bankruptcy. 
Why,  there  is  not  a  government  on  earth  that  could  stand  such  a 
scheme  as  that.  Now  that  is  enough  to  say  about  that;  I  dismiss 
him  and  dismiss  his  idea  and  consign  him,  together  with  the  Congress- 
men who  stand  by  him — and  I  know  most  of  them — to  that  oblivion 
which  he  has  so  richly  merited.  Now  I  will  talk  just  a  minute  about 
another  Senator's  scheme,  and  they  say  he  is  a  financial  wonder,  a 
financial  genius,  Senator  Bourne.  These  played  out  politicians, 
when  they  lose  out  at  Washington,  they  go  to  work  and  get  on  a 
committee.  They  made  him  chairman  of  a  joint  committee  and  he 
has  got  up  a  scheme  for  national  aid,  federal  aid,  and  I  want  to  tell 
you  in  a  nutshell  just  what  it  is.  He  says  that  if  any  State — and  he 
has  prepared  a  table  showing  us  how  much  we  may  expect  under 
that,  I  don't  know  what  Michigan  would  receive  under  that,  I  expect 
about  $25,000,000,  but  before  she  can  get  a  dollar  of  it,  he  proposes 
that  the  government  shall  issue  bonds  to  the  extent  of  $3,000,000,000. 
Do  you  know  how  much  that  is?  I  don't.  I  haven't  the  faintest 
conception  and  neither  had  he — $3,000,000,000 — and  sell  them.  Lord ! 
I  wonder  where  he  would  find  a  market  for  them — 3  per  cent  bonds, 
and  then  let  the  States  issue  4  per  cent  bonds  and  pledge  those  bonds 
as  collateral  to  remain  in  hock  for  fifty  years.  Now,  my  farmer 
friends,  you  see  where  that  lands  you. 

A  DELEGATE:     I'm  not  in  favor  of  that  scheme. 

JUDGE  LOWE:  Of  course  you're  not,  and  no  other  level  headed 
farmer  under  the  shining  sun  is  in  favor  of  it  and  never  will  be. 
Just  work  out  that  scheme.  We  put  up,  in  the  State  of  Michigan, 
about  $25,000,000  4  per  cent  bonds  and  he  says — and  the  maga- 
zines of  the  country  have  commented  on  it  favorably  and  have  said 
"Why,  at  the  expiration  of  the  fifty  years,  they  cancel  the  bonds, 


262  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

the  government  does,  cancels  the  State  bonds  and  hands  them  back." 
True,  and  they  think  that  is  an  act  of  great  magnanimity.  Great 
God!  why  not,  when  the  State  had  paid  the  bonds  twice?  Count 
it  up,  4  per  cent  on  $25,000,000  for  fifty  years  is  $1,000,000  a  year, 
isn't  it?  $25,000,000;  $1,000,000  a  year;  in  fifty  years  you  have 
paid  off  your  $25,000,000  and  paid  it  to  the  government,  because 
you  have  paid  the  interest  on  its  bonds  in  the  meantime,  and  the 
bonds  ought  to  be  canceled,  oughtn't  they?  But  what  else  does  it 
do?  It  ties  you  up  for  fifty  years,  perhaps  exhausts  your  bond 
voting  power  and  you  cannot  anticipate.  This  scheme  won't  work 
unless  you  take  it  for  fifty  years.  Now,  if  that  is  national  aid, 
may  the  good  Lord  deliver  us  from  any  national  aid,  and  let  me 
just  say  a  word  on  national  aid;  that  is  the  most  wretchedly  mis- 
leading proposition  under  the  shining  sun — national  aid,  federal  aid. 
I  used  it  for  a  while  but  have  cut  it  out  of  the  literature  of  the  Old 
Trails  Association  absolutely;  we  never  use  it,  because  it  is  abso- 
lutely misleading,  and  we  don't  ask  federal  aid.  If  a  road  ought 
not  to  be  built  because  it  is  right,  because  it  serves  a  great  national 
purpose,  then  the  national  government  has  no  right  to  lend  its  aid 
to  the  building  of  any  such  road.  Old  Jackson  was  right.  He  was 
sometimes  wrong,  but  he  was  pretty  near  always  and  Clay  was 
pretty  near  always  right;  but  Jackson  was  right  on  that  proposition 
when  he  vetoed  the  Clay  bill.  He  said  "Your  road  is  a  local  meas- 
ure." Mr.  Lincoln,  in  discussing  that  question  said,  "It  is  true 
that  scarcely  any  improvement  is  so  local  in  its  character  as  to  be 
of  no  general  benefit,  and  that  is  especially  true  of  a  road  proposition," 
but  unless  a  road  is  of  a  national  character,  I  maintain,  I  don't  care 
what  powers  you  may  have  under  the  constitution,  maybe  you  have 
the  right  under  it,  to  appropriate  this  money  indiscriminately,  but 
I  do  claim  that  the  correct  policy  is  to  appropriate  the  public  funds 
for  public  purposes  and  no  other.  Now  let  us  stop  taking  about 
national  aid  and  let  us  go  to  the  government  and  say,  "Build  a 
system  of  national  highways  and  maintain  such  system."  That  is 
the  correct  doctrine.  When  you  do  that,  you  need  not  appeal  to 
the  States  to  share  in  that  great  effort.  You  need  not  go  back  to 
the  States  with  your  ambassadors  and  ask  them  to  negotiate  with 
them;  you  do  not  even  have  to  ask  the  right  of  way.  I  have  made 
tremendous  progress;  if  I  had  very  much  States'  rights  in  me,  they 
shot  it  out  of  me  in  about  four  years;  they  gave  me  a  devil  of  a 
walloping.  I  have  been  reconstructed  ever  since.  I  don't  shy  at 
any  of  those  questions.  The  national  government  has  as  much  right 
to  build  a  highway  across  the  State  of  Michigan  as  to  build  and 
improve  that  highway  out  there  [pointing  to  the  river]. 

Now  I  have  scattered  around  over  questions  enough  to  make  you 
talk  until  the  next  annual  convention.  My  subject  for  tomorrow 
was  to  be  "Storm  Centers  to  be  Avoided  in  the  Campaign  for  Better 
Roads,"  and  I  am  going  to  say  a  whole  lot  about  avoiding  these 
storm  centers,  and  here  I  have  been  setting  up  about  a  dozen  of  them 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  ROAD  263 

myself.  Now  Gentlemen,  let's  get  together,  and  that  is  the  thing 
we  can  do  and  ought  to  do.  There  are  several  questions  closely 
related  to  the  ones  I  have  mentioned  that  I  would  like  to  discuss; 
if  it  was  not  for  taking  up  the  whole  forenoon,  I  would  do  it,  but 
this  is  enough,  let's  keep  this;  if  we  are  going  to  build  any  roads  in 
this  country,  let's  stand  for  a  system  of  national  highways  built, 
supervised  and  maintained  by  the  government;  a  system  of  State 
highways  built,  maintained  and  supervised  by  the  State  and  by  the 
counties  and  the  townships.  Then  we  will  have  a  system  of  roads 
that  will  be  worth  while.  Then  we  will  have  roads  that  go  some- 
where, not  like  your  roads  around  Detroit,  you've  got  some  splendid 
roads,  but  we  didn't  get  three  miles  outside  of  the  city  limits  of 
Detroit  before  we  plunged  off  into  the  mud,  and  I  wonder  what 
became  of  that  gentleman  who  said  that  earth  roads,  natural  roads, 
were  the  best?  I  wish  he  was  here  today;  I  want  to  go  out  with  him; 
I  want  him  to  see  some  of  these  roads  right  here  near  Detroit;  that 
may  be  so  down  in  North  Carolina,  where  the  tar  heels  all  live. 
I  don't  know,  I  never  saw  them,  I  expect  it  is  so  because  he  is  a  fine 
fellow  and  he  said  it  was  so,  but  I  would  like  to  see  one  of  them; 
you'd  have  to  show  a  fellow  from  Missouri.  Now,  if  we  get  behind 
a  uniform  plan  and  stay  by  it,  those  fellows  at  Washington  keep 
their  ears  to  the  ground  all  the  time,  they  are  watching  the  situation 
and  are  ready  to  act  and  going  to  act,  going  to  do  something,  prefer- 
ably so  they  can  go  back  home  to  their  district  and  say,  "Just  look 
what  I  brought  you."  Now,  I  thank  you  gentlemen  and  will  give 
way  to  somebody  else. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  In  all  of  these  movements  there  can  be  no  suc- 
cess attained  unless  everybody  joins  in  them,  and  among  the 
people  who  are  novv  most  interested  in  good  roads,  naturally  in- 
terested in  the  good  roads  problem,  I  consider  are  the  men  who 
work  and  toil  upon  the  farms  of  the  country.  They  have  a  rep- 
resentative here,  one  of  their  own  men  who  is  high  up  in  their  order, 
and  I  have  the  great  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  Mr.  N.  P.  Hull, 
of  Diamondale,  Michigan,  who  will  speak  upon  the  subject,  "The 
Farmer  and  the  Road." 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  ROAD 

BY  N.  P.  HULL 

This  morning  I  am  a  good  deal  like  a  certain  fellow  down  in  the 
State  of  Ohio — you  people  will  appreciate  this — I  guess  you  have 
all  heard  of  the  excellence  of  the  clay  roads  of  Ohio  in  a  very  wet 
time.  This  fellow  was  going  down  those  roads,  one  of  the  worst 
ones,  afoot.  He  had  on  rubber  boots  up  to  his  hips.  He  got  in 
a  very  bad  place  and  stopped  to  look  the  ground  over.  He  felt 


264  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

one  foot  sinking;  he  changed  his  weight  over  onto  the  other  and 
tried  to  pull  this  out,  and  the  foot  on  which  he  placed  his  weight 
went  down  as  far  as  the  other  came  up.  He  worked  that  way 
for  a  long  time  there  and  a  gentleman  who  lived  alongside  the  road 
saw  him  there  and  went  out  and  said,  "  What's  the  matter?  Are  you 
stuck?"  And  the  fellow  says,  "Yes,  and  it  is  the  worst  sort  of  a  stuck, 
too,  for  I  haven't  anything  to  unload."  I  am  somewhat  in  the  condi- 
tion of  that  man  this  morning,  that  is,  I  haven't  very  much  to 
unload.  The  officers  of  the  A.  A.  A.  wrote  me  about  a  week  or 
ten  days  ago  and  asked  me  to  talk  here  this  morning  and  say  some- 
thing from  the  farmer's  standpoint,  but  they  did  not  say  any- 
thing about  what  the  topic  was  to  be  and  I  did  not  know  the  sub- 
ject I  was  to  talk  upon  until  I  got  here  this  morning,  so  I  have 
not  had  a  very  large  opportunity  to  load  up  so  as  to  have  any- 
thing to  unload  upon  you  this  morning.  Now  I  am  not  going 
to  try  and  contribute  so  many  new  thoughts  to  this  matter.  What 
I  say,  and  I'm  not  going  to  talk  a  great  while,  will  be  more  along 
the  line  of  a  rehearsal,  but  I  feel  justified  in  that  because  no  great 
movement  has  ever  come  to  its  full  conception  without  rehearsal 
and  re-rehearsal.  We  must  talk  these  things  over  and  talk  them  over 
again  before  we  can  all  come  to  a  conclusion  or  before  we  will  all  see 
anything  like  the  full  field  we  are  to  consider,  and  at  rehearsing,  I 
am  pretty  fair;  at  original  thinking,  I  am  not  so  good.  It  has  always 
been  rather  easy  for  me  to  talk,  in  fact  I  never  got  stumped  but 
once;  I  will  have  to  tell  you  this  little  incident — I  wish  you  wouldn't 
take  this  foolishness  down — to  show  that  even  a  man  who  talks  a 
good  deal  will  once  in  a  while  get  stumped.  I  visited  a  friend  of 
mine  over  in  Massachusetts  some  time  ago,  and  in  the  evening, 
knowing  I  was  quite  a  hand  for  amusement,  he  says,  "Hull,  they  are 
going  to  have  an  entertainment  over  at  the  Institution  tonight; 
would  you  like  to  go?"  I  said,  "What  kind  is  it?"  He  said,  "It's 
the  deaf  and  dumb  asylum."  I  said,  "Yes,  I  am  in  for  most  any  sort 
of  an  entertainment."  So  we  went  over.  We  got  over  there  and  it 
turned  out  to  be  a  dance.  I  stood  and  watched  those  dancers  and 
among  the  young  ladies  dancing  there  were  two  or  three  very  beau- 
tiful girls.  I  watched  them  for  a  while  and  said,  "Jim,  it's  too  bad 
these  girls  are  deaf  and  dumb;  there  are  some  pretty  girls  among 
these  deaf  and  dumb  people  here.  Do  you  know  that  if  that  girl 
right  over  across  there  (pointing  out  one)  if  she  wasn't  deaf  and 
dumb  I  would  like  to  dance  with  her  myself."  He  says,  "That 
won't  make  any  difference,  her  being  deaf  and  dumb,  she  can  dance 
just  as  well  as  though  she  wasn't."  I  says,  "Yes,  I  can  see  that, 
but  I  can't  ask  her  to  dance,  because  I  don't  understand  this  finger 
language."  He  says,  "I  can  fix  that  for  you;  I  can  talk  the  finger 
language  well  enough  to  introduce  you,  and  these  girls  get  to  under- 
stand the  language  of  motions  clearly;  so  you  just  go  over  there  and 
make  the  right  sort  of  motion  and  she  will  know  what  you  mean." 
I  says,  "Yes,  but  I  don't  know  what  kind  of  motion  to  make." 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  ROAD  265 

He  says,  "You  look  right  in  her  eyes  and  make  a  motion  like  putting 
your  arm  around  her  waist  and  she  will  know  what  you  mean." 
He  took  me  over  and  introduced  me;  I  looked  her  in  the  eye  and 
made  a  motion  like  putting  my  arm  around  her  waist  and  then  I 
girated  around  the  floor.  She  assented  and  then  I  thought  again 
how  really  sad  it  was  that  that  girl  was  deaf  and  dumb,  because  I 
could  think  of  a  lot  of  sweet  things  I'd  like  to  say  to  her.  Just  before 
the  music  started,  a  fellow  said  to  her,  "Come  Grace  and  have  a 
dish  of  ice  cream  with  me."  She  said,  "I'd  like  to,  but  I  promised 
to  dance  with  this  dummy."  Now  seriously,  just  a  few  words  in 
regard  to  this  great  road  proposition  from  the  farmer's  standpoint. 
While  I  did  not  hear  Congressman  Shackleford  the  other  day,  I 
know  the  Congressman  pretty  well,  I  have  talked  over  this  matter 
of  good  roads  with  him,  and  I  noticed  he  stirred  matters  up  here  the 
other  day  and  that  even  Judge  Lowe,  from  the  same  State  of  Mis- 
souri, does  not  agree  with  Mr.  Shackleford.  If  these  men  from 
Missouri  that  have  to  be  shown,  don't  agree,  of  course  it  is  easy  to 
conceive  where  others  of  us  may  not  agree.  I  don't  believe  that  the 
farmers  need  necessarily  disagree  in  the  matter  of  good  roads  where 
those  good  roads  ought  to  be  placed  and  how  they  ought  to  be 
paid  for,  if  the  farmer  is  to  get  a  fair  share  of  the  benefit  of  good 
roads,  and  I  am  just  a  good  enough  farmer  and  I  believe  suffi- 
ciently in  the  justice  of  the  farmer's  cause,  to  believe  that  he  ought 
to  kick  unless  he  does  get  a  fair  share  of  the  distribution  of  the  bene- 
fits of  good  roads.  Now,  the  farmer,  the  judge  says,  and  it  is  true, 
had  been  the  man  who  has  moved  very  slowly  in  this  matter  of  good 
roads.  Farmers  who  study  and  think  along  these  lines  must  agree 
that  the  farmer  has  been  over-conservative  in  a  good  many  instances, 
but  you  men  here  who  have  lived  out  in  a  new  farm  country,  on  a 
40  acre  farm  and  have  made  a  living  there,  raised  a  family  and  pro- 
vided against  your  old  age,  know  that  it  is  a  proposition  and  you 
know  that  when  it  comes  to  a  matter  of  high  tax,  you  are  going 
to  stop  and  think  several  times  before  you  rush  into  that  and  you 
are  apt  to  be  pretty  conservative  when  you  have  spent  your  life 
on  a  farm  of  that  sort,  striving  to  educate  your  famiry  and  pro- 
vide against  the  old  age  that  you  know  is  coming  on,  and  when 
that  conservative  farmer  read  that  good  roads  cost  from  $2,000 
to  $10,000  a  mile,  he  says,  "It  will  take  more  than  my  whole  farm 
to  build  a  road  in  front  of  my  farm;  I  think  I  ought  to  be  a  little 
conservative  about  the  matter;"  so  don't  blame  the  farmer  too 
much  if  he  has  been  conservative.  He  has  been  and  is  conserva- 
tive, and  it  is  a  mighty  good  thing  that  he  is  conservative,  because 
he  has  been  the  balance  wheel,  in  a  way,  and  has  kept  the  men  from 
some  other  industries  from  going  faster  and  further  than  they  ought 
to  go.  Now,  we  are  all  pretty  well  agreed  today  that  we  ought  to 
have  better  roads,  that  we  have  come  to  a  time  when  we  must  have 
better  roads,  and  we  have  generally  come  to  agree,  I  think,  that  the 
cost  of  building  and  maintaining  these  roads  ought  to  be  equitably 


266  AMERICAN   EOAD    CONGRESS 

distributed  between  the  locality,  the  State  and  the  nation.  The 
farmers,  I  think,  the  great  majority  of  them,  are  today  ready  to  come 
and  stand  with  the  automobile  manufacturer,  the  automobile  user, 
and  say  that  we  will  contribute  our  fair  share  toward  the  building  of 
good  roads,  if  those  roads,  as  I  said  a  few  moments  ago,  are  to  be 
equitably  distributed ;  but,  my  friends,  you  will  not  blame  us  farmers 
of  this  country  if  we  set  back  in  the  breech  and  set  back  pretty 
hard,  if  you  are  going  to  build  with  the  money  that  we  help  to 
contribute,  a  national  highway  that  is  not  coming  within  a  hun- 
dred or  even  a  thousand  miles  of  our  homes  or  the  roads  over  which 
we  travel.  Now,  there  are  a  great  many  different  theories  in  regard 
to  how  these  roads  are  to  be  built  and  where  they  are  to  be  built. 
I  say  we  have  come  fairly  well  together  in  the  matter  of  agreeing  how 
the  funds  shall  be  raised.  Now,  the  question  before  the  man  who  is 
honestly  interested  in  better  roads  in  this  country  is  to  decide  fairly 
where  those  roads  are  to  be  builded.  I,  as  a  farmer,  and  this  great 
national  farm  organization  that  I  represent,  have  no  objections  to 
boulevards  being  built  across  this  country.  We  have  no  objection  to 
great  national  highways  or  old  trails  or  memorial  highways  or  anything 
of  the  kind.  We  have  no  objection  to  State  highways  that  shall  join 
the  larger  cities  of  the  State;  in  fact,  we  know  there  are  farmers  who 
live  along  those  highways,  and  in  fact  we  know  that  the  greatest 
traffic  is  upon  those  highways  and  we  are  ready  to  agree  that  those 
highways  shall  be  improved  and  we  are  ready  to  help  raise  the  money 
to  improve  those  highways,  but  we  believe  that  at  least  a  fair  share 
of  that  money  ought  to  be  spent  to  improve  the  roads  from  the  doors 
of  the  farmers  who  live  scattered  over  this  State  and  other  States  to 
the  market  center  of  that  farmer.  Now  I  don't  want  to  speak  to 
you  here  from  a  selfish  standpoint  this  morning.  I  believe  I  am 
justified  in  saying  the  things  that  I  have  said,  that  is,  the  farmer's 
contention,  from  the  fact  that  money  cannot  be  spent  for  better 
roads,  that  will  improve  the  condition  for  a  great  majority  of  the 
people  or  that  the  greater  majority  of  the  people  ought  to  be  inter- 
ested in  any  one  road  than  that  road  that  leads  from  the  farmer's 
door  into  the  market  or  from  one  farmer's  door  to  another  farmer's 
door,  or  to  the  church  door,  the  school  door,  or  the  door  of  the  grange 
hall  and  other  institutions  that  enable  that  farmer  to  get  out  and 
mingle  with  his  fellows.  I  want  to  say  to  you  road  men  as  to  every 
other  good  thinking  citizen  of  this  country  today,  there  is  no  ques- 
tion before  the  American  people  that  means  more  to  them,  that 
means  more  to  the  perpetuity  of  this  great  nation  of  ours  than 
the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  American  farmer,  to  make 
the  life  of  the  American  farmer  pleasant  and  the  home  of  the  Ameri- 
can farmer  more  attractive  to  the  great  majority  of  our  citizens  in 
this  country.  There  is  one  question  that  is  bound  to  come  close  to 
us  all,  and  that  is  the  great  question  of  the  food  supply  of  our  people. 
A  little  over  thirty  years  ago,  approximately,  out  of  every  three 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  ROAD  267 

people  in  the  United  States,  two  of  those  people  were  upon  farms 
producing  the  food  to  feed  the  three.  After  thirty  years,  approxi- 
mately, out  of  every  three  people  in  the  United  States,  one  of  them 
is  upon  the  farm  producing  the  food  to  feed  the  three,  and  the  trend 
of  the  past  decade  and  the  trend  today  is  all  away  from  the  farm 
into  the  cities.  My  friends,  I  just  stop  and  ask  you,  if  something 
is  not  done  to  stop  the  trend  of  that  movement  from  the  farms 
into  the  city,  what  is  going  to  happen  to  this  nation  of  ours?  What 
is  going  to  happen  to  the  people  of  the  city?  We  want  a  certain 
number  of  our  people  to  go  from  the  farms  to  the  cities,  because 
we  want  cities  and  we  know  that  we  would  not  have  cities  that  would 
be  worth  while  for  a  great  many  years  if  we  did  not  send  the  new 
blood  and  the  stamina  and  the  gumption  and  the  ginger  from  the 
farm  home  into  the  city.  We  need  a  certain  number  of  those  boys 
to  go  into  the  cities,  but  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  the  time  is  here 
when,  for  the  best  interests  of  this  great  country  of  ours,  we  must 
keep  a  part  of  the  brains  that  is  growing  up  in  the  country  back 
there  in  the  country,  and  nothing  is  of  more  interest  to  the  dwellers 
of  the  city  than  that  we  shall  be  able  to  keep  some  of  the  brains 
that  are  growing  on  the  farm  out  there  in  the  farm  home.  Just 
let  me  give  you  another  illustration  along  this  line.  One  of  the 
supervisors  in  one  of  the  best  agricultural  counties  in  the  State  of 
Michigan,  last  spring  when  he  passed  his  assessment  took  a  census 
to  determine  the  ages  of  the  men  doing  the  farm  labor  in  that  town- 
ship, and  what  do  you  suppose  was  the  average  age  of  the  men  in 
that  agricultural  township  in  an  agricultural  county  in  the  State  of 
Michigan?  The  average  age  of  all  the  men  doing  the  farm  work  in 
that  township  was  55  years.  Now  let  me  stop  and  ask  you,  if  we 
go  on  with  that  and  increase  the  average  age  of  the  men  who  are 
on  the  farm,  how  do  you  expect  to  be  fed  in  the  cities  at  all?  We 
must  change  that.  I  have  always  lived  upon  a  farm,  I  have  always 
been  interested  in  a  farm  and,  like  our  friend  from  Missouri,  I 
haven't  any  money  invested  in  any  other  industry  than  that  of 
farming  and  agriculture.  Perhaps  I  see  the  farm  end  of  it,  but  if 
I  see  the  farm  end  of  it  too  clearly,  I  want  the  man  who  sees  the 
other  end  of  it  more  clearly  to  tell  me  how  the  people  of  this  country 
are  to  be  fed  and  how  this  nation  is  to  go  on  in  its  national  greatness 
as  it  has  been  going  on  for  the  last  hundred  years  or  more,  unless  we 
are  able  to  keep  more  of  these  men  upon  the  farm,  and  I  want  to 
say  to  you,  from  a  study  of  farm  life,  that  I  don't  believe  there 
is  any  one  thing  more  essential  for  the  betterment  of  the  institution 
of  agriculture,  I  don't  believe  there  is  any  one  thing  that  will  help 
to  make  life  upon  the  farm  more  attractive,  I  don't  believe  there  is 
any  one  thing  that  will  help  to  hold  the  men  upon  the  farm  and  the 
boys  upon  the  farm,  more  than  to  have  a  good  passable  highway 
from  that  farm  home  to  the  city  where  the  young  man  can  get  out 
and  see  his  girl,  not  six  months  in  the  year  but  twelve  months  in  the 


268  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

year.  Not  only  where  the  farmer  can  get  his  products  to  the  market 
when  they  are  cheapest,  but  where  he  can  get  his  products  to  the 
market  for  twelve  months  in  the  year,  not  only  for  the  benefit  of 
that  farmer,  but  for  the  benefit  of  every  other  citizen  of  this  great 
country  of  ours.  So  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  in  this  consideration 
of  better  roads  and  where  to  build  those  better  roads,  build  your 
national  highways,  build  your  State  highways  but,  my  friends, 
don't  forget  the  man  at  the  other  end  of  the  bad  road;  don't  forget 
that  it  is  not  only  that  man  that  is  interested,  but  every  other 
citizen  of  this  country  that  is  interested  in  making  that  man,  in 
bringing  that  man  closer  to  his  market  and  closer  to  his  fellows  and 
making  life  upon  the  farm  more  attractive,  because  it  is  not  only 
for  the  interests  of  the  farmer,  but  it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  auto- 
mobile builder,  the  automobile  driver  and  every  mother's  son,  every 
man  in  this  country  who  is  interested  in  the  building  up  and  per- 
petuity of  our  great  American  institutions.  Thank  you. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  have  been  very  much  interested  in  Mr. 
Hull's  statement,  and  I  think  possibly  if  he  understands  our  sys- 
tem in  New  York,  he  will  appreciate  what  we  have  been  trying 
to  work  out  there  under  our  scheme  of  12,000  miles  of  highways 
in  New  York  State;  we  are  trying  to  re-arrange  our  county  systems 
so  there  will  not  be  any  section  of  New  York  State  outside  of  the 
Adirondacks  and  Catskills  that  will  be  further  away  than  five  miles 
from  any  State  or  county  highway,  and  then,  with  the  money  that 
we  appropriate  directly  from  the  State  treasury  to  the  towns,  we  seek 
to  make  the  towns  build  the  proper  connecting  links  in  these  five 
mile  breaks  so  that  every  man  in  our  State  will  have  a  road  for 
twelve  months  in  the  year  whereby  he  can,  by  going  a  very  short 
distance  over  our  town  roads,  get  wherever  he  wants  to  go.  We 
ought  to  have  our  national  highways  that  stretch  across  the  country, 
our  State  highways  that  tie  up  with  the  national  system ;  our  county 
highways  that  tie  up  with  the  State  system,  and  then  we  must 
have  our  town  highways  that  tie  up  with  both  our  county  and 
State  systems.  We  are  trying  and  I  think  will  work  out  a 
pretty  good  scheme  toward  that  solution.  In  our  State  we 
have,  I  think,  a  unique  system.  Out  local  boards  of  supervisors 
elect  a  county  superintendent  of  highways  and  that  county  super- 
intendent of  highways,  elected  by  the  boards  of  supervisors  of  each 
county,  has  to  do,  in  a  way,  with  our  State  and  county  highway 
construction,  because  no  State  road,  built  in  a  county,  can  be  or 
will  be  accepted  by  my  department  unless  the  county  engineer 
approves  of  it,  and  no  county  highway  can  be  accepted  unless  the 
county  superintendent  and  board  of  supervisors  approve  of  it. 
I  am  asked  to  call  upon  Colonel  Suggs  of  Oklahoma,  which  is  a 
great  big  State  and  wants  national  roads  and  probably  needs  them. 


ADDRESS   BY   COLONEL   SIDNEY   SUGGS  269 

ADDRESS  BY  COLONEL  SIDNEY  SUGGS 

State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Oklahoma 

I  have  waited  long  and  patiently.  I  have  heard  so  many  dis- 
cussions on  the  subject  of  good  roads  and  better  roads  that  I  have 
really  forgotten  what  I  intended  to  say  myself  on  that  subject.  I 
don't  have  to  explain  to  you  people  that  I  am  a  farmer,  my  very 
looks  show  that. 

We  were  out  last  night,  a  number  of  us,  to  a  show.  I  was  very 
sorry  that  we  couldn't  pull  off  that  show  as  it  was  intended  by  Mr. 
Warren.  We  had  a  good  Light  at  the  start,  but  we  lost  that  Light; 
he  went  out  to  an  executive  meeting.  He  discussed  some  things  last 
night  in  which  I  coincided  with  him.  Down  in  Oklahoma  things  are 
different  to  what  they  are  up  here  in  Michigan,  to  some  extent. 
We  have  some  good  roads  down  there  and  we  have  some  very  bad 
roads.  We  have  some  old  roads — you'd  be  surprised  when  I  tell 
you  that  I  have  traveled  over  roads  in  that  State  that  were  built 
eighty  or  ninety  years  ago,  laid  out,  that  are  good  roads  today, 
splendid  roads,  that  will  hold  a  steam  engine,  not  only  an  auto- 
mobile or  a  traction  engine,  but  a  steam  engine;  but  there's  not 
enough  of  them.  I  don't  know,  my  talk  is  sort  of  automatic,  self 
propelling,  and  I  have  been  crowded  so  many  times  that  I  arranged 
my  speech  sort  of  like  a  freight  train  is  made  up.  Whenever  the 
fellow  jerks  my  coat,  I  just  put  on  the  caboose  and  the  story  is 
ended.  About  the  beginning  of  the  good  roads  business,  I  find 
now  that  I  am  sort  of  in  the  condition  I  was  eighteen  years  ago  at 
Guthrie.  We  had  a  good  roads  meeting  at  Guthrie,  Oklahoma, 
and  of  course  I  was  there;  it  was  the  first  meeting  that  was  ever  held 
in  that  State,  and  do  you  know  that  we  went  and  stayed  all  day  and 
late  in  the  evening?  We  had  our  resolutions  committee  out  and  we 
had  all  of  our  arrangements  made  to  build  the  road  and  we  actually 
went  down  in  our  pockets  individually  and  made  up  money  to  send 
two  men  to  California  to  see  how  to  build  these  oil  sand  roads. 
We  heard  a  good  deal  about  that  road  they  built  out  there  by  putting 
oil  on  the  sand  and  fixing  it  up,  and  we  didn't  have  a  right-of-way  to 
build  a  road  on.  We  sent  those  men  out  there.  Then,  when  we 
got  statehood,  which  was  the  thing  we  were  all  praying  for,  and 
this  Convention,  while  it  is  so  much  better  than  any  other  I  ever 
attended,  still  reminds  me  of  a  trip  I  had  to  make  to  Washington 
to  see  Mr.  Hitchcock  on  some  very  important  matters  for  our 
country,  the  Indian  country,  and  there  were  three  of  us  who  went, 
one  from  the  Chickasaw  nation,  one  from  McAllester  and  one 
from  Ardmore.  I  was  the  representative  from  Ardmore,  and  when- 
ever Mr.  Hitchcock  was  down  there,  I  armed  him  around,  showed 
him  our  magnificent  pavements  and  sidewalks  and  so  on,  and 
thought  when  I  got  to  Washington,  of  course  he'd  be  mighty  glad 
to  see  me,  and  I  don't  know,  he  was  glad  to  see  us  when  we  walked 


270  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

in,  treated  us  just  as  nice  as  he  could;  we  went  in  and  he  said 
"Gentlemen,  I  am  very  glad  indeed  to  have  you  come  this  morn- 
ing. How  can  I  serve  you?"  I  was  all  swelling  up  you  know, 
it  was  a  little  out  of  the  ordinary  for  gentlemen  from  the  Indian 
Territory  to  see  the  secretary  of  the  interior.  I  told  him  what 
our  needs  were,  and  then  I  had  a  sideline  for  Ardmore,  some  little 
special  needs  for  Ardmore.  The  other  gentleman  told  him  what 
the  general  wants  were,  but  he  had  a  little  special  line  for  Chickasaw ; 
the  other  gentleman  told  him  about  what  we  needed  in  the  Indian 
Territory,  but  he  had  a  sideline  for  McAllester.  All  of  us  felt  like 
we  had  done  our  duty,  but  do  you  know  what  that  man  did  to  us? 
He  said,  "Gentlemen,  I  am  very  glad  to  have  you  here,  but  I  would 
advise  you  to  retire  and  resume  your  labors  and  when  you  have 
agreed  on  what  you  want  come  in  and  I'll  hear  you.  Good  morn- 
ing." I  went  out  and  looked  at  the  other  fellow  and  I  said,  "Did 
you  do  that?"  He  says,  "No,  you  done  it."  Well,  we  didn't 
know  how  to  speak  to  each  other  for  a  few  minutes,  we  were  each 
accusing  the  other  fellow  of  doing  that.  He  said,  "Good  morning." 
We  went  out  and  got  together  and  I  do  hope  that  this  Convention 
will  get  together  on  some  proposition  that  we  can  carry  to  Congress. 
Let  us  unite  on  some  one  proposition  and  let  them  know  that  we  are 
interested  in  that  one  thing.  Let  us  agree  upon  it.  I  tell  you,  if 
you  will  pass  resolutions  here  like  I  believe  will  be  adopted  by  this 
Convention,  I  am  going  to  volunteer  to  see  that  your  action  is  en- 
dorsed in  Oklahoma;  and  I  believe  I  can  have  it  endorsed  in  Arkansas, 
as  I  have  to  be  there  on  the  14th  of  this  month  at  the  meeting,  of  the 
State  Good  Roads  Association,  and  I  would  like  to  assist  those  men 
from  Arkansas  in  seeing  that  resolutions  that  you  agree  upon  here  and 
pass,  is  passed  in  Arkansas. 

A  DELEGATE  :    I  will  take  it  to  Indiana. 

COLONEL  SUGGS:  All  right,  well,  who  is  next?  Let  every  man 
go  home  with  the  determination  to  see  that  those  resolutions  are 
adopted  in  his  state  and  we  will  make  it  so  warm  for  those  fellows 
that  they  will  hear  us. 

A  DELEGATE  :    We  will  adopt  them  tomorrow. 

COLONEL  SUGGS:  Good.  On  this  road  business,  I  am  liable 
to  talk  to  you  largely  about  Oklahoma,  and  I  don't  want  to  ap- 
pear like  the  fellow  did  that  was  making  a  speech  in  the  city  ajid 
the  old  man  couldn't  go  to  hear  it,  but  had  a  negro  that  could  re- 
peat any  speech  he  ever  heard  and  he  sent  him  to  hear  the  speech 
and  repeat  it  to  him.  The  negro  went  to  the  meeting  and  came 
back  and  he  said,  "Jim,  what  did  that  man  say?"  Jim  said,  "Boss, 
he  made  a  powerful  speech."  "Well,  what  was  it  about?"  "Well, 
sir,  the  most  of  it  was  about  a  recommending  of  hisself."  Now, 


ADDRESS   BY   COLONEL  SIDNEY   SUGGS  271 

I  don't  want  to  be  here  recommending  myself.  But,  when  our 
constitutional  convention  met  in  Oklahoma,  there  was  two  or  three 
of  us  there — I  wasn't  alone,  and  we  decided  that  we  ought  to  take 
time  by  the  forelock  and  have  a  department  of  highways  created 
during  the  sitting  of  the  constitutional  convention,  and  after  work- 
ing there  for  weeks  with  that  convention,  we  finally  got  the  good 
roads  committee  appointed,  a  committee  on  good  roads,  to  frame 
some  road  law.  We  got  before  them  and  it  was  a  very  short  ar- 
ticle, just  brief,  but  it  said  this:  "the  legislature  is  hereby  directed 
to  create  a  department  of  highways."  Now,  we  worked  on  that 
word  "directed."  We  wanted  to  get  something  there  that  they 
could  not  slip  over.  We  didn't  say,  "they  may;"  but  we  said, 
"they  are  hereby  directed;"  and  so  it  was  written  in  the  consti- 
tution in  that  manner.  The  first  legislature  failed  to  notice  it. 
The  second  legislature  failed  and  for  sixty  days  we  worked  with  the 
third  legislature  and  we  got  that  law  vitalized  by  one  vote  and  had 
to  ask  a  man  to  change  his  vote  in  order  to  get  that,  before  it  was 
announced.  Then  the  fourth  legislature  came  on.  The  third  legis- 
lature vitalized  it  and  I  was  appointed  the  State  commissioner  of 
highways.  I  was  about  the  proudest  fellow  you  ever  saw,  and  I 
just  knew  that  the  fourth  legislature  was  going  to  do  all  that  I  asked. 
I  made  a  report  showing  where  we  had  spent  $4,000,000  in  the  State, 
showing  what  county  it  had  been  spent  in,  showing  the  levees,  show- 
ing all  those  things,  but  I  couldn't  tell  where  it  went;  there  was 
no  record  kept  of  the  amount  of  bridges  they  had  built  or  the  lengths 
of  them,  the  amount  of  culverts,  etc.,  but  the  $4,000,000  had  been 
spent.  I  showed  it  there  to  them,  and  I  just  felt  that  when  the  legis- 
lature met  I  could  just  walk  in  there  and  say,  "Now  boys,  we  have 
squandered  about  $10,000,000  on  roads  and  bridges  and  there  is  no 
county  that  can  give  me  any  definite  idea  as  to  any  definite  amount 
they  have  spent  or  the  length  of  the  bridges  or  even  the  contract 
price;  now  then,  I  would  like  for  you  to  pass  this  law" — I  had  the  law 
already  prepared  myself;  I  never  dreamed  of  any  opposition.  Why, 
you  know  how  a  fellow  will  get  that  way,  have  it  all  fixed  up  in  his 
own  mind  and  think  everybody  agrees  with  him.  I  never  made  a 
bigger  mistake  in  my  life.  When  I  went  to  that  legislature,  do  you 
know  what  they  said?  They  just  spent  sixty  days  and  abolished 
the  department  of  highways  and  Sydney  Suggs  every  morjiing  for 
sixty  mornings.  Why  I  was  told  that  one  morning — I  wasn't  there — 
that  the  Chaplain  said  "Oh,  Lord,  give  us  this  day  our  daily  bill  to 
abolish  Sydney  Suggs  and  the  department  of  highways."  Abolish- 
ing the  office,  abolished  the  department;  they  said,  "We've  got  no 
use  for  you."  That  did  away  with  3300  township  trustees.  I  was 
trying  to  make  the  county  the  unit.  Let  the  county  build  the  roads 
and  make  the  county  the  unit,  and  the  way  it  was  down  there,  every 
township  was  a  unit  and  those  three  commissioners  bought  the  cul- 
verts and  bought  the  toy  tools,  the  wrinkled  tin  and  toy  tools  and 
bridges  up  to  12  feet,  and  3300  of  them  buying  those  things,  I  never 


272  AMERICAN  ROAD    CONGRESS 

thought  about  all  those  fellows  having  friends  in  the  picni'c  eager  to  get 
some  of  this  money.  The  trouble  is  here,  it  is  here  for  you  and 
they  are  keeping  a  lobby  right  down  here,  the  wrinkled  tin,  the 
brokers  bridge,  and  why  I  call  it  a  brokers  bridge  is  because  it  is  a 
bridge  that  is  made  to  sell,  it  is  not  made  to  carry  a  load.  That's  the 
way  those  bridges  were — and  the  toy  tools.  Send  them  out  there, 
and  there  were  3300  purchasers  and  they  were  buying  them  with 
the  people's  money.  Why,  in  my  own  township,  they  spent  $53,000 
there  building  roads.  I  live  in  the  same  township  the  governor 
does.  I  said  they  spent  it  in  building  roads — I  got  that  wrong. 
A  man  always  gets  wrong  though  when  he  says  they  spent  that 
much  money  there — but  we  never  could  see  where  it  went.  There 
was  one  of  our  commissioners  that  built  a  road  leading  north  and  he 
had  five  bridges  in  a  mile  and  a  half.  There  was  a  little  creek  that 
ran  down  between  two  hollows  and  he  followed  that  down,  when, 
if  he  went  over  150  feet,  he  could  have  got  through  and  put  his  road 
on  a  firm  foundation.  Now,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  there  is  some- 
thing to  this  road  business  that  has  not  been  discussed  here;  there 
is  more  to  it,  it  seems  to  me.  I  have  some  idea  about  the  results 
of  the  road  business.  There's  a  lot  of  evils  in  this  country  that  we 
have  got  to  stop,  and  I  believe  that  in  order  to  stop  them  effectually, 
we  have  got  to  reduce  the  cause.  How  are  we  going  to  do  it?  You 
can  send  up  here  to  Mr.  Page  and  for  5  cents  he  will  send  you  the 
amount  of  freight  you  can  haul  over  a  mile  of  road,  over  a  bad  road, 
over  a  good  road  and  a  bad  road,  the  difference  in  the  hauling  of  a 
load  of  freight  over  a  good  road  and  a  bad  road.  He  has  got  that 
figured  down,  got  the  time  figured  down,  the  saving  of  the  horses 
figured  down,  got  the  saving  of  the  harness  figured  down  and  the 
saving  of  the  Wagon;  that's  all  in  figures,  and  you  can  have  it  for  the 
asking.  But,  my  friends,  I  contend  that  there  isn't  paper  nor 
pencils  enough  in  this  United  States  to  figure  out  the  saving  of  our 
boys  and  girls  that  are  coming  to  the  city  on  account  of  the  bad  con- 
ditions in  the  country.  The  cities  have  been  robbing  the  country  of 
the  best  brains  for  a  number  of  years — fifty  years,  possibly.  I  tell 
you  it  is  deplorable.  I  have  been  to  one  or  two  of  your  cities  in 
the  east  and  I  have  heard  the  gentlemen  there  talk  about  it.  I 
am  not  using  my  own  experience,  but  just  what  I  see  and  what 
they  tell  me.  The  young  man  that  makes  $15  a  month  on  the 
farm  saves  up  $100  or  $150  and  concludes  that  he  has  made  about 
enough  to  go  to  the  city.  They  tell  him,  '[There  you  can  get  $15 
a  week,  four  times  as  much  as  you  can  get  in  the  country."  I  tell 
you  that's  a  dazzling  offer  to  a  young  man  and  he  studies  it  out, 
figures  it  up  and  decides  he  can  do  better  in  the  city  and  he  goes, 
he  leaves  the  farm ;  he  leaves  the  things  that  he  is  acquainted  with  and 
knows  how  to  manage;  he  goes  to  the  city;  it  even  happens  in  as 
small  a  place  as  Oklahoma  City,  which  has  only  about  62,000  people. 
I  have  seen  them  come  there,  boys  from  home,  I  knew  their  parents; 
they  didn't  realize  when  they  got  there  that  there  were  hundreds 


ADDRESS   BY   COLONEL  SIDNEY   SUGGS  273 

of  parasites  and  leeches  that  just  live  on  his  sort.  The  only  way  they 
can  get  any  money  is  catching  the  greenhorn  from  the  country  and 
they  pick  him  till  he  is  clean.  In  three  months  time  that  boy  has 
resorted  to  things  that  he  is  ashamed  to  tell  his  mother.  It  don't 
only  apply  to  the  boys,  but  it  applies  to  our  girls.  One  in  twenty 
will  succeed.  It  is  like  the  old  '49ers;  some  of  you  gentlemen  re- 
member about  that,  hearing  about  it  and  a  number  of  you  remember 
about  the  Klondike.  Those  that  went  to  the  Klondike  and  those 
that  went  to  hunt  gold  in  California;  those  that  succeeded,  their 
names  were  written  at  the  top  of  the  page,  but  who  ever  recorded 
the  thousands  that  fell  by  the  wayside?  And  that's  the  way  we  are 
going.  It  is  an  abnormal  state  of  affairs,  and  how  are  we  going  to 
remedy  it?  How  are  we  going  to  remove  the  cause?  What  method 
have  we  got?  Take  a  young  man  to  the  city  and  he  learns  the  art 
of  working  in  machinery  as  they  are  doing  right  here  in  this  city, 
and  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  as  long  as  he  is  able  and  as  long  as 
his  sight  is  good  and  his  nerves  are  steady  so  that  he  can  turn  that 
journal  to  the  thousandth  part  of  an  inch  that  is  required  in  that 
institution  to  make  that  machine  perfect,  he  can  work  there,  but 
after  he  has  worn  out  a  dozen  machines  that  cost  that  company 
$1000  a  piece  probably  and  seen  them  dumped  over  into  the  scrap 
pile,  he  knows  that  when  he  gets  in  that  condition  that  his  eyes  are 
dim  and  his  hands  a  little  nervous  so  that  he  cannot  do  that  work, 
he  will  be  dumped  over  with  just  as  little  ceremony  as  that  machine 
was  dumped  over.  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  we  have  got  to  build 
those  roads,  we  have  got  to  build  them  in  some  manner;  the  way  to  do 
it  is  what  we  are  here  to  discuss,  the  best  method;  the  result  is  what 
we  want.  My  contention  is  a  good  deal  like  that  of  Judge  Lowe, 
that  the  quickest  way,  the  best  way  and  the  only  way  that  we  are 
going  to  get  the  results  that  we  so  much  desire  is  to  let  the  govern- 
ment build  its  roads  and  then  maintain  them  as  government  roads. 
Then  I  believe  the  States  will  have  pride  enough  to  build  lateral 
roads  into  these  government  roads  and  in  my  State  I  will  guarantee 
that  the  counties  will  have  pride  enough  to  build  laterals  into  those 
government  roads,  and  in  my  State  I  will  guarantee  that  the  county 
will  have  pride  enough  to  build  laterals  into  the  State  roads.  And 
then  I  will  go  on  down  to  the  grass  roots  and  I  will  see  that  the  town- 
ships build  laterals  into  the  county  roads.  I  will  go  to  every  school- 
house  and  go  all  over  that  county,  and  I  know  the  nature  of  those 
people,  but  I  tell  you,  when  we  get  to  talking  about  good  roads 
down  there,  there's  some  member  of  the  legislature  will  get  up  and 
want  to  amend  the  bill.  I  told  one  of  them — the  man  is  in  Con- 
gress now — I  says,  "You  are  afraid  to  fight  that  bill  in  the  open, 
you  are  ashamed  to  do  it  and  you  know  that  your  constituents  will 
turn  you  down,  but  you  amend  it,  put  on  enough  amendments  to 
kill  it,  and  here  you  are  talking  about  building  a  lateral  road  into 
your  town  without  having  a  trunk  line.  They  don't  build  laterals 
first,  they  build  trunk  lines  first;"  and  I  think  this  subject  is  of  so 


274  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

much  moment  that  I  wish  I  could  elevate  my  voice  sufficiently 
to  be  heard  hi  the  halls  of  Congress.  The  government  has  got  to  set 
the  example  and  then  the  States  will  follow,  but  unless  there  is  enough 
earnestness  displayed  here  to  let  those  men  know  that  we  are  in 
earnest  about  it,  I  am  afraid  they  will  pass  it  up,  I  am  afraid  they 
won't  hear  us;  but  I  wish  they  could  hear  us  and  know.  You  think 
about  what  the  government  can  do.  In  that  western  country  they 
have  given  thousands  and  thousands  of  acres  to  railroads  to  open 
up  that  country;  the  railroad  company  has  made  money  out  of  it. 
Why  shouldn't  they  help  to  build  the  mains  that  feed  those  arteries 
in  the  very  same  kind  of  a  way,  in  the  same  manner?  Look  at  what 
they  have  given  to  the  rivers  and  harbors.  Why,  they  are  even 
appropriating  money  for  air  ships.  That  is  all  right,  but  let's  get 
the  roads  first.  I  want  to  see  the  time  come,  and  I  tell  you  it  is 
approaching  in  our  country — we've  got  the  railroads  down  there 
a  number  of  them,  and  are  building  more,  and  the  world  is  our 
market.  We  have  got  land  there — I  attended  the  Kansas  City 
Land  Show  a  year  or  two  ago,  where  they  were  selling  lands  in 
Utah,  Colorado,  Oregon  and  California  at  $500  an  acre,  and  I  want 
to  say  to  you  that  we  have  got  thousands  upon  thousands  of  acres 
in  Oklahoma  that  is  just  as  valuable  as  any  of  those  lands,  we've  got 
innumerable  streams,  living  canals  that,  with  their  own  power, 
will  irrigate  those  lands,  but  we  must  have  roads  to  get  the  products 
of  those  lands  to  the  market,  and  I  made  this  proposition  to  towns 
down  there,  I  made  it  to  my  own  town,  I  said  "If  you  will  build  these 
roads  in  here  and  sell  this  land  in  small  quantities  to  the  man  that 
wants  to  till  the  soil — and  I  say  it  ought  to  be  made  possible  for 
every  man  who  actually  tills  the  soil,  for  him  to  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  buy  that  soil  and  own  that  soil  that  he  is  tilling,  I  don't 
mean  to  give  it  to  him,  I  mean  he  ought  to  own  it,  to  become  a 
home-loving  patriotic  citizen  as  he  would  be  if  he  owned  it,  even 
though  it  was  only  20  acres,  if  it  was  his  land — you  can't  get  much 
patriotism  out  of  boarding  houses,  a  man  won't  fight  for  a  boarding 
house  but  men  will  fight  for  their  homes — I,  at  my  age,  and  I  am  not 
so  very  old,  can  take  5  acres  of  ground,  10  miles  from  town,  and  if 
we  had  a  road  out  there  so  that  a  gasoline  wagon  could  come  out 
every  morning  and  take  every  bunch  of  shallots  and  lettuce  and 
tomatoes  and  okra  and  asparagus  and  eggs  and  butter  that  is  raised 
there  on  that  5  acres  to  the  market,  I  will  make  an  independent 
living.  That's  the  last  country  we  are  going  to  open  up,  and  I  told 
those  people  down  there  that  we  must  get  together  and  keep  our 
young  people  at  home.  They  can't  go  into  new  countries  and  get 
lands  as  some  of  us  have  got  them  down  there.  There  are  no  more 
new  countries  to  be  opened  up.  Let  us  make  it  possible  for  them  to 
stay  here,  make  it  possible  for  them  to  get  their  homes  here.  We 
cannot  do  it  if  we  go  on  as  we  are.  You  know  that  the  greatest 
intelligence  of  this  country,  you  will  find  it  by  going  right  here 
in  your  own  city,  you  will  find  that  the  best  brains  are  invading  farm 


ADDRESS   BY   COLONEL   SIDNEY   SUGGS  275 

machinery,  making  farm  machinery  to  cultivate  the  land,  and  they 
are  making  machinery  to  harvest  the  crops,  and  what  does  that 
mean  if  we  don't  build  these  roads?  If  we  don't  get  together  and 
build  these  roads,  in  fifty  years  some  of  our  country  will  be  a  coun- 
try of  landlords  and  tenants.  We  have  got  to  build  the  roads 
in  order  to  avoid  that.  One  man  will  control  10,000  acres,  and 
what  will  the  others  be  around  there?  They  will  be  hirelings  and 
they  will  be  tenants,  won't  they?  Is  not  that  the  history  of  other 
countries?  And  to  think  about  our  State,  where  we  raised  enough 
last  year  in  our  gardens,  on  our  vines  and  trees,  to  pay  the  taxes  of 
the  State,  that  rotted  on  the  vines  because  we  couldn't  get  it  to  the 
market.  It's  a  serious  proposition  and  I  hope  that  before  this  con- 
vention adjourns — I  don't  care,  I've  come  a  long  way,  if  I  had  to 
stay  a  week  longer  in  order  to  get  results,  I'd  stay.  Twelve  years 
before  Statehood,  I  built  my  own  school  house,  I  sawed  the  lumber 
with  my  own  mill,  I  hauled  it  out  of  the  woods  with  my  own  ox 
team  and  in  many  instances,  I  drove  the  oxen  myself — I'm  not 
telling  you  that  to  make  you  think  I've  done  anything  great,  I 
had  to  do  it,  and  I  built  my  own  house  and  built  my  own  benches 
and  hired  the  teacher  to  teach  my  five  children,  and  I  built  20  extra 
seats  that  I  rented  to  him  for  $1  a  month,  I  gave  him  $10  a  month 
and  those  seats  and  his  board  and  lodging,  and  he  rented  the  others. 
I  then  went,  when  I  saw  what  was  going  on  in  that  country,  I  went 
to  Little  Rock,  I  started  on  a  tour,  I  went  over  there  and  told  these 
men  I  thought  I'd  put  it  in  a  commercial  way,  I  was  the  president  of 
our  Commercial  Trust,  and  went  in  a  commercial  way  and  told 
them  what  we  had.  I  told  them  that  I  hailed  from  the  biggest 
inland  cotton  market  on  earth,  and  it  was  at  that  time,  as  high 
as  50,000  bales  of  cotton  was  hauled  into  that  town  of  Ardmore 
annually  and  sold  off  of  the  wagons  by  the  men  that  raised  it. 
They  said  "What  else  have  you  got?"  I  said,  "We  have  got  the 
finest  wheat  on  the  globe  growing  in  the  valley  of  the  Wachitaw 
and  the  Indian  Territory."  They  asked,  "What  else  have  you  got?" 
I  said,  "We  have  got  the  finest  cattle  country  under  the  sun;  we 
take  the  premium  at  St.  Joe,  Chicago  and  Kansas  City  for  the 
best  short  horned  cattle."  "What  else  have  you  got?"  I  said 
"We  have  got  100,000  bright  eyed  boys  and  girls  who  are  sons 
and  daughters  of  pioneers,  and  10,000  of  those  are  growing  over 
age  every  year  and  our  jails  are  filling  up  with  those  boys  and  it  is 
for  them  that  I  have  come  to  plead."  Now  the  government  is  send- 
ing boatloads  of  teachers  to  the  Philippine  Islands  to  teach  those 
people  and  the  very  best  people  of  America  here  need  some  help, 
and  at  Little  Rock  they  passed  a  resolution  and  notified  their  Con- 
gressman to  help  us  out.  I  went  to  Memphis  and  met  five  different 
organizations  with  the  same  result.  I  went  to  St.  Louis  and  Kansas 

ity  on  that  same  mission  and  men  stood  around  and  said, 
Bonder  where  Suggs  is  getting  his  graft?"     I  said,  "I  got  it  last 
jpring,  I  got  it  all  back,  and  I  got  all  the  money,  all  the  interest  and 


276  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

compound  interest  when  I  was  called  upon  to  address  250  bright 
eyed  boys  and  girls  in  the  City  of  Ardmore  when  they  marched  in 
and  took  their  seats  in  a  $100,000  school  building;  there  wasn't  a 
man  in  Oklahoma  happier  than  I  was.  I  told  these  boys  and  girls 
that  when  they  got  through  with  their  education,  they  didn't  have 
to  leave  Oklahoma  for  a  better  State,  for  in  Oklahoma  the  grass 
grows  greener,  the  sun  shines  brighter  and  the  birds  sing  sweeter 
than  anywhere  else  and  we  have  got  the  best  boys  and  the  sweetest 
girls  on  earth,  and  when  you  get  tired  of  this  country,  come  to  Okla- 
homa and  help  me  out  in  building  good  roads. 

October  2,  2  p.m. 
HON.  J.  N.  CARLISLE,  Chairman 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  the  discussion  that  is  going  to 
take  place  this  afternoon  is  one  that  is  very  interesting,  particu- 
larly to  commissioners  in  charge  of  State  roads.  It  is  a  particu- 
larly interesting  subject  to  me,  because,  under  the  New  York  State 
law,  they  provided  last  winter  that  the  State  commissioner  of  high- 
ways could  make  reasonable  rules  and  regulations  covering  the  traffic 
on  State  and  county  highways.  We  have  not  made  any  regulations 
in  New  York  State  yet,  because  the  problems  were  such  that  we 
thought  we  ought  not  to  be  too  hasty  in  taking  them  up,  and  I  am 
particularly  anxious,  myself,  to  hear  what  you  gentlemen  have  got 
to  say  in  regard  to  the  use  of  State  and  county  highways  as  affected 
by  heavy  truck  traffic,  and  Colonel  Sohier,  of  Massachusetts,  who  has 
taken  great  interest  in  the  subject,  will  first  speak  to  us  on  that 
proposition. 

ADDRESS  BY  COL.  WM.  D.  SOHIER 

Chairman  Massachusetts  Highway  Commission 

I  am  sorry  there  are  not  more  of  the  highway  commissioners  here, 
because  I  have  been  having  very  voluminous  correspondence  with  the 
commissioners  of  various  States  in  the  Union,  who  wanted  to  know 
what  regulation  they  ought  to  have  for  their  roads,  and  we  have 
had  much  more  correspondence  in  Massachusetts  from  the  towns 
that  have  said,  "What  are  we  going  to  do  for  our  roads  which  cost 
us  $2,000  or  $3,000  a  mile  to  build,  gravel  roads,  when  one  man 
in  town  buys  a  truck  and  runs  over  that  road  in  wet  weather  and 
ruins  a  road  we  have  been  ten  years  building?"  One  little  town 
in  Massachusetts  had  five  wooden  culverts  broken  in  one  day 
by  one  lumber  truck  that  carried  10  tons,  and  it  cost  $3  on  the 
tax  rate  to  put  them  back,  and  a  week  later  that  same  truck  went 
over  a  covered  bridge  and  broke  that  down  and  it  was  closed 
so  that  everybody  had  to  make  a  detour  for  nine  months.  One 


ADDRESS   BY   WM.   D.   SOHIER  277 

of  these  six  ton  trucks,  weighing  13  tons  probably  with  a  load, 
went  through  and  broke  the  bridge  between  Ayer  and  Shirley  and 
sent  everybody  else  around  for  the  next  year  and  a  half  until  the 
county  and  towns  got  together  and  built  a  new  bridge,  and  they 
wanted  to  know  what  they  could  do.  In  the  city  of  Boston,  Mr. 
Sullivan,  the  road  commissioner,  saw  them  getting  ready  to  move 
some  very  heavy  object,  I  have  forgotten  what;  he  knew  the  bridge 
was  insufficient,  so  he  told  them  they  must  not  go  over  that  draw 
bridge  and  told  the  draw  tenders  not  to  let  them,  and  they  waited 
until  one  rainy  night  and  got  part  of  the  way  over,  broke  down  and 
got  stuck  and  then  he  tried  to  sue  them  for  damages  and  found  there 
was  no  law  under  which  he  could  collect;  consequently,  about  a  year 
and  a  half  ago,  I  began  to  study  a  little  on  road  regulations,  be- 
cause I  believe  that,  contrary  to  what  I  saw  in  the  papers  in  Boston, 
which  said  that  we  must  build  the  road  to  carry  the  traffic  as  the 
railroads  did,  I  wonder  what  they  would  think  of  a  railroad  that  had 
bridges  that  would  carry  56-ton  locomotives  and  bought  a  lot  of 
100-ton  locomotives  and  broke  all  the  bridges  down  before  they  got 
bridges  strong  enough  to  carry  them.  You  have  got  your  roads, 
and  if  you  do  not  regulate  the  traffic,  you  won't  have  your  roads  and 
won't  have  the  traffic  either,  because  they  cannot  go  over  it;  and  I 
found  that  England  and  France,  Belgium  and  Germany  had  adopted 
regulations  for  various  kinds  of  traffic.  They  had  a  regulation — the 
English  and  French  regulations  were  very  nearly  alike  but  the 
English  was  a  little  more  liberal  than  the  French.  If  I  remem- 
ber rightly,  they  had  a  regulation  by  which  nobody  could  move 
anything  over  a  road  that  had  more  than  800  pounds  per  inch 
width  resting  on  the  road  surface,  and  we  adopted  that  in  Mas- 
sachusetts and  it  doesn't  make  any  difference — excuse  me  a  second, 
we  adopted  that  in  Massachusetts  for  roads  that  were  not  pave- 
ments, it  does  not  apply  on  the  city  pavements;  I  think  it  ought 
to  and  soon  will,  it  makes  no  difference  whether  you  use  a  wheel 
or  board,  without  a  permit  you  cannot  move  anything  over  the 
road  that  has  got  more  than  800  pounds  per  inch  width,  which 
is  very  nearly  the  steam  roller  specification;  it  is  just  about  where 
the  English  traction  engine  goes.  We  have  got  into  our  law  a 
provision  that  no  motor  truck  weighing  more  than  4  tons  with  the 
load  could  go  more  than  14  miles  an  hour,  and  no  motor  vehicle 
weighing  more  than  6  tons,  including  the  load,  could  go  more  than  6 
miles  an  hour  on  iron  tires  and  12  miles  an  hour  on  rubber  tires, 
and  we  have  recently  notified  several  of  the  sightseeing  omnibuses 
that  if  they  exceeded  that  speed  limit  on  some  of  our  narrow  roads, 
we  would  take  the  licence  of  the  man  away  and  take  the  registration 
of  the  car  away  and  he  could  not  run  on  that  road.  We  have  got 
in  our  law  a  provision  that  nobody  could  pull  anything  over  the 
road  with  any  flange  or  rib  that  substantially  injures  the  surface  of 
the  road  to  any  considerable  depth.  We  said  that  nobody  could 
move  more  than  14  tons  over  the  road  without  a  permit.  Nobody 


278  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

can  move  more  than  12  tons  over  the  country  roads  without  a  per- 
mit. Nobody  can  collect  by  law  now  in  going  over  bridges  if  they 
are  posted,  in  Massachusetts,  if  they  move  over  6  tons.  The  au- 
thorities are  authorized  to  grant  permits  and  to  specify  in  those 
permits  the  particular  routes  to  be  taken  or  any  other  precaution 
they  desire  to  take;  that  the  authority  in  charge  of  the  road,  who- 
ever it  happens  to  be,  with  us,  the  highway  commissioner  on  one 
road,  the  county  commissioner  on  another,  some  street  department 
or  road  commissioner  in  villages — 

A  DELEGATE  :    The  14  tons  would  be  on  one  truck? 

COL.  SOHIER:    On  one  load. 

A  DELEGATE  :     Could  they  draw  a  trailer? 

COL.  SOHIER:  Yes,  sir.  We  put  another  thing  in  that  law, 
that  anybody  that  violates  the  provisions  of  this  law,  driver,  owner, 
or  operator,  who  violates  the  terms  of  the  permit,  shall  pay  all 
the  damages  and  the  damages  shall  be  collected  and  paid  into  the 
fund  of  the  person  that  has  to  repair  that  road.  We  had  a  fine, 
of  course,  but  that  depends  on  the  police  force  and  the  police  force 
will  not  necessarily  prosecute;  I  don't  think  we  shall,  but  it  gives 
us  a  chance  to  do  it.  Any  local  authority  is  authorized  to  limit 
the  speed  of  those  vehicles  weighing  over  4  tons  with  the  load,  to 
6  miles  an  hour,  over  any  bridge,  provided  he  posts  a  notice  con- 
spicuously at  each  end  of  the  bridge.  I  have  often  wondered — I 
would  like  to  hear  some  one  talk  about  it.  I  have  always  wanted 
time  to  sit  down  and  figure  what  the  man  got  out  of  the  road  and 
who  ought  to  pay  for  it.  It  is  pretty  evident  to  me,  or  seems  to 
be,  that  no  one  individual  in  the  community,  merely  because  he 
can  make  a  living  or  even  employ  a  workman  profitably,  should 
be  allowed  to  tax  the  community  more  than  he  gets  in  profit — 
we'll  put  it  that  way  if  you  like.  He  should  not  cost  the  com- 
munity more  than  he  gets  in  profit,  because  if  we  have  to  pay  more 
in  taxes  to  maintain  a  road  in  order  to  allow  somebody  to  do  a 
lumber  business  with  a  truck  over  it  then  he  can  make  in  a  year, 
it  is  easier  for  the  community  to  put  him  in  the  poor  house  and 
support  him  there,  because  it  is  cheaper.  When  the  automobiles 
were  turned  over  on  one  of  our  very  good  gravel  roads  between 
Albany  and  Pittsfield,  main  through  line,  it  meant  700  cars  a  day 
going  very  fast  over  this  little  gravel  road,  that  this  little  town  had 
borrowed  money  and  built  in  ten  years,  with  our  assistance  and  in 
three  years  it  didn't  look  like  a  road.  It  was  holes  and  ruts  and 
mud  holes.  It  was  a  very  good  gravel  road  before  that,  as  good  as 
you  can  build,  but  it  would  not  stand  700  motor  vehicles  going  over 
that  road,  and  those  people  ploughed  it  up;  they  said  "If  we  can't 
use  it,  you  sha'n't,  because  our  bonds  ain't  paid  yet;"  and  we  told 


DISCUSSION  279 

them  to  fix  it  up  and  we  would  help  them  with  it  next  year  and  we 
did;  we  are  allowed  to  put  20  per  cent  of  our  vehicle  fees,  which 
amount  to  $20,000  a  year,  into  improving  roads  that  way  and  we 
help  them  put  that  road  back  in  good  order,  and  I  think  they  could 
go  over  it  this  year  and  not  do  any  damage;  it  is  coated  with  oil 
and  Tarvia.  I  hesitated  at  one  of  my  other  talks  when  I  saw  so 
many  gentlemen  from  various  States  where  they  do  not  and  are 
not  dealing  with  the  problems  of  heavy  traffic  as  we  are  in  Massa- 
chusetts, to  discourage  them  by  giving  maintenance  costs,  but  it 
happens  to  come  a  little  bit  in  line  with  what  I  have  been  talk- 
ing about  on  truck  regulations,  and  so  I  am  going  to  tell  you  a 
little  something  about  England  where  they  keep  much  better  ac- 
counts than  we  do  of  what  the  cost,  as  far  as  they  can  tell,  of  motor 
bus  traffic  is.  Now  an  English  motor  bus  is,  I  should  think,  just 
about  the  equivalent  of  any  one  of  our  3J  or  4  ton  trucks.  It 
is  a  double  decker;  it  carries  16  people  inside  and  27  outside,  if  I 
remember  rightly.  They  have  five  minute  service  to  a  great  many 
places  from  15  to  25  miles  out  of  London.  I  don't  happen  to  re- 
member any  further  out  than  Hampton  Court.  They  have  been 
recently  established,  many  of  them,  and  as  you  probably  all  know, 
the  motor  bus  traffic  in  London,  if  you  haven't  looked  at  it  two  or 
three  abreast  and  you  wonder  where  the  taxi  is  going  through,  but 
when  you  stop  on  the  end  of  the  main  street  crossing,  you  will  see 
ten  buses  in  length  and  two  or  three  in  width  awaiting  until  they 
get  the  signal  to  go  across.  They  were  proposing  a  speed  limit  at 
Hyde  Park  when  I  was  in  London,  and  the  traffic  captain  went  be- 
fore the  authorities  and  said,  "We  cannot  move  our  traffic  if  you 
give  us  any  speed  limit ;  we  have  got  to  have  the  foot  passengers  and 
traffic  going  so  they  won't  interfere  with  each  other,  and  the  traffic 
cannot  get  through  if  they  don't  go  fast,  because  10,000  vehicles 
an  hour  pass  Hyde  Park  corner  and  they  will  back  up  for  2  miles  if 
we  only  let  them  go  2  miles  an  hour;  they  go  20  miles  an  hour  when 
they  get  to  the  middle  of  the  street  and  never  let  anybody  cut  in, 
walking  or  driving  or  any  other  way."  In  Middlesex  County  you 
will  find  in  the  Light,  Railway  and  Tramway  Journal  for  August  8, 
the  damage  done  to  roads  by  mechanically  propelled  vehicles, 
weight  about  6  tons,  motor  buses — I  think  the  6  tons  would  in- 
clude the  vehicle  and  load — Mr.  Wakeham,  who  is  the  county 
engineer,  gave  the  average  cost  of  16  roads  running  in  and  out  of 
London  in  Middlesex  County,  main  traffic  roads,  before  and  after 
the  establishment  of  the  motor  bus  traffic.  His  roads  had  cost  him 
12J  cents  a  square  yard  a  year  to  maintain  as  water  bound  macadam 
roads — 12J  cents  a  square  yard  a  year,  before  the  advent  of  the 
motor  bus.  When  the  motor  bus  came  in,  it  cost  him  25.6  cents 
per  square  yard  per  year  to  maintain  his  roads.  He  gives  the  whole 
table  there  and  the  variation  in  cost  was  between  4.5  and  20  cents 
before  the  motor  bus,  and  after  the  motor  bus,  between  14  and  42 
cents;  and  one  curious  thing  was  that  one  of  his  roads,  which  cost 


280  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

16  cents  before  the  motor  bus,  suddenly  jumped  to  42  cents  after  the 
motor  bus.  His  charge  in  1911  and  1912  was  1.2  cents  per  ton, 
per  mile  going  over  that  road,  and  in  1911,  1.8;  in  other  words,  it 
increased  because  of  the  motor  bus  traffic.  In  his  opinion,  that  is 
all  the  traffic  showed  it  to  have  increased,  but  the  cost  of  transporting 
one  ton  or  keeping  the  road  up  had  increased  0.6  cents  or  50  per  cent 
increase  for  every  ton  that  was  hauled  over  that  road,  and  the  in- 
creased cost  from  the  motor  bus  traffic  was  4  cents  a  car  mile.  Under 
the  special  act  of  Parliament,  they  taxed  them  three-quarters  of  a 
cent,  and  the  Light,  Railway  Journal  was  publishing  the  editorial 
to  show  that  the  motor  buses  should  be  charged  somewhere  near 
in  proportion  to  the  damage  they  did  to  the  roads,  if  they  were 
to  establish  their  lines,  which  again  comes  back  to  how  much  should 
the  community  pay,  how  much  more  than  the  5  cents  of  that  com- 
pany, if  it  is  going  to  cost  the  community  3.25  cents  a  mile  every 
time  that  vehicle  runs  over  the  road,  and  I  think  you  will  find  it 
costs  usually  very  nearly  1  cent  a  mile  per  vehicle  to  maintain  a 
macadam  road.  You  do  it  somewhat  cheaper  with  oil.  I  think 
that's  all  I  want  to  say,  Mr.  Chairman.  If  any  gentlemen  will  write 
to  us  and  wants,  at  any  rate  a  start  at  a  motor  vehicle  regulation 
law  for  motor  trucks,  etc.,  and  will  write  to  our  secretary  in  Boston, 
we  would  be  very  glad  to  send  them  copies  of  the  law  that  was  as 
good  as  we  knew  how  to  draft  at  that  time.  We  have  got  a  wide 
tire  law  applicable  to  all  vehicles,  that  was  adopted  without  any 
opposition  whatever  from  the  farmer,  but  the  title  of  that  law  was 
"An  act  to  regulate  motor  trucks  and  other  things  going  over  the 
highway,"  and  we  did  not  advertise  whether  it  was  a  motor  truck 
or  an  iron  tired  vehicle  drawn  by  a  farm  horse,  and  we  got  it  through 
without  any  opposition,  and  if  we  are  reasonable  in  enforcing  it  and 
gradually  jack  them  up  and  not  make  them  all  do  it  all  at  once,  I 
don't  think  we  will  have  any  trouble  with  the  farmers  and  we  will 
have  our  wide  tire  law.  There  is  a  penalty  of  $100  for  each  offence. 

A  DELEGATE:    For  only  using  or  selling? 

COL.  SOHIER:  A  fine  of  not  more  than  $100;  but  for  any  ve- 
hicle that  damages  or  breaks  the  bridges,  if  the  man  is  violating 
the  6-ton  law,  he  has  got  to  pay  for  the  bridge  and  it*  cost  $3500  to 
repair  or  rather  to  rebuild  a  bridge  that  was  broken  by  one  truck 
between  Ayer  and  Shirley,  it  took  all  summer  and  cost  $3500,  but 
in  the  Richmond  case  where  I  said  it  was  $3  on  the  tax  rate,  the 
valuation  is  only  $100,000  in  that  town.  The  bridge  cost  $1500 
to  put  back;  and  we  have  got  a  great  many  bridges  in  my  state 
that  are  not  designed  and  were  never  meant  to  carry  anything  over 
6  tons.  We  cannot  move  a  steam  roller  over  them  and  do  not  do  so 
without  strengthening  them,  but  a  fellow  comes  along  with  a  6-ton 
truck  and  a  7-ton  load,  going  20  miles  an  hour,  and  you  know  what 
will  happen. 


ADDRESS   BY   GEORGE   A.    RICKER  281 

A  DELEGATE  :    Is  that  a  local  law? 

COL.  SOHIER:  This  is  a  State  law,  for  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
applicable  everywhere. 

A  DELEGATE  :    It  could  be  made  a  local  law? 

COL.  SOHIER:  It  is  a  local  law  authorizing  people  to  make 
a  6-mile  speed  with  a  vehicle  weighing  over  4  tons,  and  we  have 
authority  locally  to  post  the  bridges  down  to  3  tons,  if  the  bridge 
is  unsafe,  and  before  this  law  went  through,  the  man  could  not  re- 
cover any  damages,  but  neither  could  we.  Now,  if  he  takes  ten 
tons  over  one  of  those  bridges  and  breaks  the  bridge,  he  will  have  to 
rebuild  the  bridge  instead  of  you;  that  is  the  difference. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  very  much  interested  in  that  to  show 
how  the  different  traffic  laws  in  this  country  compare  with  what 
they  have  in  other  countries.  In  New  York  alone  the  automobile 
licenses  there  run  to  126,000  in  number,  of  which  35,000  are  trucks, 
while  in  the  whole  of  France,  the  entire  number  of  vehicles  only 
amounted  to  84,000  and  in  Germany  very  little  over  60,000.  In 
the  State  of  New  York  alone  we  are  carrying  a  great  deal  heavier 
traffic  in  number  of  vehicles  and  everything  else  than  they  are  doing 
in  France  and  Germany,  nearly  combined  together.  I  will  call 
upon  Mr.  Ricker,  of  New  York,  our  deputy  commissioner  of  high- 
ways, because  he  has  given  this  matter  a  good  deal  of  k  tildy  in  this 
State.  Under  our  State  law,  there  is  now  a  provision  that  no  truck 
company  or  sight  seeing  cars  or  any  trucking  for  profit  outside  of 
private  business  can  go  into  existence  without  procuring  a  certificate 
from  the  public  service  commission  of  New  York,  putting  them  in  the 
same  category  as  any  other  transportation  company.  There  is  a 
large  number  of  applications  for  permits  in  our  State  and  we  are 
now  considering  the  terms  upon  which  those  permits  shall  be  granted. 
I  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  Mr.  George  A.  Ricker,  first  deputy 
commissioner  *of  New  York. 


ADDRESS  BY  GEORGE  A.  RIGKER 

First  Deputy  Commissioner  of  New  York 

As  Commissioner  Carlisle  has  said  to  you,  we  have  the  problem 
of  what  to  do  to  protect  the  property,  the  roads  in  New  York  State, 
from  the  unusual,  perhaps  we  might  say  the  cruel  and  unusual 
punishment  that  will  be  given  them  by  the  motor  trucks.  In  the 
densely  populated  section  of  the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  the  motor 
truck  is  very  prevalent.  Even  where  electric  railroads  are  operated, 
in  the  roads  or  beside  the  roads,  the  motor  trucks  are  running  ap- 


282  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

parently  with  profit  because  they  continue  to  run  and  multiply  in 
numbers,  even  in  competition  with  electric  railway  service.  Now, 
these  cars  weigh  all  the  way  from  5  to  15  tons,  and  they  run  at  con- 
siderable speed.  The  public  service  commission  is  hearing  appli- 
cants who  desire  permission  from  them,  as  they  are  now  classi- 
fied as  common  carriers,  to  operate  over  our  highways.  As  a  rule 
these  cars — you  are  familiar  with  them — run  on  four  wheels;  they 
have  hard  tires  and  they  run  frequently  and  at  considerable  speed. 
I  have  participated  with  members  of  the  public  service  commis- 
sion at  these  hearings  and  have  brought  out  the  facts  regarding 
weights,  sizes  of  wheels,  loads,  speeds  for  the  purpose  of  selecting 
data  that  will  enable  the  commissioner  to  make  rules  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  road.  These  lines  are  increasing  with  such  rapidity 
that  it  is  a  very  serious  problem  with  us  and  a  very  pressing  problem. 
It  is  not  one  that  we  have  got  to  think  about  for  the  future;  it  is 
with  us  now,  and  we  are  anxiously  looking  for  information  from  all 
sources  as  to  the  limitations  that  we  shall  put  upon  these  cars, 
as  to  the  loads  that  they  may  carry,  as  to  the  size  of  wheels,  width 
of  tire  and  speed.  It  is  no  unusual  thing  to  see  cars  running  at 
a  speed  of  25  miles  an  hour  with  heavy  loads,  people  hanging  on 
the  running  board,  and  on  one  of  the  hearings,  I  know  an  Italian 
who  ran  the  car  and  when  asked  what  he  did  when  the  seats  were 
all  full,  he  said  "We  sat  them  on  top."  Now,  that  is  a  pretty  serious 
problem.  In  addition  to  passengers,  they  carry  heavy  loads.  Of 
course  the  difficulty  Colonel  Sohier  has  spoken  of  with  regard  to 
bridges  is  also  very  serious.  Now,  we  cannot  exclude  those  people 
from  the  road;  they  apparently  have  the  same  rights  any  other 
citizen  has  to  use  the  roads,  and  the  people  in  the  localities  in  which 
the  lines  operate  want  the  buses,  they  are  a  great  convenience. 
They  patronize  them  liberally,  and  these  buses  run  all  the  year 
around,  too,  though  naturally  in  the  winter  time  they  are  not  as 
popular  as  at  other  times.  A  point  that  has  arisen  in  these  hear- 
ings is  on  the  amount  of  money  that  they  shall  pay,  if  any,  towards 
the  upkeep  or  the  cost  of  construction.  Where  our  electric  lines 
run  on  improved  highways,  they  are  required  to  pay,  as  all  railroads 
have  to  with  us,  for  the  pavement  between  their  rails  and  2  feet 
outside.  Now,  the  law  says  that  these  buses,  these  bus  lines, 
may  be  required  to  reimburse  the  railways  for  some  portion  of  that 
expense  which  the  railroads  have  already  contributed  to  the  pave- 
ment. Now,  that  is  a  very  vexing  question.  Most  of  the  applicants 
who  wish  to  run  these  buses  have  about  enough  money  to  buy  a 
bus  and  a  little  left  over  for  a  few  trips  for  gasoline;  when  that  is 
exhausted,  then  they  depend  upon  their  daily  receipts.  If  they 
are  to  be  saddled  with  any  part  of  the  expense  of  the  pavement, 
it  shuts  them  out.  I  am  hoping  that  the  public  service  commis- 
sion may  do  something  of  that  sort.  I  noticed  in  the  car  before  I 
came  up  a  paper  entitled  "What  the  Automobile  has  done  for  Good 
Roads."  I  think  somebody  ought  to  write  a  paper  on  "What  the 


DISCUSSION  283 

Automobile  is  doing  to  Good  Roads/'  especially  the  automobile 
truck.  That  there  is  need  for  more  durable  types  of  pavements, 
of  course  we  all  know  very  well,  but  how  in  the  world  to  meet  the 
unreasonable  use  of  the  roads  that  is  brought  about  by  these  heavy 
trucks,  is  the  problem  that  we  are  studying,  and  this  problem  has 
come  up  so  suddenly  that  we  hardly  know  where  we  are  at.  Any 
thoughts  that  any  of  you  gentlemen  have  growing  out  of  your  ex- 
perience with  them,  will  be  very  gratefully  received. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  will  be  glad  to  hear  from  any  of  you  gen- 
tlemen in  relation  to  this  matter.  The  matter  is  now  open  for 
discussion. 

MR.  WASHINGTON:  It  may  interest  you  and  other  gentlemen 
here  to  know  that  this  question  is  such  an  important  one,  that 
I  find  that  abroad  it  has  been  given  attention  for  more  than  a 
century,  and  I  found  the  other  day,  in  looking  over  the  road  his- 
tory of  some  Eurpoean  countries,  traffic  regulations  as  to  the  weight 
of  vehicles,  the  loads  they  might  carry  and  the  width  of  tires,  made 
in  1809,  and  as  far  as  I  can  gather,  there  were  some  regulations 
even  previous  to  that  period,  so  we  can  see  this  is  a  question  where, 
in  older  countries,  they  were  at  the  point  we  are  at  now  and  realized 
the  importance  more  than  a  century  ago  of  regulating  tires  and 
saving  the  roads  from  undue  wear  and  unnecessarily  heavy  loads, 
greater  than  they  should  bear,  and  in  nearly  all  the  prominent 
countries  of  Europe,  they  have  drastic  and  severe  traffic  regulations 
limiting  the  weight,  as  Colonel  Sohier  said,  per  wheel  and  per  inch 
of  tire,  and  in  other  words  sub-dividing  it,  in  some  cases,  on  the 
unit  basis  of  width  of  tire,  but  limiting  the  load  on  a  given  vehicle. 
Most  of  the  vehicles  in  France  and  Italy  are  two  wheeled  vehicles; 
you  hardly  ever  see  a  four  wheeled  vehicle  except  as  a  victoria  or 
automobile,  all  the  heavy  hauling  is  done  in  carts.  I  have  seen 
a  cart  of  six  horses  harnessed  tandem  and  I  have  seen  in  Paris  one 
with  eight  horses  to  it  hauling  probably  ten  tons  of  stone.  Some- 
times the  beds  are  12  to  18  feet  long,  and  they  pile  up  casks  and 
building  stone  on  them,  and  in  the  ports  like  Genoa,  enormous 
loads  of  foreign  products  of  all  kinds,  and  of  course  very  frequently 
to  meet  those  conditions  in  the  cities  they  have  stone  trucks  and  run 
those  vehicles  upon  cobble  stone  blocks  18  or  24  inches  in  diameter 
and  sometimes  12  inches  thick  when  they  are  put  down,  and  I  have 
seen  cases  where  they  seemed  to  have  been  worn  down  4  inches  and 
they  took  them  up  and  turned  them.  That  is  possible  in  European 
cities  where  they  use  their  horses  tandem,  but  if  you  had  them  har- 
nessed as  we  harness  them,  abreast,  the  horse  would  be  on  the  smooth 
or  slippery  part  of  the  street,  not  out  on  the  track,  and  he  could 
not  get  power  enough  to  pull  his  load.  This  is  only  a  trifling  con- 
tribution, but  it  may  be  interesting. 


284  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

DR.  CLUCK  (of  Pennsylvania):  Has  it  never  occurred  to  any 
of  these  gentlemen  present  that  possibly  our  regulations  and  li- 
cences are  not  in  accord  with  the  road?  We  in  our  section  have 
quite  a  number  of  motor  trucks  operating  in  different  vocations. 
Just  the  other  day  I  had  occasion  to  pass  one,  and  after  inquiring  as 
to  the  load  it  carried,  I  was  told  it  carried  12  tons.  We  all  know 
that  no  public  highway  has  been  built  or  is  even  being  built  now 
that  will  stand  such  a  traffic  as  that,  but  as  the  gentleman  has  said, 
large  traffic  has  become  a  habit,  but  are  these  motor  trucks,  auto- 
mobiles and  all  these  new  fandangoes  paying  the  share  of  the  rev- 
enue they  should  pay  for  the  use  of  the  highway?  You  take  an 
automobile,  and  we  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  them  during 
this  week,  the  gradation,  in  my  judgment,  is  not  in  comparison 
to  the  amount  of  damage  to  the  roads  they  use.  If  a  light  buggy 
was  placed  on  a  macadam  road,  such  as  I  saw  in  this  city  today,  it 
would  run  for  a  thousand  years  and  the  road  would  still  be  there. 
They  told  me  that  road  I  saw  today  was  put  there  a  year  ago,  and 
it  is  a  total  ruin.  There  must  have  been  something  to  do  that, 
and  something  more  than  the  ordinary  travel  these  roads  were 
originally  built  for.  That  road,  I  was  told,  cost  the  people  of  this 
county  here  about  $17,000  per  mile.  That  is  an  enormous  amount 
of  money  to  spend  on  one  mile  or  so  of  road  and  have  it  destroyed 
in  one  year.  My  opinion  is  this,  that  license  laws  as  fixed  by  all 
the  States  as  far  as  I  have  read,  graduate  by  horse  power;  they 
say  for  a  certain  number  of  horse  power  you  shall  pay  $10, 
over  and  above  that,  $15  or  $20,  and  they  go  on  up  to  a  certain 
standard.  This  last  act  I  have  not  read  and  do  not  know  what  it 
is,  but  I  believe  the  system  is  wrong;  I  think  the  system  ought 
to  be  based  on  the  size  of  the  tire,  starting  with  possibly  the  smallest 
rubber  tire  that  is  used  on  either  steam  or  gasoline  vehicles;  it  should 
start  with  a  fixed  price,  possibly  $10,  and  graduate  for  every  half 
inch  of  tire  space  instead  of  horse  power,  fixing  your  price  so  that, 
while  you  are  not  going  to  drive  the  business  away  from  you,  gentle- 
men, that's  not  the  idea,  but  they  ought  to  pay  in  comparison  to 
what  they  destroy.  No  man  runs  an  automobile  or  truck  for  fun; 
no  man  displaces  his  horse  for  fun,  he  does  it  for  gain,  that  is  every 
man's  object  in  life,  the  gain  he  gets  from  it,  and  that  is  the  reason 
he  runs  it.  The  driver  of  the  pleasure  automobile  drives  that  auto- 
mobile because  he  can  afford  to  drive  it,  or  else  he  would  not  drive 
it.  The  ordinary  business  man  drives  an  automobile  because  he 
can  make  more  money  that  way  than  by  going  in  steam  cars  or  by 
horse.  My  idea  is  this;  place  a  graduated  scale  of  licenses  to  the 
inch  or  half  inch  or  even  the  quarter  inch  bearing  surface,  and  then 
the  next  remedy  I  would  suggest  is  this;  instead  of  the  funds  being 
paid  into  the  State  treasury  as  they  are,  they  should  come  back  to 
every  county  and  local  municipality  where  the  licence  was  originally 
paid  from,  so  that  if  a  bridge  breaks  down  in  a  township  where  the 


NATIONAL  ROADS  285 

public  is  already  taxed,  that  comes  back,  in  addition  to  the  fine  that 
the  gentleman  has  well  said  should  be  imposed. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey):  Wouldn't  it  be  a  better  plan  in- 
stead of  taking  the  measure  as  the  gentleman  mentioned,  of  the 
width  of  the  tire  for  the  license  tax,  wouldn't  it  be  better  to  take 
the  combined  weight  and  speed  of  the  car,  because  those  are  the 
ingredients  that  do  the  harm,  while  the  width  of  the  tire  does  not 
determine  anything.  For  instance,  if  you  take  the  size  of  tire,  a 
Ford  car  would  pay  a  great  deal  less  than  a  Cadillac  car,  which 
carries  a  5-inch  tire  while  the  tire  of  the  Ford  car  is  very  small  and 
very  narrow.  I  think  the  three  things  combined,  the  size  of  tire  and 
weight  and  speed  are  the  three  things  that  should  be  put  together 
and  made  a  composite  from  which  we  should  draw  the  figures,  and  I 
think  the  license  should  be  a  federal  license  and  returned  to  the 
counties  or  States  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  roads  they  have 
in  that  county;  they  would  be  paid  right  back  to  the  State  and  the 
State  in  turn  would  pay  the  money  to  the  counties  and  that  would 
be  an  inducement  to  the  counties  to  have  more  roads.  I  believe 
our  association,  the  A.  A.  A.,  are  working  for  a  federal  licence  law. 

MR.  WRIGHT  (of  New  York):  I  believe  that  in  New  York  any 
person  with  a  load  of  over  8  tons  takes  his  chances  on  crossing  a 
bridge,  but  no  public  official  cares  to  take  advantage  of  that  law. 
Everybody  feels  that  the  bridge  ought  to  be  able  to  carry  any  reason- 
able load,  whether  the  vehicle  is  an  automobile  truck  or  anything 
else  of  that  sort. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  If  there  is  no  further  discussion,  Mr.  Smith  of 
New  Jersey  wants  to  speak  on  the  subject  of  National  Roads. 

NATIONAL  ROADS 

BY  F.  F.  SMITH 

This  matter  of  the  Quebec-Miami  highway  was  to  have  come  up 
last  Monday,  but  there  has  been  such  a  crowd  of  other  matters  and 
papers  that  we  had  to  give  way.  I  am  sorry  we  haven't  got  a  larger 
number  here  today,  because  I  feel  that  this  is  a  subject  that  maybe 
some  of  you  don't  know  about  and  will  be  very  much  interested  in 
when  you  do  know  about  it.  The  Quebec-Miami  highway  is  some- 
thing that  is  known  to  very  few  people  except  in  the  East,  and  I 
doubt  whether  some  of  the  Western  people  have  even  heard  of  it. 
It  occasionally  crops  out  in  the  papers  but  nobody  knows  just  what  it 
means.  For  the  first  year  after  the  formation  of  this  commission 
which  created  the  Quebec-Miami  idea,  it  was  a  joke,  almost,  to  think 
that  there  could  be  a  road  running  from  the  upper  end  of  our  States 


286  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

to  the  south;    practically  it  is  an  international  road,  taking  in 
part  of  Canada,  and  is  partly  governed  by  a  board  of  governors 
who  are  Canadians,  and  it  runs  down  through  the  Eastern  States 
and  the  District  of  Columbia  to  Florida  as  well  as  through  a  con- 
siderable  section   of   Canada,   and   consequently   it   is   practically 
an  international  road.     It  was  created  in  this  way.     Nearly  four 
years  ago  the  New  York  Herald  and  several  other  papers  got  busy 
and  tried  to  start  a  road  in  the  South,  partly  as  an  advertisement 
of  the  New  York  Herald  and  an  Atlanta  paper,  and  they  formed  a 
little  committee  and  called  it  the  National  Highway.     It  started 
from  New  York  and  went  out  through  New  Jersey  and  Pennsyl- 
vania to  Gettysburg  and  through  the  mountains  of  Virginia  and 
was  later  on  continued  to  Jacksonville,  but  it  is  a  road  that  is  prac- 
tically on  paper,  because  it  was  never  found  feasible.     The  Glidden 
tour  went  over  it,  but  it  had  a  terrible  time.     It  is  rather  an  im- 
practicable route,  because  it  goes  through  the  mountains  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  Virginia  and  then  on  through  a  wild  region  where  there 
are  no  hotels  and  where  tourists  have  no  means  of  taking  care  of 
themselves  on  the  route.     The  southern  part  of  this  road  was  part 
of  the  capital  highway  from  Richmond  down  and  it  was  a  Richmond 
road.     The  latter  part  was  never  graded  and  is  practically  a  hog 
wallow  although  fenced  in  and  called  a  road.     Three  years  ago  some 
of  us  got  together  and  said,  "There  ought  to  be  a  road  from  the 
north  to  the  south,  because  it  is  needed."    We  got  a  committee 
together  and  went  over  the  route  and  picked  out  a  route  we  thought 
might  be  good.    At  the  meeting  in  Richmond  two  years  ago  we 
formed  a  definite  commission  of  30;  five  Canadians  were  present 
there,   embracing  those  gentlemen  who  spoke  this  morning,   and 
there  were  two  representatives  from  each  of  the  ten  States  through 
which  the  road  passed  and  two  from  the  District  of  Columbia. 
We  dignified  ourselves  by  the  name  of  the  Quebec-Miami  High- 
way Association  and  said  we  would   work   without  any  pay  and 
bear  our  own  expenses  for  two  years.     I  happen  to  be  a  retired 
manufacturer  and  have  plenty  of  time.     We  could  not,  of  course, 
build  the  road;  we  merely  compiled  the  road,  just  as  you'd  go  to 
your  library  and  pick  out  a  book  and  read  an  author  on  one  par- 
ticular subject.    We  got  together  in  three  or  four  different  meet- 
ings and  formed  committees  from  different  sections  of  the  country. 
I  have  been  over  the  whole  route.     During  May  and  April  I  drove 
up  from  Miami  to  Philadelphia,  and  then  in  the  summer  up  to 
Montreal.     Josh  Billings  our  great  American  humorist  once  said 
that;  the  hen  is  a  wise  bird  because  she  never  cackles  until  after  the 
egg  happens.     We  don't  cackle  about  this  thing  but  the  road  is 
nearly  done  and  it  is  a  surprise  to  ourselves  as  well  as  to  others  that 
we  have  been  able  to  accomplish  what  we  have.     They  say  the  secret 
of  John  Wanamaker's  success  is  not  in  doing  things  himself  but  in 
making  the  other  fellow  do  it.    We  made  up  our  minds  to  find  the 
missing  links  and  persuade  the  county  officials  to  do  the  work  we 
wanted  done  to  connect  the  route  up,  and  we  succeeded.    We  have 


NATIONAL   ROADS  287 

not  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  and  have  not  gone  into  debt.  We 
found  out  there  were  a  series  of  roads,  for  instance,  a  little  piece 
of  road  from  Montreal  to  Quebec  is  not  finished  and  will  not  be 
before  next  year,  but  from  Montreal  down  there  was  a  continuous 
highway,  the  old  stage  route  following  the  Hudson  River.  As  we 
got  down  to  New  York,  we  struck  another  road  built  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago  from  Boston  to  Baltimore,  and  we  used  a  portion 
of  that.  Further  down  we  found  short  post  roads  that  had  been 
established,  some  of  them  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  so  we 
tried  out  the  different  ones  until  we  got  some  that  were  pretty  good 
and  persuaded  the  counties  to  put  in  the  little  connections,  and 
now  we  have  a  continuous  road,  although  it  is  not  quite  finished. 
The  hen  has  cackled  a  little  early  perhaps,  but  this  is  going  to  be  a 
road  that  will  be  very  popular  and  useful  for  different  purposes. 
It  is  a  very  scenic  road,  as  you  follow  it  from  the  Adirondacks  down 
the  Hudson,  all  the  way  down  to  New  York,  then  it  crosses  the 
Hudson  and  goes  through  the  Oranges  of  New  Jersey  into  Penn- 
sylvania down  to  the  upper  Chesapeake  and  takes  in  a  historic 
route  from  Richmond  to  Waslrington-  There  are  twenty-seven 
battle  grounds  on  the  route  within  a  hundred  miles.  Further  down 
it  goes  through  the  pine  regions,  Pinehurst  and  several  other  resorts 
used  by  our  people  in  the  winter,  and  at  the  same  time  it  connects 
all  these  capitals,  Richmond,  Savannah,  Augusta  and  there  are 
twelve  large  cities  on  the  route  and  over  fifty  good  sized  towns  and 
dozens  of  small  villages.  It  goes  through  a  thickly  populated 
region,  and  geographically  it  is  right.  If  we  went  as  far  back  in  the 
mountains  as  the  red  line  shows,  we  would  find  that  we  got  snow  in 
November  and  as  late  as  April;  if  we  go  near  the  coast,  we  would 
find  that  in  the  whole  route  there  isn't  a  hill  100  feet  high  and 
there  is  not  a  grade  over  5  per  cent,  and  there  is  a  good  hotel  every 
50  miles.  It  will  bring  the  Southern  people  in  the  summer  to  the 
mountains  and  lakes  and  connect  all  those  principal  cities  and  result 
in  a  great  mercantile  traffic.  Starting  here  we  have  the  line  fin- 
ished from  Montreal  to  Washington,  with  the  exception  of  10  miles 
that  will  be  done  this  fall,  practically  nearly  all  a  stone  road,  a  little 
in  New  Jersey  that  takes  in  gravel  roads  and  a  little  piece  farther 
down  that  takes  in  cement  roads,  but  practically  it  is  a  stone  road. 
Further  down,  it  takes  up  the  gravel  roads  through  Virginia,  and 
further  the  sand  clay  roads.  When  it  strikes  Pinehurst,  there  are 
1500  miles  of  side  roads  all  through  the  mountains  that  Mr.  Tufts 
and  his  associates  have  built,  pleasure  drives.  In  Georgia  we  strike 
magnificent  roads,  hundreds  of  miles  of  them  continuously.  Once 
in  a  while  we  strike  a  little  gap.  We  have  had  several  very  difficult 
places  to  overcome.  One  was  a  little  place  in  Maryland,  only  10 
miles  had  been  washed  away,  built  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
washed  sixty  years  ago  and  never  rebuilt,  and  finally  we  tore  it  all 
out  and  put  in  a  new  road  and  it's  a  sunk-way  now;  we  have  just 
put  in  a  real  good  cement  road  costing  $80,000  for  60  miles  of  it. 
Further  down  we  had  another  difficult  place  in  North  Carolina  where 


288  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

the  log  camps  shut  out  the  automobiles  and  wouldn't  let  us  come 
through  their  camp,  so  we  had  to  make  a  little  detour,  but  we  are 
going  to  build  that  6  miles  there  right  through  the  county  in  trestle 
work,  if  necessary,  and  go  over  the  log  fellows.  Further  down  in 
Georgia  we  struck  a  swamp  so  impenetrable  that  we  could  not  get 
through  and  couldn't  even  build  a  bridge  there.  Lately,  however, 
they  put  a  large  bridge  there  right  across,  resting  on  the  islands, 
and  the  railroad  companies  have  made  a  contract  with  us  for  ten  years 
to  carry  our  cars  across  that  place  on  flat  cars  at  $2.  We  have  no 
more  difficulties  except  that  in  two  or  three  places  we  have  ferries 
in  Florida  that  will  be  replaced  with  bridges.  The  great  advantage 
of  this  route  is  that  it  connects  the  North  and  the  South  and  does 
everything  to  make  good  feeling.  We  find  that  the  tourists  are  going 
to  Florida  a  great  deal  more  than  they  did,  because  they  can  take 
their  cars  and  have  something  to  amuse  them.  We  have  1800 
miles  of  real  good  roads  finished  in  Florida,  drives  that  would  please 
the  Northerners  so  much  they  would  always  want  to  go  to  Florida. 
Following  the  drives  of  400  miles  from  Miami  to  Jacksonville,  this 
whole  route  is  2400  miles  from  Quebec  to  Miami,  and  there  is  only 
about  100  miles  of  it  not  yet  in  good  condition.  You  can  go  over  the 
whole  route  as  it  is,  but  by  next  year  all  those  little  gaps  will  be 
finished,  and  by  next  November  you  will  be  able,  with  comfort,  to 
average  100  miles  a  day  easy.  I  did  that  coming  up  I  speak  of  this 
today  from  the  fact  that  we  are  having  so  much  interest  in  this 
convention  about  how  to  build  roads  and  what  we  are  going  to  do 
and  what  is  going  to  happen  to  the  roads.  Here  we  have  got  some- 
thing that  has  actually  been  done,  and  the  fruit  of  one  of  these 
conventions.  When  we  held  that  convention  in  Richmond  two  years 
ago,  we  did  not  think  we  could  do  such  a  thing  as  this,  yet  we  did  it 
and  did  it  so  quietly  that  few  people  realize  it  has  been  accomplished. 
So  I  believe  there  is  work  being  done  over  this  country  that  you 
could  take  a  lesson  from;  we  get  all  these  ideas  from  one  another; 
you  can  take  up  a  little  road  of  10  miles  here  and  20  miles  there 
and  get  busy  and  accomplish  these  things  by  united  effort  and 
occasionally  by  bluff.  We  got  hold  of  one  county  there  that  wouldn't 
do  anything,  would  hardly  let  the  road  come  through  there.  We 
said,  "All  right,  we  don't  care,  we  will  go  down  through  the  next 
county,"  and  we  started  to  build  a  road  and  they  immediately  came  to 
the  scratch  and  put  up  the  money.  There  are  several  cases  where 
we  made  them  do  that.  Some  would  say,  "That's  a  hot  air  road;" 
and  so  it  is,  in  one  sense,  we  did  it  by  talking  and  persuasion  with 
other  people  and  made  them  do  what  we  wanted  them  to  do  and  it 
was  not  a  hard  job  either  when  we  got  right  down  to  business.  Some- 
body said  hot  air  is  a  thing  that  could  be  laughed  at,  but  you  re- 
member the  old  hen  laid  over  3,000,000,000  eggs  last  year  and 
two-thirds  of  them  were  hatched  out  with  hot  air  in  incubators. 
I  don't  know  that  there  is  much  more  to  say  about  this.  I  could 
go  right  on  telling  stories  about  it.  We  have  adopted  a  system — 


DISCUSSION  289 

we  have  not  yet  finished  the  work,  we  have  now  got  to  do  the  fin- 
ishing up  of  these  little  places  and  then  we  have  got  to  mark  it  off 
and  we  are  going  to  have  a  very  perfect  system  of  marking  by  the 
color  scheme.  There  are  some  of  the  New  York  State  roads  that  we 
use  in  this  route  that  have  adopted  the  color  system  of  painting  the 
telegraph  poles  with  yellow,  blue  or  green  according  to  the  different 
routes.  We  have  adopted  a  yellow  and  black  band  with  an  arrow, 
and  all  you  have  got  to  do  in  spinning  along  the  country  roads, 
night  or  day,  is  to  follow  your  arrows  and  not  bother  with  signs  or 
anything  of  the  kind,  and  we  will  have  a  book  describing  the  route 
and  will  arrange  with  the  hotel  people  so  we  can  get  a  maintenance 
fund  and  keep  a  patrol  and  the  hotel  keeper  will  take  it  up  and 
subscribe  to  these  books  and  pay  a  certain  amount  towards  keep- 
ing up  the  road,  but  you  understand  this  road  is  not  for  the  auto- 
mobile people  and  tourists  only,  the  principal  use  of  this  road  will  be 
for  local  use  between  different  points  and  for  mercantile  purposes, 
for  trade  and  the  use  of  farmers.  There  is  an  immense  amount  of 
farming  being  done  in  Florida,  Georgia  and  North  Carolina  and 
it  was  a  great  surprise  to  me,  I  never  had  any  idea  what  a  beautiful 
country  there  was  between  here  and  Florida  until  I  went  through  it 
by  automobile  and  passed  through  the  village  streets  themselves 
instead  of  passing  merely  through  the  railroad  depots.  So  people 
who  want  winter  pleasure  can  take  their  car  and  go  South  and 
thoroughly  enjoy  it,  and  it  will  cost  them  less  than  it  would  to  stay 
at  home,  almost,  because  everything  is  so  cheap  in  the  South.  Liv- 
ing is  cheap.  You  can  use  your  summer  clothing  and  live  there 
cheaper  than  at  home.  This  is  an  interesting  subject  and  a  sub- 
ject that  I  think  this  convention  ought  to  endorse,  a  subject  it 
should  take  up  and  look  into.  We  hope  you  will  be  interested 
enough  in  it  to  travel  over  this  route  when  it  is  done  and  ask  more 
questions  about  it  and  make  yourself  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
Quebec-Miami  highway.  I  thank  you  very  much  for  your  attention. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Is  there  <any  point  any  gentleman  desires  to 
inquire  about  or  discuss  in  reference  to  Mr.  Smith's  road? 

A  DELEGATE:    How  wide  is  it? 

MR.  SMITH:  That  varies  in  different  places.  We  merely  used 
the  roads  which  were  built,  40-  and  50-foot  roads  in  most  cases. 
In  some  cases  in  the  south  they  do  not  build  their  roads  quite  as 
wide  and  they  run  down  to  30  feet  between  banks,  sometimes  30 
feet  between  fences;  the  road  itself  is  16  feet,  and  in  some  cases  they 
have  laid  the  pavements  8  or  9  feet  wide  and  laid  turf  and  grass 
on  the  outside  so  that  you  can  turn  out.  It  is  not  a  uniform,  stand- 
ard road.  The  upper  part  is  a  stone  road,  from  Richmond  north, 
and  below  that,  gravel.  Further  south  you  get  the  clay  and  the  shell 
roads  and  in  Florida  a  great  many  phosphate  roads.  I  can  show 


290  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

you  roads  which  are  like  a  looking  glass,  they  are  so  smooth  and  hard, 
but  hi  other  cases  they  are  the  ordinary  country  roads  made  better. 
We  cannot  say  that  they  are  the  best  roads  all  the  way  down,  but 
they  are  better  roads  than  the  average  country  roads  in  the  North, 
so  much  so  that  you  can  travel  anywhere  on  them  with  ease  and 
comfort. 

A  DELEGATE:  Isn't  it  sand  roads  on  the  east  coast  of  Florida 
above  Miami? 

MR.  SMITH:  Very  little  of  those  left  now,  they  are  brick  roads 
in  some  places  and  in  other  places  shell  roads;  in  other  places  rock 
roads. 

A  DELEGATE:  Does  it  go  through  a  rock  ledge  or  mountains? 
I  know  that  country;  I  made  an  examination  of  it  myself  a  few 
years  ago. 

MR.  SMITH:  We  have  a  great  deal  of  that  road  finished  now 
that  is  thoroughly  good.  Well,  the  last  200  miles  down  to  Miami 
are  now  all  finished  rock  road  and  oiled,  made  with  coquina  rock, 
finished  last  year,  ground  up  coquina  rock  and  rolled  and  scraped 
and  oiled. 

A  DELEGATE  :    Don't  it  go  to  pieces  when  it  gets  wet? 

MR.  SMITH:  No,  since  they  have  oiled  it,  it  doesn't  hurt  it 
much. 

A  DELEGATE:  Mr.  Flagler  is  having  trouble  with  his  extension 
now  because  the  material  slips  and  slides  in  the  water. 

MR.  SMITH:    I  don't  think  they  have  any  trouble  that  way. 

A  DELEGATE:  Last  year  they  had  trouble  keeping  it  up  where 
they  filled  in  at  the  trestles. 

MR.  SMITH:  The  worst  thing  is  that  they  injure  the  surface 
sometimes  with  those  heavy  trucks  they  have,  they  are  using  very 
heavy  trucks.  I  passed  through  one  field  of  1000  acres  of  pine- 
apples and  they  are  hauling  a  tremendous  amount  of  stuff  to  the 
depots  and  the  canning  factories,  but  they  keep  it  in  repair. 

A  DELEGATE:  When  they  strike  the  river  going  down  in  auto- 
mobiles is  it  arranged  so  we  can  get  across  without  having  to  wait  a 
day  or  two? 

MR.  SMITH:  There  is  only  one  place  where  you  have  to  wait, 
and  that  is  Rockledge;  there  is  a  small  ferryboat  there  which  carries 
only  two  cars.  It  will  be  arranged  this  year  so  as  to  carry  more 
.cars.  Still,  a  tourist  does  not  mind  a  little  wait.  You  can  go  in 


DISCUSSION  291 

an  orange  grove  and  pick  oranges  or  sit  down  and  catch  a  lot  of  fish 
while  you  are  waiting. 

A  DELEGATE  :    Yes,  they  are  good  oranges  too. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  can  testify  as  to  the  character  of  the  northern 
portion  of  this  route,  because  its  construction  has  been  my  respon- 
sibility this  year.  Mr.  Smith  referred  to  battle  fields;  there  were 
some  battles  that  probably  he  didn't  know  about — I  refer  to  those 
I  had  with  the  contractors  between  Saratoga  and  Rouss's  Point, 
but  I  think  I  won  and  you  will  find  good  roads  there  this  year.  One 
of  the  Screen  Lake  roads  is  one  I  have  been  trying  to  find  out  what 
kind  of  a  road  it  is.  Commissioner  Carlisle  said  they  got  out  of  the 
car  and  were  trying  to  decide  whether  it  was  a  gravel  road  or  a 
concrete  road  or  a  water  bound  macadam  road,  and  they  all  differed 
and  could  not  come  to  any  agreement  about  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
it  is  now  presented  to  me  for  acceptance  as  a  finished  concrete  road, 
but  I  think  we  will  have  to  dig  most  of  it  up  before  we  get  through. 
Now,  Mr.  Hunt  of  Indiana  desires  your  attention  for  a  few  moments 
on  the  matter  of  national  highways. 

MR.  HUNT:  I  shall  not  detain  you  for  any  length  of  time  and 
do  not  expect  to  make  any  talk  on  national  highways,  but  there 
is  a  matter  connected  with  national  highways  that  you  will  have 
your  attention  called  to,  and  I  simply  want  now,  in  advance,  to 
call  your  attention  to  that,  and  it  is  this,  whether  this  convention 
shall,  before  it  adjourns,  endorse  a  resolution  asking  that  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  appoint,  from  the  common  people  of  the 
different  States,  a  committee  to  formulate  and  present  to  Congress 
some  kind  of  an  agreed  upon  plan  for  action  at  some  time  in  the 
future,  or  whether  there  is  enough  brains  and  material  already  here 
assembled  to  formulate  that  plan  and  present  it.  Now  there  is  a 
disagreement  in  the  committee  on  resolutions  on  that  subject  and 
you  are  going  to  be  called  on  to  take  a  vote,  either  that  we  postpone 
any  definite  action  or  definite  plan  whereby  we  may  secure  federal  aid 
and  leave  it  to  some  further  committee  to  act  at  some  future  time, 
or  whether  we  are  going  to  take  up  that  matter  and  act  on  it  now 
and  get  action  at  an  early  date?  I  believe  it  will  be  a  mistake  for 
this  convention,  composed  of  road  men  as  we  profess  to  be,  to  ac- 
knowledge that  we  have  not  given  it  the  thought  or  that  we  have 
not  the  ability  to  agree  upon  some  feasible,  working  plan  and  adopt 
it  at  this  convention,  and  I  think  it  ought  to  be  done  before  this 
convention  adjourns. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Do  you  desire  the  consideration  of  some  reso- 
lution at  this  session,  this  afternoon? 

MR.  HUNT:  No  sir,  I  simply  want  to  have  you  think  about 
that,  in  order  that  we  may  take  some  wise  action  before  we  ad- 


292  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

journ.  I  think  it  is  important  that  we  should  agree  on  some  plan 
and  take  some  action  on  that  plan  and  not  wait  for  next  year  or  the 
year  after  or  the  year  after  that. 

MR.  SMITH  (of  New  Jersey):  I  presume  the  gentleman  is  aware 
that  last  year  we  carried  this  whole  thing  through  at  the  convention 
at  Washington  and  Atlantic  City,  and  that  committee  has  already 
been  appointed,  three  from  the  house,  three  from  the  senate  and 
three  from  the  cabinet,  to  find  out  which  law  was  best  out  of  the  63 
presented,  and  this  work  is  duplicating  what  has  already  been  done, 
partly  now  and  partly  last  year. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  committee  is  in  session  and  is  undoubtedly 
considering  all  matters  that  properly  come  before  it,  and  when  that 
committee  reports,  there  will  undoubtedly  be  opportunity  for  con- 
sideration of  the  resolution.  I  regret  that  Mr.  Carlisle  had  to  leave; 
his  official  duties  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  be  in  Albany  tomorrow 
morning  and  he  had  to  take  an  early  train  in  order  to  get  there.  Are 
there  any  other  questions  before  the  meeting  that  you  gentlemen 
desire  to  discuss  this  afternoon?  We  might  very  profitably  con- 
tinue the  discussion  of  the  destruction  of  roads  by  motor  trucks.  I 
am  looking  for  information  on  that  point. 

A  DELEGATE:  You  have  given  this  matter  consideration;  tell  us 
what  you  think  about  it. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  just  beginning  the  study  of  it;  I  have 
not  arrived  at  any  conclusion.  I  think  that  in  New  York  State 
we  will  probably  make  recommendations  as  to  the  width  of  tires 
per  ton  of  load  and  put  some  limitation  of  speed  upon  these  heavy 
motor  trucks.  Now,  when  a  motor  bus  carrying  passengers  is  late 
by  reason  of  some  mishap  or  having  to  pull  too  many  people,  they 
frequently  run  up  to  a  speed  of  25  or  30  miles  an  hour.  That  is 
too  fast  for  those  heavy  trucks  to  run  over  macadam  roads,  and 
contains  too  many  elements  of  danger,  both  to  the  people  and  to  the 
road.  Does  any  gentleman  desire  to  speak  further  on  that  subject 
or  on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Smith's  road  or  any  other  topic  of  interest? 

MR.  LARNGIVILLE  (of  Massachusetts):  I  want  to  ask  a  few 
questions  of  Mr.  Sohier;  how  long  has  the  rule  been  passed  in  Massa- 
chusetts about  the  weight  of  automobiles? 

MR.  SOHIER:  It  was  passed  this  summer,  1913;  I  have  forgotten 
just  when  it  took  effect.  There's  one  in  Michigan,  I  think,  taking 
effect  in  a  few  months  now.  The  Massachusetts  law  was  signed  on 
June  14th  and  took  effect  thirty  days  afterwards. 

Adjourned. 


RESOLUTIONS  ADOPTED 

The  Committee  on  Resolutions,  appointed  by  Hon.  Logan  Waller 
Page,  president  of  the  Congress,  submitted  the  following  report, 
which  was  unanimously  adopted: 

WHEREAS,  The  Joss  by  reason  of  bad  roads  which  everywhere 
lessens  the  profits  of  industry,  increases  the  cost  of  living,  and  bur- 
dens business  enterprise,  amounts  to  millions  annually,  therefore, 
be  it 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  earnestly  favors 
the  creation  of  a  national  department  of  public  works,  directed  by  a 
secretary^  who  should  be  a  member  of  the  President's  cabinet. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  favors  State  high- 
way commissions  and  State  aid  for  the  construction  and  mainte- 
nance of  the  main  roads  of  the  several  States. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  favors  the  establish- 
ment of  a  national  road  system,  and  favors  the  construction  by  the 
States,  counties,  and  towns  of  the  lateral  and  connecting  market 
highways. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  respectfully  re- 
quests the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  authorize  the  President 
to  appoint  a  commission  from  civil  life,  with  sufficient  appropriation 
to  make  a  thorough  and  exhaustive  report  on,  and  to  recommend  a 
system  of  Federal  aid. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  respectfully  peti- 
tions the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  adopt  the  necessary  legis- 
lation, so  that  the  United  States  may  hereafter  be  officially  repre- 
sented at  the  International  Road  Congresses. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  favors  the  investi- 
gation by  the  United  States  Office  of  Public  Roads  of  applications 
for  patents  affecting  road  and  bridge  construction  before  letters 
patent  are  issued. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  commends  the 
Lincoln  Highway  Association  for  its  efforts  in  seeking  the  establish- 
ment by  popular  subscription  of  a  transcontinental  highway  as  an 
enduring  and  useful  memorial  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  further 
commends  the  National  Old  Trails  Association  for  its  splendid  work 
in  the  rebuilding  of  the  Cumberland  Road  and  the  Santa  Fe  Trail. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  emphatically 
endorses  the  compulsory  use  of  wide  tires  and  road  drags. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  favors,  wherever 
practicable,  the  use  of  convicts  in  road  construction  and  maintenance. 

293 


294  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  favors  long  tenure 
in  office  of  experienced  and  efficient  highway  officials. 

RESOLVED,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  expresses  its  sincere 
thanks  and  appreciation  to  the  citizens,  commercial  organization,  and 
the  press  of  the  city  of  Detroit,  of  the  county  of  Wayne,  and  of  the 
State  of  Michigan,  for  their  hearty  cooperation  and  generous  hospi- 
tality towards  this,  the  greatest  of  American  road  congresses. 


MICHIGAN  DAY 

SESSIONS  OF  MICHIGAN  STATE  GOOD  ROADS 
ASSOCIATION 

October  3,  1913 

Nate. — As  the  proceedings  were  of  a  local  character,  publication 
is  omitted,  with  the  exception  of  an  address  on  "Concrete  Roads" 
by  Frank  F.  Rogers,  State  highway  commissioner,  and  its  discussion 
by  A.  N.  Johnson,  State  Highway  Engineer  of  Illinois. 

For  further  information  inquiry  should  be  addressed  to  Hon. 
P.  T.  Colgrove,  President,  State  Association,  Hastings,  Michigan. 

CONCRETE  ROADS 

BY  HON.  FRANK  F.  ROGEBS 
Stale  Highway  Commissioner  of  Michigan 

Much  of  value  has  been  written  hi  the  past  two  years  on  concrete 
roads  and  pavements,  but  a  great  deal  is  in  the  nature  of  theoretical 
discussions  quite  largely  based  on  laboratory  experiments,  hence 
when  an  opportunity  is  offered  to  make  a  field  study  of  many  miles  of 
concrete  roads,  some  of  which  have  seen  four  years  of  service,  it 
should  not  be  lost. 

The  writer  makes  no  claim  to  being  a  concrete  expert  but  simply 
has  been  fortunate  in  having  the  opportunity  to  study  at  first  hand, 
and  hi  some  detail,  the  behavior  of  a  large  mileage  of  concrete  road- 
ways in  Wayne  County,  Michigan.  This  comrty,  without  doubt, 
has  a  larger  mileage  of  concrete  roadways  than  any  other  county  in 
the  United  States,  or  than  is  possessed  by  any  equivalent  area  under  a 
single  local  government  in  any  foreign  country.  There  are  now  com- 
pleted in  Wayne  County  about  60  miles  of  concrete  highways  outside 
the  corporate  limits  of  cities  and  villages. 

For  reasons  above  stated  the  writer  desired  to  spend  the  time  al- 
lotted to  him  in  a  somewhat  detailed  study  of  the  local  concrete  roads, 
which  most  of  you  will  visit  before  leaving  the  city,  rather  than  to 
treat  the  subject  in  a  more  general  way.  All  of  the  main  highways 
leading  out  of  this  city  have  been  concreted  to  the  outermost  boun- 
daries of  Wayne  County  and  several  cross-roads  have  already  been 
concreted.  The  principal  roads  are  the  extensions  of  Woodward, 
Grand  River,  Gratiot  and  Michigan  Avenues,  while  River  Road  and 
the  extension  of  Fort  Street  running  southerly  are  concrete  roadways 
that  should  not  be  overlooked. 

295 


296  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

The  State  highway  department  with  the  cooperation  of  the  road 
officials  of  Wayne  County  and  assisted  by  Prof.  John  J.  Cox,  instructor 
in  highway  engineering  at  the  University  of  Michigan,  has  just  taken 
up  some  detailed  and  rather  minute  observations  of  these  roads  which 
will  extend  over  a  period  of  years  hi  the  hope  that  after  a  while  a  safe 
estimate  can  be  made  of  the  probable  life  and  cost  of  maintenance  of 
such  pavements  as  the  county  is  now  building,  and  under  such  traffic, 
soil  and  climatic  conditions  as  prevail  in  this  locality. 

The  first  work  in  this  study  will  be  careful  traffic  records  covering 
enough  time  and  at  such  frequent  intervals  as  will  give  a  reliable  esti- 
mate of  the  average  daily  traffic  for  one  year.  The  first  records  were 
taken  for  one  continuous  week  beginning  August  21  and  a  part  of  this 
record  which  is  given  in  the  accompanying  table  will  be  used  .for  the 
purpose  of  the  present  discussion. 

The  next  step  was  to  start  a  permanent  record  showing  the  present 
condition  of  each  25-foot  section  (the  distance  between  expansion 
joints)  of  all  the  different  roads.  The  observations  for  this  record 
were  made  September  2,  3  and  4  and  cover  6384  sections  and  a  little 
over  30  miles  of  road.  Several  pieces  of  road  have  not  been  taken  at 
this  time.  The  oldest  roads  were  built  in  1909  and  the  newest  that 
were  taken  were  built  in  1912,  having  been  down  one  year. 

For  the  purpose  of  this  record  the  defects  in  the  slabs  or  sections 
have  been  classified  as  longitudinal,  transverse  and  diagonal  cracks 
and  holes.  The  records  were  taken  in  ordinary  field  books,  the  left 
hand  column  of  the  left  hand  page  having  been  previously  numbered 
with  an  automatic  numbering  stamp  to  designate  the  record  number 
of  each  slab,  while  the  four  columns  to  the  right  were  headed  L — T— 
D — H,  respectively,  being  the  first  letters  of  the  words  indicating  the 
defects  named.  Opposite  each  number  and  in  the  proper  column 
vertical,  horizontal  or  diagonal  marks  were  used  for  symbols  to  indi- 
cate the  form  of  the  crack,  while  small  ovals  were  used  to  indicate 
such  holes  as  seemed  worthy  of  note.  Tar  had  been  spilled  on  many 
spots  that  were  not  defective. 

WOODWARD   AVENUE   ROAD 

The  first  mile  of  this  road  was  built  in  May  and  June,  and  opened  to 
traffic  in  July  of  1909,  thus  giving  it  full  four  years  of  wear.  The 
traffic  record  of  this  road  shows  a  daily  average  of  2160  vehicles,  of 
which  88.1  per  cent  were  motor  driven. 

The  soil  is  clay  loam,  inclining  a  little  more  to  sand  at  the  northerly 
end.  A  double  track  electric  railway  occupies  the  westerly  side  of  the 
street.  Between  the  railway  and  the  concrete  roadway  is  a  very 
shallow  gutter  under  which  was  laid  a  tile  drain  from  2  to  3  feet  in 
depth.  On  the  opposite  side  is  an  open  ditch,  the  bottom  of  which 
is  from  2  to  4  feet  below  the  crown  of  the  roadway. 

The  pavement  is  18  feet  wide,  has  a  crown  of  3  inches  and  a  blind 
curb  8  inches  wide  and  4  inches  deep  under  the  outer  edges  which 
were  somewhat  beveled.  The  concrete  was  composed  of  Portland 


CONCRETE   ROADS  297 

cement,  crushed  field  stone  or  cobbles  and  sand  mixed  in  the  propor- 
tion of  1 :  2£:  5  for  the  base  which  was  4  inches  thick.  The  top  layer 
was  made  of  the  same  materials,  using  a  1:2:3  mix  and  was  2^  inches 
thick. 

No  very  definite  data  can  be  secured  to  determine  the  wear,  which 
seems  to  be  slightly  greater  on  the  side  opposite  the  railway,  but  meas- 
uring from  some  of  tne  harder  pieces  of  the  coarse  aggregate  which 
have  been  worn  but  little,  if  any,  we  have  estimated  the  general  wear 
at  about  J  inch  which  would  be  an  average  of  TV  inch  per  year. 

This  mile  was  divided  into  sections  of  about  25  feet,  separated  by 
expansion  joints,  there  being  209  sections  to  the  mile.  The  most  of 
the  sections  were  separated  by  four  thicknesses  of  tar  paper  separated 
by  thin  boards  which  it  was  planned  to  remove  as  the  work  progressed 
though  many  of  the  boards  are  still  in  the  pavement.  Four  of  the 
joints  were  protected  by  pairs  of  steel  angle  bars,  separated  with  tar 
paper  and  placed  with  one  leg  of  each  angle  back  to  back  so  that  the 
other  leg  of  each  bar  was  flush  with  the  surface  of  the  concrete,  thus 
covering  a  space  of  about  4£  inches  at  the  joints.  The  concrete 
wears  slowly  on  each  side  of  the  angles  leaving  a  raised  joint  that  is 
slightly  noticeable  when  driving  over  the  pavement.  This  was  an 
experiment  which  has  not  been  repeated. 

Of  the  209  sections  constituting  the  first  mile  on  Woodward  Avenue, 
80  showed  longitudinal  cracks,  32  transverse  cracks  and  2  diagonal 
cracks  while  46  sections  were  recorded  as  having  holes,  making  a  total 
of  160  sections  which  are  more  or  less  imperfect,  or  76.5  plus  per  cent 
of  the  entire  mile. 

The  remaining  portion  of  Woodward  Avenue,  252  sections,  was 
built  in  1910  using  the  same  materials  and  the  same  mix.  No  blind 
curb  was  used  and  the  crown  was  reduced  to  2  inches.  The  soil  on 
this  section  is  considerably  more  sandy,  especially  toward  the  north 
end. 

On  this  portion  of  Woodward  Avenue,  29  sections  have  longitudi- 
nal, 22  sections  transverse,  and  6  sections  diagonal  cracks.  11  sec- 
tions have  holes,  making  a  total  of  68  defective  sections  or  27  plus 
per  cent  as  compared  with  76  plus  per  cent  in  the  first  mile. 

GRATIOT  AVENUE 

On  Gratiot  Avenue  in  the  season  of  1910,  9000  feet  of  16  foot  con- 
crete roadway  was  built.  On  this  pavement  gravel  and  sand  were 
used  for  the  aggregate  and  a  one  layer  concrete  having  a  1:2:4  mix 
was  laid.  The  soil  is  a  clay  loam  and  rather  heavy.  This  road  was 
not  completed  until  late  in  the  season  and  was  opened  to  travel  in 
November.  It  immediately  pitted  and  looked  rough  and  has  been 
covered  with  a  surface  treatment  of  refined  tar  and  fine  gravel.  It 
was  re-covered  this  season,  using  a  rather  light  grade  of  tar  (Tarvia 
A)  but  it  already  shows  some  tendency  to  scale  off.  The  experience 
in  some  other  places  leads  the  commission  to  believe  that  a  heavier 
grade  of  tar  gives  better  results. 


298  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

Beyond  this  portion  of  the  roadway  326  sections  of  the  same  width 
concrete  laid  in  1911  reaching  to  the  county  line.  Washed  pebbles 
and  sand  were  used  for  the  aggregate  in  a  1 :  If :  3  mix,  one  course  con- 
crete 7  inches  deep  being  laid.  The  records  for  this  piece  are  as  follows : 
Longitudinal  cracks,  11;  transverse  cracks,  10;  diagonal  cracks,  3; 
holes,  6;  showing  a  total  of  only  30  defective  slabs  or  9.2  plus  per 
cent.  The  traffic  count  on  this  road,  taken  at  the  county  line,  shows 
507  vehicles  daily,  65.8  per  cent  of  which  are  motor  driven. 

GRAND   RIVER  AVENUE 

On  the  Grand  River  Road  61  sections  of  two  course  concrete,  the 
same  as  laid  in  the  first  mile  of  Woodward  Avenue,  were  built  in  1909. 
The  soil  is  a  clay  loam.  The  records  show  11  longitudinal  cracks,  2 
transverse  cracks,  1  diagonal  crack  and  3  holes,  a  total  of  17  defective 
slabs  or  27.9  minus  per  cent.  The  traffic  count  showed  1064  vehicles, 
56.5  per  cent  of  which  were  motor  cars. 

In  1910,  341  more  sections  were  added  to  Grand  River  Avenue 
under  contract,  the  specifications  being  the  same  as  for  the  north 
end  of  Woodward  Avenue.  33  of  these  slabs  became  more  or  less 
pitted,  some  having  quite  large  holes.  They  have  been  repaired  by 
covering  with  refined  tar  and  stone  chips  so  that  no  defects  could  be 
observed  at  the  time  of  the  count,  hence  only  308  are  shown  in  the 
table.  The  defects  noted  are  as  follows:  59  longitudinal,  20  trans- 
verse, 29  diagonal  cracks  and  46  holes,  a  total  of  154  defective  slabs 
or  50  per  cent. 

In  1911,  515  additional  sections  of  one  course  concrete  were  placed 
on  the  Grand  River  Road.  Washed  pebbles  and  sand  were  used  for 
the  aggregate  with  a  1 :  If :  3  mix.  The  Baker  steel  joint  was  used  in 
all  of  this  work  except  the  first  six  sections.  The  defects  noted  are  as 
follows:  Longitudinal  cracks,  8;  transverse,  26;  diagonal,  3;  and  holes 
5,  making  a  total  of  42  defective  sections  or  8.2  plus  per  cent. 

In  1912,  1208  more  sections  were  added  to  Grand  River  Avenue 
reaching  to  the  line  between  Wayne  and  Oakland  Counties.  The 
count  on  these  sections  shows  as  follows:  66  longitudinal  cracks,  37 
transverse  cracks,  6  diagonal  cracks  and  5  holes,  making  a  total  of 
114  defective  sections  or  9.4  plus  per  cent.  The  soil  grew  more  sandy 
as  the  road  extended  westerly,  considerable  stretches  being  almost  free 
from  clay  or  loam. 

MICHIGAN  AVENUE 

On  Michigan  Avenue  481  sections  of  concrete,  17  feet  8  inches  wide 
were  laid,  using  washed  pebbles  and  sand  for  the  aggregate  in  a  1 : 2 : 4 
mix.  The  soil  for  the  most  part  is  a  sandy  loam,  but  a  little  heavy. 
The  count  shows  as  follows:  219  longitudinal  cracks,  48  transverse 
cracks,  23  diagonal  cracks,  21  holes,  making  a  total  of  311  defective 
sections  or  64.6  plus  per  cent.  The  traffic  count  shows  1009  vehicles, 
67.5  per  cent  of  which  were  motor  driven. 


CONCRETE  ROADS  299 

In  1911, 1570  sections  were  added  to  this  piece  of  road,  using  washed 
pebbles  and  sand  for  the  aggregate  and  a  1 : 1  \ :  3  mix.  The  soil  over 
which  this  pavement  was  laid  is  a  sandy  loam  running  into  light  sand 
at  the  west  end.  The  count  shows  the  following:  219  longitudinal 
cracks,  80  transverse  cracks,  42  diagonal  cracks,  14  holes,  making  a 
total  of  355  defective  sections,  or  22.6  plus  per  cent.  In  1912  this 
road  was  paved  to  within  1J  miles  of  the  county  line,  and  this  year 
completed  to  the  county  line,  but  no  record  was  taken  farther  west 
than  the  east  limits  of  the  village  of  Wayne. 

RIVER   ROAD 

In  1910,  149  sections  of  concrete  15  feet  wide  and  6J  inches  deep 
were  laid  on  the  River  Road,  using  gravel  and  sand  for  the  aggregate 
and  a  1:2:4  mix.  The  soil  over  which  this  road  runs  is  for  the  most 
part  heavy  clay.  The  count  shows  as  follows:  49  longitudinal 
cracks,  5  transverse  cracks,  6  diagonal  cracks  and  2  holes,  making  a 
total  of  62  defective  sections  or  41.6  plus  per  cent.  The  traffic 
count  shows  538  vehicles  daily,  of  which  78.9  per  cent  were  motor 
driven. 

In  1911,  434  sections  were  added  to  this  road  some  distance  below 
the  village  of  Trenton.  The  pavement  was  15  feet  wide,  7  inches 
thick,  built  of  washed  pebbles  and  sand  for  the  aggregate,  using  a 
1 :  1§:3  mix.  The  count  for  this  stretch  of  road  shows  as  follows:  16 
longitudinal  cracks,  17  transverse  cracks,  13  diagonal  cracks  and  no 
holes,  a  total  of  195  defective  sections  or  44.9  plus  per  cent. 

In  1912,  the  gap  between  this  piece  of  road  and  the  southerly  limits 
of  the  village  of  Trenton  was  closed  in  with  a  similar  pavement  to 
that  just  described,  comprising  213  sections.  The  count  on  this 
piece  shows  defects  as  follows:  14  longitudinal  cracks,  8  transverse 
cracks,  4  diagonal  cracks  and  no  holes,  making  a  total  of  26  sections 
or  12.2  plus  per  cent. 

The  same  year  there  was  added  to  the  south  end  of  the  work  done 
in  1911  something  over  two  miles  of  concrete  roadway,  but  of  this 
only  208  sections  were  counted.  Of  the  sections  counted,  17  show 
longitudinal  cracks,  9  transverse  cracks,  no  diagonal  cracks  and  no 
holes,  a  total  of  21  defective  sections  or  approximately  10  per  cent. 
The  soil  of  the  entire  road  was  heavy  clay. 

FORT   STREET   ROAD 

In  1910,  one-half  mile  of  gravel  concrete  of  a  1:2:4  mix,  12  feet 
wide  and  6J  inches  deep  was  built  on  Fort  Street.  This  concrete  like 
that  already  referred  to  on  Gratiot  Avenue  was  built  rather  late  in  the 
season  and  was  opened  to  traffic  in  November.  It  immediately 
pitted  to  such  an  extent  that  it  has  since  been  coated  with  refined  tar 
and  fine  washed  gravel,  about  J  inch  in  size.  This  covering  makes  an 
excellent  surface  and  wears  fairly  well.  Of  course  it  was  impossible 
to  observe  any  further  defects  in  the  concrete  at  this  time.  Continu- 


300  AMERICAN   ROA.D   CONGRESS 

ing  south,  in  1912,450  sections  of  concrete  12  feet  wide,  7  inches  deep, 
and  of  1 : 1 J :  3  mix  were  added.  The  count  on  this  piece  of  road  fol- 
lows: Longitudinal  cracks,  none,  although  another  observer  has 
reported  there  are  2,  transverse  cracks,  19;  diagonal  cracks,  9;  and 
holes,  1.  Total  defective  sections,  29,  or  6.5  minus  per  cent. 

From  the  foregoing,  it  is  strikingly  apparent  that  the  percentage  of 
defects  varied  greatly  in  the  different  roads.  A  careful  study  of  this 
variation  in  connection  with  the  age  of  the  pavement  will  soon  con- 
vince one  that  mere  age  has  not  produced  the  defects  noted.  For  ex- 
ample, 252  sections  built  on  Woodward  Avenue  in  1910  show  but 
27  per  cent  defective  slabs,  while  308  sections  built  on  Grand  River 
Avenue,  the  same  year  under  the  same  specifications,  show  50  per  cent 
of  defective  slabs.  There  are  two  noticeable  differences.  Grand 
River  Avenue  was  built  by  contract  on  a  clay  loam  soil  while  the  por- 
tion of  Woodward  Avenue  named,  was  built  by  day  labor  under  the 
direct  supervision  of  the  engineers  of  the  county  road  commission,  on 
a  soil  more  sandy  and,  presumably  with  a  little  better  sub-drainage. 
Again  481  sections  built  on  Michigan  Avenue  the  same  year  with 
sand  and  pebbles  for  the  aggregate  and  a  1:2:4  mix  show  64.6  per 
cent  of  defective  slabs.  This  was  on  clay  loam  soil.  We  might  also 
mention  149  sections  built  on  the  River  Road  in  1910  on  heavy  clay 
soil,  under  the  specifications  last  named,  which  show  but  41.6  per  cent 
of  defective  slabs. 

The  most  nolftceable  feature  concerning  these  defects  is  that  the 
longitudinal  cracks  almost  always  appear  in  groups,  seldom  singly. 
This  indicates  that  there  must  be  some  local  conditions  in  the  founda- 
tion, due  to  insufficient  drainage,  soil  conditions,  newly  made  fills  or 
uncompacted  sub-grades  that  cause  these  defects.  Longitudinal 
cracks  almost  invarialby  appear  on  fills  and  on  cuts,  apparently  with 
as  much  frequency  in  the  latter  as  in  the  former.  It  would  seem  that 
cracks  on  the  fills  are  due  to  the  settlement  of  the  embankment,  and 
in  the  cuts  the  presence  of  water  and  frost  in  the  sub-grade.  Briefly, 
the  writer's  opinion  is  that  these  cracks  are  due,  first,  to  the  settle- 
ment of  the  newly  made  fills,  and  second,  to  water  that  has  not  been 
completely  removed  from  the  sub-grade,  plus  frost.  If  these  causes 
could  be  thoroughly  eliminated  it  would  seem  possible  to  build 
concrete  roadways  to  the  width  of  15  or  16  feet,  where  sufficient  ex- 
pansion joints  are  used,  without  fear  of  trouble  from  longitudinal 
cracks. 

It  has  been  argued  by  the  Morse-Warren  Engineering  Company,  in 
a  recent  publication,  that  it  is  impossible  to  build  concrete  pavements 
(wider  than  12  feet)  which  will  remain  free  from  longitudinal  cracks 
without  using  longitudinal  joints,  unless  the  pavement  is  so  thick  as 
to  make  the  price  practically  prohibitive.  The  table  accompanying 
this  report  which  shows  450  sections  of  12  feet  roadway  on  the  Fort 
Street  Road  would  seem  to  bear  out  this  assertion,  but  a  mile  of  con- 
crete on  the  Eureka  Road,  which  the  writer  did  not  get  time  to  inspect, 
shows  a  great  number  of  longitudinal  and  transverse  cracks,  in  a  12 


CONCRETE  ROADS  301 

foot  concrete  roadway,  where  the  soil  conditions  are  the  same  as  on 
the  Fort  Street  Road  referred  to.  The  only  apparent  difference  is 
that  the  former  is  a  1:2:4  mix  and  the  latter  a  1:1$:  3  mix,  washed 
pebbles  and  sand  being  used  for  the  aggregate  in  both  cases. 

But  long  stretches  of  pavement  16  feet  wide  and  now  two  years 
old  on  Grand  River  and  Michigan  Avenues,  which  show  no  longitu- 
dinal cracks,  would  seem  to  prove  that  this  statement  is  not  neces- 
sarily true  and  that  a  sufficient  amount  of  money  spent  in  compacting 
and  draining  the  foundation  or  in  reinforcing  the  concrete  over  newly 
made  fills,  would  produce  pavements  free  from  the  objectionable  longi- 
tudinal crease,  whether  natural  or  artificial.  Most  persons  are 
agreed  that  transverse  cracks  are  almost  always  due  to  defective  ex- 
pansion joints.  It  has  been  thoroughly  demonstrated,  both  theoreti- 
cally and  practically,  that  25  feet  is  frequent  enough  for  the  expansion 
joints,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  they  might  be  placed  farther  apart 
with  safety, — probably  not  less  than  three  to  100  feet. 

The  diagonal  cracks  are  doubtless  due  to  causes  which  are  a  com- 
bination of  those  noted  under  longitudinal  and  transverse  cracks. 
Many  diagonal  cracks  were  noted  where  the  corners  only  were  broken 
off,  frequently  on  adjoining  corners  of  adjacent  slabs,  indicating  that 
the  slabs  were  united  through  the  expansion  joints  with  a  bond 
stronger  than  the  tensile  strength  of  the  concrete  on  either  side  of  the 
joint. 

The  holes  noted  are  perhaps  of  less  importance  than  the  different 
kinds  of  cracks.  In  a  few  instances  they  are  rather  large,  sometimes 
a  square  yard  or  more  in  area,  but  such  places  are  very  rare  and  most 
of  the  holes  noted  are  due  simply  to  some  foreign  substances  getting 
into  the  concrete,  like  clay,  wood  or  some  fragment  of  an  inferior  rock 
that  might  chance  to  be  a  part  of  the  aggregate.  This  was  more 
noticeable  where  crushed  cobbles  were  used  for  the  coarse  aggregate 
than  where  washed  pebbles  were  used. 

Any  one  familiar  with  the  quality  of  rocks  which  constitute  Michi- 
gan cobbles  will  understand  that  the  principal  objection  to  this  ma- 
terial for  an  aggregate  on  concrete  roads  is  the  varying  qualities  of 
these  rocks,  ranging  from  soft  to  hard  granite,  quartizite  and  trap. 
A  study  of  the  roads  where  these  materials  have  been  used  shows  much 
more  wear  in  the  spots  where  the  softer  rocks  happen  to  be  at  the 
surface. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  defects  noted,  except  the  pitted  condi- 
tions of  the  concrete  roads  which  have  been  re-surfaced  in  the  manner 
already  described,  are  not  serious  and  are  not  causing  any  additional 
expense  for  up-keep.  In  the  past  two  years  the  expansion  joints  on 
all  the  old  work,  whether  reinforced  or  not,  have  been  coated  with 
refined  tar  and  sand  once  a  year.  Thus  far,  the  cost  has  ranged  be- 
tween $50  and  $100  per  mile,  depending  on  the  distance  of  the  work 
from  the  base  of  supplies.  These  repairs  are  proving  adequate  and 
satisfactory,  and  while  the  defects  noted  are  something  of  a  reflection 
on  the  present  method  of  building  concrete  roadways  they  are  really 


302  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

no  reflection  on  the  use  of  concrete  as  a  suitable  material  for  making 
hard  and  durable  surfaces  over  our  country  highways  wherever  traffic 
conditions  warrant,  and  the  community  has  the  ability  to  pay  the  cost 
of  high  class  road  surfaces.  There  is  no  question  as  to  the  necessity  of 
some  form  of  very  permanent  roadway  near  the  city  of  Detroit,  neither 
is  there  any  question  as  to  the  ability  of  Wayne  County  to  pay  for 
roadway  that  is  good  enough  and  permanent  enough  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  its  traffic.  In  the  writer's  opinion,  Wayne  county  has 
made  no  mistake  in  choosing  concrete  as  a  paving  material  for  its 
main  roads. 

MR.  A.  N.  JOHNSON:  All  who  are  interested  in  the  problems  of 
road  construction,  particularly  of  concrete  roads,  are  indebted  to  Mr. 
Rogers  for  the  very  valuable  data  that  he  has  presented  in  his  ex- 
cellent paper,  for  it  is  only  by  the  intelligent  collection  and  presenta- 
tion of  such  data  that  true  progress  in  the  art  of  road  making  can  be 
made. 

With  so  many  conflicting  reports  afloat  as  to  the  condition  of 
the  concrete  roads  of  Wayne  County,  it  is  particularly  refresh- 
ing to  have  before  us  so  concise  and  reliable  a  statement  concerning 
them.  As  Mr.  Rogers  points  out,  the  general  condition  of  these 
roads  is  excellent,  but  as  more  information  is  usually  to  be  gained 
from  a  study  of  the  defects  in  any  work,  this  discussion  will  have 
mainly  to  do  with  such  defects  and  their  causes  and  to  suggest  such 
remedies  as  seem  to  be  applicable. 

Mr.  Rogers'  paper  classifies  the  defects  noted  in  the  Wayne 
County  roads  under  four  heads;  longitudinal  cracks,  transverse 
cracks,  diagonal  cracks  and  holes  or  pits  in  the  road  surface.  It 
remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  exact  causes  and  consequently 
the  proper  remedies  for  these  defects  can  be  determined  from  our 
present  knowledge.  The  last  of  these  defects  will  be  discussed  first, 
as  there  is  probably  less  doubt  as  to  the  causes. 

It  is  evident  that  if  one  portion  of  a  concrete  road  surface,  under 
given  conditions  of  traffic,  exhibits  a  special  weakness,  it  must 
be  due  to  non-uniformity  of  the  concrete.  This  will  happen  if 
soft  pieces  of  material  are  in  the  aggregate.  Many  gravel  banks 
contain  enough  soft  pebbles  to  render  the  gravel  useless  for  con- 
crete road  work,  though  frequently  these  soft  pebbles  have  some- 
what the  general  appearance  of  the  sound  material  and,  unless  a 
careful  examination  is  made,  will  not  be  detected. 

Another  cause  for  local  weakness  in  concrete  is  the  un-uniform 
distribution  of  the  mortar  and  the  aggregate.  It  frequently  happens, 
particularly  with  very  wet  mixtures,  that  the  coarser  aggregate 
will  not  be  thoroughly  distributed,  but  will  occasionally  be  sepa- 
rated into  small  collections  or  nests  of  the  Larger  pieces,  which  contain 
a  very  small  amount  of  mortar.  There  is  no  mixer  that  has  come 
under  the  writer's  observation  which  will  mix  a  batch  so  uniformly 
and  deposit  it  in  the  road  so  that  all  portions  will  contain  the  proper 


CONCRETE  ROADS 


303 


amount  of  coarse  aggregate  and  mortar.  It  is  necessary,  there- 
fore, 'n  the  construction  of  a  concrete  road  to  have  one  or  two  men 
constantly  at  hand  to  correct  such  uneven  distribution  by  shoveling 
out  the  pockets  of  coarser  aggregate  to  be  found  in  the  center  of 
nearly  every  batch  that  is  deposited  on  the  road  and  replace  these 
pockets  with  mortar,  which  usually  runs  to  the  bottom  and  edges  of  a 
batch.  Where  the  holes  or  pits  in  the  road  surface  are  few,  their 
cause  is  probably  due  to  one  or  both  of  the  above  mentioned  reasons. 

Where  the  surface  exhibits  a  more  general  disintegration,  it  will 
usually  be  found  due,  assuming  a  rich  mixture  has  been  used,  either 
to  the  concrete  drying  too  fast  during  the  period  of  setting,  thereby 
not  curing  properly,  or  because  it  has  been  frozen  while  setting. 
It  is  assumed  in  this  discussion  that  a  rich  enough  mixture  has  been 
employed  to  insure  good  concrete,  although  most  complete  failures 
of  concrete  roads  are  due  to  a  too  lean  mix  and  poor  workmanship. 
All  of  these  causes  are  generally  well  understood  and  most  specifica- 
tions and  approved  workmanship  seek  to  avoid  them. 

The  causes  of  the  first  three  defects  noted  by  Mr.  Rogers  are 
perhaps  more  difficult  to  ascertain  in  a  given  instance.  Before 
taking  up  the  discussion  of  the  causes,  it  is  of  advantage  to  re- 
arrange the  data  as  presented.  This  has  been  done  by  grouping 
the  data  according  to  the  year  in  which  the  roads  were  built,  or  in 
other  words,  according  to  the  age  of  the  various  pieces  of  road. 
And  in  order  to  have  a  proper  basis  of  comparison,  the  number  of 
cracks  per  mile  has  been  computed  for  the  roads  built  in  1909, 
1910,  1911,  and  1912,  respectively.  The  results  are  presented  in  the 
following  table: 

TABLE  i 

Showing  the  cracks  per  mile  for  each  year 


CRACKS  P 

ER  MILE 

1912 

1911 

1910 

1909 

Transverse  

7.4 

9.9 

17.3 

26.2 

Longitudinal 

9.8 

29.8 

64.8 

70.0 

Diagonal  

1.9 

4.5 

11.7 

2.3 

Totals  

19  1 

44.2 

93.8 

98.5 

The  results  in  this  table  are  represented  graphically  in  figure  1, 
where  the  age  of  the  pavements  in  years  is  plotted  as  abscissas 
and  the  number  of  cracks  per  mile  as  ordinates. 

At  a  first  glance,  one  is  struck  with  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
cracks  with  each  succeeding  year.  This  increase  is  particularly 
marked  during  the  first  three  years,  but  apparently  falls  off  sharply 
during  the  fourth  year. 

A  notable  coincidence  is  that  the  curve  showing  the  total  num- 
ber of  cracks  per  mile  of  all  kinds  is  approximately  a  straight  line  for 


304 


AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

Age  of  roads  in  years 


20 


10 


1    Year         2 


CONCRETE  ROADS  305 

the  first  three  years,  or  in  other  words,  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
cracks  was  approximately  the  same  for  each  of  these  years. 

There  is  also  considerable  agreement  of  the  curves  for  the  longi- 
tudinal, transverse  and  diagonal  cracks  during  the  first  three  years, 
but  no  such  agreement  for  the  fourth  year.  It  is  to  be  borne  in 
mind,  however,  that  for  the  fourth  year,  data  are  given  for  only 
two  pieces  of  road  about  1.3  miles  in  length.  However,  as  these 
were  laid  with  a  leaner  mixture  than  much  of  the  other  work  and 
is  the  first  concrete  work  done  by  the  Wayne  County  commissioners, 
all  the  evidence  would  point  to  the  conclusion  that  this  stretch  of  road 
would  show  at  least  as  many  defects  as  will  appear  later  in  the  other 
roads.  But  whether  the  conclusion  can  be  definitely  drawn  that 
after  the  first  three  or  four  years  but  few  more  cracks  will  appear 
must  rest  on  much  more  extended  and  detailed  data  than  are  to  be 
had  at  present. 

The  value  of  future  observations  to  be  made  at  intervals  of  not 
less  than  three  months  will  be  evident.  These  observations  should 
note  carefully  all  the  cracks  that  are  found,  both  as  to  their  char- 
acter and  particularly  as  to  their  distribution,  so  that  in  the  future, 
the  location  of  new  cracks  as  they  appear  may  be  known,  as  well 
as  approximately  the  time  of  the  year  when  they  occur.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  the  data  secured  from  such  observations  extending  over 
the  next  two  or  three  years  would  shed  much  light  on  what  at  present 
can  be  but  mere  conjecture. 

Before  the  arrangement  above  described  was  made  of  the  data 
presented,  many  other  bases  of  comparison  were  undertaken  with  a 
view  to  ascertain  whether  any  particular  feature  had  a  special  bear- 
ing on  the  occurrence  of  the  cracks.  There  was  not,  however,  dis- 
closed anything  on  which  conclusions  could  be  logically  based. 
Neither  the  width  of  the  road,  the  proportion  of  the  mixture  nor  the 
character  of  the  sub-soil  presents  any  unfailing  influence  on  the 
defects  noted.  About  the  only  consistent  result  to  be  disclosed  was 
by  the  arrangement  here  made. 

It  may  be  profitable,  however,  at  the  present  time  to  discuss  the 
causes  that  may  be  assigned  to  the  development  of  cracks  in  concrete 
roads,  basing  the  observations  on  the  data  obtained  from  the  condi- 
tions reported  on  the  Wayne  county  work. 

It  can  be  fairly  assumed  in  the  present  instance  that  the  slabs  of 
concrete  may  be  considered  as  approximately  of  the  same  strength  and 
therefore  offer  practically  the  same  resistance  to  all  exterior  forces  to 
which  they  are  subjected. 

Among  the  forces  which  would  cause  the  slabs  to  crack  are  varia- 
tions in  temperature,  extraordinarily  heavy  traffic  loads  and  un- 
equal settlement  of  the  foundations.  It  is  more  than  probable 
that  the  cracks  are  due  to  no  one  of  these  causes  alone,  but  rather 
to  their  accidental  combination.  If  the  changes  in  temperature 
were  the  prime  cause,  it  could  be  expected  that  all  slabs  would  show 
approximately  the  same  number  of  cracks  for  the  reason  that  all 


306  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

portions  of  the  road  are  subjected  approximately,  to  the  same  tem- 
perature variations.  But  an  examination  of  the  roads  shows  many 
slabs  in  continuous  stretches  which  have  not  cracked  at  all,  regard- 
less of  the  age  of  the  road.  It  can  therefore  be  concluded,  that  tem- 
perature changes  alone,  are  not  sufficient  to  cause  cracking  of  the 
slabs  in  general. 

While  extraordinarily  heavy  moving  loads  may  not  be  so  generally 
applied  to  all  the  slabs,  and  therefore  not  cause  as  uniform  an  ap- 
pearance of  cracks,  yet  if  this  be  a  principal  cause,  it  could  be  expected 
there  would  be  a  large  number  of  contiguous  cracked  slabs.  But 
there  is  practically  no  evidence  to  indicate  that  there  have  been  loads 
heavy  enough  to  cause  the  pavements  to  crack  from  this  reason  alone. 

The  third  cause  that  has  been  mentioned,  that  of  unequal  settle- 
ment of  the  foundation,  is  one  that  would  not  be  generally  dis- 
tributed, for  while  settlement  might  occur  in  one  place,  there  very 
likely  would  be  considerable  distances  where  it  did  not  occur.  More- 
over, it  will  be  appreciated  that  the  manifold  conditions  which  would 
produce  unequal  settlement  would  cause  an  erratic  occurrence  of 
any  results  from  this  source.  And  the  haphazard  occurrence  of  the 
cracks  would  indicate  that  the  cause  is  not  general  throughout  the 
length  of  the  roads.  The  writer  is  therefore  of  the  opinion  that  the 
majority  of  the  cracks  are  due  primarily  to  unequal  settlement  of  the 
foundation  or  sub-soil  beneath  the  broken  slabs. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  settlement  by  itself  would  perhaps  not  be 
sufficient  to  cause  the  slab  to  crack,  but  on  the  passage  of  heavy  traffic 
or  with  the  movement  of  the  slab  under  temperature  changes,  there 
would  be  added  just  enough  extra  stress  to  overcome  the  strength  of 
the  slab  and  produce  the  crack.  If,  therefore,  it  is  possible  in  the 
construction  of  concrete  roads,  to  guard  against  unequal  settlement 
of  the  foundation,  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  cracks  in  the  pavement 
will  be  overcome. 

The  writer  has  observed  that  the  concrete  slabs  composing  a 
concrete  road,  usually  do  not  crack  until  after  they  have  been  in 
service  about  a  year.  The  first  cracks  generally  appear  during  the 
late  spring  and  early  summer  following  construction.  An  explan- 
ation is  that  during  the  winter  and  early  spring,  the  ground  is 
well  saturated  with  moisture  which  during  late  spring  and  early 
summer  dries  out  and,  in  case  the  road  bed  should  dry  out  unevenly, 
the  consequent  settlement  would  not  be  uniform. 

It  is,  therefore,  particularly  important  if  large  concrete  slabs  are 
to  be  maintained  intact,  to  take  special  precaution  with  the  under- 
drainage  to  protect  the  road  bed  from  becoming  saturated  and  pro- 
vide a  means  for  thorough  and  uniform  draining  of  the  entire  road 
bed. 

It  is  probable,  as  further  studies  are  made,  that  the  causes  producing 
transverse  cracks  will  be  found  to  be  somewhat  different  from  those 
producing  longitudinal  cracks.  One  special  cause  of  the  latter  is  to 
be  found  whenever  a  concrete  road  is  built  over  a  hard  roadbed,  the 


CONCRETE  ROADS  307 

concrete  slab  being  somewhat  wider  then  the  compacted  center  of 
the  old  road.  The  soil  at  the  sides  which  is  not  so  compact  as  the 
center,  will  settle  more,  causing  the  concrete  slab  to  break  longi- 
tudinally, with  the  road.  To  prevent  this,  it  is  recommended  that 
the  old  road  bed  should  be  thoroughly  loosened  and  then  re-rolled 
with  the  sides  so  as  to  produce  as  nearly  uniform  a  condition  as  pos- 
sible, of  the  entire  road  bed  beneath  the  concrete. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  on  all  the  Wayne  County  concrete  roads, 
the  distance  between  the  joints  is  25  feet.  Mr.  Rogers  suggests  that 
a  somewhat  greater  distance  may  be  used. 

It  has  been  the  writer's  experience,  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
place  expansion  joints  as  close  together  as  25  feet.  It  will  be  readily 
admitted  that  the  fewer  joints,  the  more  desirable  the  road  surface. 
The  following  data  will  perhaps  be  interesting  in  this  connection, 
although  too  meagre  to  draw  very  definite  conclusions. 

On  three  pieces  of  work  constructed  under  the  writer's  super- 
vision in  1912,  totalling  2.3  miles,  none  of  the  sections  was  less  than 
50  feet  in  length,  many  of  them  being  60  and  75  feet  and  one  or  two 
as  long  as  100  feet.  The  number  of  cracks  per  mile  in  these  roads  at 
present  is,  transverse  cracks,  9.1;  longitudinal  cracks,  9.1.  As 
none  of  the  cracks  have  been  classed  as  diagonal  cracks,  the  total 
number  of  cracks  per  mile  is  18.2,  but  it  will  be  noted  in  Table  1, 
that  the  total  number  of  cracks  in  the  1912  work  on  the  Wayne 
County  roads,  using  25-foot  sections,  is  19.1.  If  therefore,  with 
50-foot  sections  and  greater,  there  are  no  more  cracks  per  mile  than 
with  25-foot  sections,  it  is  evident  that  we  do  not  need  joints  as  often 
as  25  feet  and  when  we  consider  that  every  joint  is  really  a  crack 
which  must  be  cared  for  and  maintained,  it  is  evident  that  their 
reduction  is  a  very  substantial  gain,  both  in  first  cost  and  subse- 
quent maintenance.  However,  it  will  be  necessary  to  have  much 
more  data,  extending  over  a  much  longer  time  before  it  can  be 
definitely  concluded  as  to  how  frequent  the  joints  should  be;  but 
from  the  observations  that  have  been  made  it  seems  that  the  joints 
may  be  made  further  apart  than  50  feet,  rather  than  nearer  together. 

Before  concluding,  the  subject  of  the  mixture  to  be  used  should  be 
touched  upon.  A  concrete  proportioned  1-2-3J  is  amply  rich  enough 
to  give  the  requisite  strength  required  for  road  service.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  this  mixture  provides  sufficient  sand  to  furnish  a  quantity 
of  mortar  approximately  60  per  cent  of  the  volume  of  the  coarse 
aggregate.  As  was  pointed  out  by  the  writer  in  a  paper  on  concrete 
road  construction,  presented  last  year,  to  the  American  Road  Con- 
gress, it  is  important  that  if  all  the  aggregate  is  to  be  well  surrounded 
with  mortar,  that  with  aggregate  showing  50  per  cent  voids,  the  sand 
should  be  in  excess  of  one-half  the  volume  of  the  coarse  aggregate. 
Actual  service  has  demonstrated  the  value  of  proportioning  concrete 
in  this  manner,  rather  than  using  a  1-1J-3  or  a  1-2-4  mixture. 

Lest  a  wrong  impression  should  be  gained  from  the  emphasis 
laid  upon  the  defects  found  in  the  Wayne  County  roads,  the  writer 


308  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

would  state  in  conclusion  that  the  average  crack  in  a  concrete  road 
is  but  a  minute  affair  and  is  easily  and  cheaply  filled  with  pitch 
so  as  to  present  to  traffic  an  unbroken  road  surface.  And  from  a 
number  of  personal  inspections  made  of  the  Wayne  County  roads, 
he  feels  that  the  Wayne  County  commissioners  have  amply  justified 
their  adoption  of  this  form  of  construction  and  deservedly  merit 
the  approval  bestowed  upon  them,  not  alone  by  Wayne  County 
citizens  but  by  all  who  appreciate  skillful  and  painstaking  con- 
struction of  public  work. 


AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Detroit,  October  4,  10  a.m. 

President  Page  in  the  Chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  The  meeting  will  please  come  to  order. 

SECRETARY  PENNYBACKER  :  The  principal  business  of  this  morning 
is  the  consideration  of  invitations  from  various  cities  for  the  1914 
and  1915  American  Road  Congress.  The  committees  representing 
the  two  organizations,  the  American  Highway  Association  and  the 
American  Automobile  Association,  conferred  with  the  gentlemen 
representing  the  various  cities,  on  Thursday,  and  have  gone  over  the 
various  communications  and  the  verbal  information  rather  thoroughly, 
and  as  there  are  a  great  many  telegraphic  invitations  and  letters,  the 
committee  hardly  thought  it  worth  while  to  have  them  all  read  at 
this  particular  meeting.  The  committee  has  determined  to  with- 
hold its  final  decision  for  a  few  weeks  until  a  representative  of  the 
Congress  could  personally  inspect  the  facilities  for  meeting  places, 
exhibits,  hotel  accommodations,  etc.,  of  the  various  cities  that  might 
be  selected.  The  committee  does  not  mean  by  this  that  a  tour  of 
the  whole  country  will  be  made,  but  they  will  have  an  inspection  made 
of  the  three  or  four  cities  which  they  have  determined  upon  in  the 
final  analysis,  and  unless  there  are  some  special  communications 
that  it  is  desired  be  read,  these  will  be  made  part  of  the  official  record 
and  not  be  read  at  this  meeting. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  If  there  is  no  objection  to  placing  these  various 
requests  and  invitations  in  the  record,  we  will  allow  them  to  go  in 
the  record.  If  there  is  any  one  present  representing  any  city  that 
desires  our  congress  to  be  held  there  and  has  anything  special  to  say 
on  this  subject,  we  will  be  very  glad  to  hear  from  them. 

(Representatives  of  various  cities  then  presented  invitations,  to- 
gether with  arguments  why  the  Congress  should  meet  in  them,  after 
which  the  Congress  adjourned.) 


309 


MEETING  OF  AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 

Detroit,  October  2,  8  p.m. 

President  Page  in  the  chair. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  the  president  after  which  the 
secretary  read  the  minutes  of  the  last  meeting,  which  was  held  in 
Atlantic  City,  New  Jersey,  October  3,  1912. 

Upon  motion  the  minutes  were  approved  as  read. 

There  being  no  unfinished  business  Mr.  Batchelder  moved  that 
a  committee  of  seven  on  nominations  be  appointed.  The  motion 
was  seconded  and  adopted.  The  Chairman  appointed  Messrs 
Batchelder,  Beatty,  Johnson,  Wilson,  Kenyon,  Colgrove  and  Goodell. 

The  committee  then  retired. 

Secretary  Pennybacker  then  submitted  his  report  and  the  Treas- 
urer's report,  the  latter  oflicial  being  absent.  These  reports  had 
been  submitted  to  the  board  of  directors  on  the  evening  previous 
and  approved  by  them.  Mr.  Pennybacker  stated  that  the  total 
membership  was  1670,  the  largest  ever  recorded;  that  this  number 
represented  the  bona  fide,  practically  permanent  membership.  He 
called  attention  to  the  second  official  Good  Roads  Year  Book  which 
was  brought  out  two  months  earlier  than  the  first  one  and  contained 
one  hundred  pages  more  matter  as  well  as  a  number  of  new  fea- 
tures. He  also  stated  that  the  proceedings  of  the  1912  Congress 
had  been  issued  and  had  been  distributed  to  the  members. 

Upon  motion  the  reports  of  the  secretary  and  treasurer  were 
adopted. 

The  president  in  a  few  brief  remarks  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  there  had  been  a  joint  committee  of  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  appointed  to  consider  the  matter  of  national  aid  in 
road  building;  that  he  felt  particularly  proud  of  the  fact  that  the 
secretary  of  the  Association  had  been  made  statistician  and  had  done 
splendid  work.  He  called  attention  to  the  further  fact  that  the 
secretary  had  recently  been  selected  by  the  government  of  Ontario 
to  aid  them  in  framing  suitable  highway  legislation. 

Upon  motion  of  Mr.  Diehl,  duly  seconded,  the  Association  adopted 
by  rising  vote,  the  following  resolution: 

RESOLVED,  That  a  vote  of  thanks  be  extended  to  the  people  of  the 
city  of  Detroit  and  Wayne  County  for  their  splendid  hospitality 
and  helpful  cooperation,  and  to  the  representatives  of  the  press  for 
the  splendid,  comprehensive  and  instructive  publicity,  which  they 
have  given  to  the  sessions  of  the  Congress. 

While  waiting  for  the  committee  on  nominations  to  make  its 
report,  the  president  called  upon  several  gentlemen  present  for  a 
few  remarks.  The  first  speaker  was  Judge  Lowe. 

310 


PROCEEDINGS  311 

Judge  Lowe  gave  a  brief  talk  and  among  other  things,  said,  "I 
do  not  know  when  I  first  began  attending  road  conventions,  but 
I  have  never  attended  a  road  convention  that  impressed  me  with 
its  intelligence,  its  deep  and  abiding  earnestness  and  its  all  round 
intelligence  as  this  convention  has  done.  I  believe  it  is  the  greatest 
road  convention  ever  held  in  this  country.  I  will  except  Europe 
and  the  foreign  countries  because  I  have  not  had  the  pleasure,  like 
Colonel  Kenyon  and  others  who  are  with  us  tonight,  of  attending 
conventions  in  those  countries,  but  this  convention  has  certainly 
set  the  pace,  and  I  cannot,  for  the  life  of  me,  imagine  how  it  is  going 
to  be  possible  for  the  next  Congress  to  avoid  taking  a  definite  position 
on  the  question  of  national  roads." 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  I  know  that  we  would  all  be  delighted  to  hear 
from  Gen.  Geo.  J.  Schoeffel. 

GEN.  SCHOEFFEL  :  I  did  not  come  here,  Mr.  President,  prepared  to 
speak,  but  to  listen,  and  I  have  been  surprised  at  the  excellent  work 
of  the  Congress.  I  was  prepared  to  see  good  work  being  done;  but 
certainly  this  has  surprised  me  and  I  shall  go  back  to  New  York  and 
report  to  my  superior  officers — make  a  report  to  them  that  they  will 
be  very  much  pleased  with. 

The  president  then  called  upon  Colonel  M.  V.  Richards  who  was 
present  as  a  representative  of  Mr.  W.  W.  Finley,  the  president  of 
the  Southern  Railway. 

Colonel  Richards  gave  a  very  interesting  account  of  his  experience, 
covering  a  number  of  years,  to  educate  the  people  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  the  United  States  to  a  better  realization  of  the  importance  of 
developing  public  roads.  He  expressed  his  gratification  at  being 
present  at  the  Road  Congress,  because,  as  he  said,  "I  see  here  a 
large  congregation  of  gentlemen  from  various  parts  of  the  United 
States,  every  individual  a  forceful  factor  in  the  good  roads  move- 
ment, and  I  am  especially  glad  to  see  these  people  brought  together, 
affiliated  here,  with  this  one  organization,  which  I  believe,  gentlemen, 
is  paving  the  way  for  a  movement  which  will  be  of  everlasting  benefit 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  advancing  the  development  and 
improvement  of  the  roads  in  this  country." 

Mr.  W.  T.  Winn  then  addressed  the  meeting,  expressing  his 
pleasure  at  the  success  of  the  Congress,  and  in  a  very  forceful  manner 
urged  that  the  next  Congress  be  held  at  Atlanta,  because  of  the 
intense  interest  being  displayed  by  the  people  of  the  South  in  this 
great  movement  for  better  roads. 

Mr.  Diehl  then  took  the  chair,  and  the  committee  on  nominations 
presented  its  report  which  was  as  follows:  "For  president,  L.  W. 
Page;  for  vice-president,  W.  W.  Finley;  for  secretary,  J.  E.  Penny- 
backer;  for  treasurer,  Lee  McClung;  for  field  secretary  and  organizer, 
Charles  P.  Light;  for  directors  for  three  years,  Alfred  Noble,  J.  W. 
Jones,  T.  G.  Norris,  James  S.  Harlan,  L.  E.  Johnson,  Roy  D.  Chapin, 
Charles  Whiting  Baker  and  Austin  B.  Fletcher. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Batchelder,  duly  seconded,  the  report  was 
adopted. 


312  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

The  chairman  stated  that  the  gentlemen  mentioned  in  the  report 
had  been  placed  in  nomination,  and  Mr.  Beatty  moved  that  the 
secretary  cast  a  ballot  of  one  for  the  nominees  as  recommended  by 
the  committee  on  nominations.  The  motion  was  then  seconded  and 
adopted. 

The  chairman  declared  these  officers  elected  and  escorted  President- 
Page  to  the  chair. 

President  Page,  in  a  few  well  chosen  remarks,  thanked  the  Asso- 
ciation for  the  honor  and,  among  other  things,  said: 

"Gentlemen,  I  know  a  great  many  of  you  attribute  the  credit  for 
the  success  of  our  organization  to  me,  but  I  wish  to  say  that  the 
credit  for  our  success  is  due,  in  my  judgment,  first  and  foremost, 
to  Mr.  Pennybacker  and  Mr.  Light.  I  have  never  known  two  men 
who  have  worked  harder  and  on  a  higher  plane  than  our  secretary 
and  field  secretary.  Their  work  has  been  indefatigable.  They  have 
received  many  enticing  offers  to  go  with  other  organizations,  but  they 
have  stuck  steadfastly  to  our  work  and  I  hope  somebody  will  make  a 

motion  for  a  vote  of  thanks  to  them Now,  I  like  to 

hear  good  roads  addresses  but  I  have  hardly  been  able  to  stay  up  in 
the  convention  hall  because  I  have  learned  so  much  in  going  around 
through  the  splendid  exhibits,  and  I  think  it  is  a  most  liberal  edu- 
cation, to  a  person  interested  in  road  work.  I  hope,  gentlemen, 
that  next  year,  wherever  we  meet,  we  shall  have  an  even  greater 
success,  if  possible,  than  we  have  met  with  this  year.  I  wish  very 
heartily  to  thank  you  for  the  honor  you  have  shown  me  in  electing 
me  president,  and  I  hope  that  I  may  be  worthy  of  your  trust  and  con- 
fidence. I  thank  you." 

Mr.  Kenyon  moved  that  a  vote  of  thanks  be  tendered  to  the 
officers  of  the  Association  for  the  good  work  which  they  had  done. 
This  motion,  duly  seconded,  was  unanimously  carried. 

Colonel  Washington  made  a  few  remarks,  stating  that  he  had 
attended  the  Third  International  Road  Congress  in  London  and  that 
the  exhibition  at  this  Congress  exceeded,  by  50  per  cent  if  not  100 
per  cent,  in  the  number  of  exhibitors,  in  the  variety  of  exhibits  and 
in  the  interesting  character  of  the  exhibits,  notwithstanding  that  the 
exhibits  shown  at  the  International  Exhibit,  were  participated  in 
by  thirty-two  nations  and  held  in  London,  where  Germany,  France, 
Italy  and  all  the  continental  countries  had  a  very  excellent  oppor- 
tunity to  participate:  that  this  Congress  had  taken  up  many  more 
subjects  with  much  broader  discussions. 

There  being  no  further  business,  the  meeting,  upon  motion,  duly 
seconded,  was  adjourned,  sine  die. 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


FOURTH 
AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 


UNDER  AUSPICES  OF 


AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 
AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 


Price  $1.00  postpaid 


ATLANTA,  GA. 

NOVEMBER  9-H,  1911 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


FOURTH 
AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 


UNDER  AUSPICES  OF 


AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 
AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 


ATLANTA,  GA. 

NOVEMBER  9-U,  1914 


COPYRIGHT  1915 

BY 
AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 


COMPOSED  AND  PRINTED  AT  THE 

WAVERLY  PRESS 

BY  THE  WILLIAMS  &  WILKINS  COMPAKY 

BALTIMORE,  U.  S.  A. 


Proceedings  of 

FOURTH  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

UNDER  AUSPICES  OF 

AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 
AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 

OFFICERS 

A.  B.  FLETCHER,  President 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  California 
I.  S.  PENNYBACKER,  Executive  Secretary 
Executive  Secretary,  American  Highway  Association 

LEE  McCLUNG,  Treasurer 
Former  Treasurer  of  the  United  States 
CHARLES  P.  LIGHT,  Business  Manager 
Field  Secretary,  American  Highway  Association 

Executive  Committee 

GEORGE  C.  DIEHL,  Chairman,  Good  Roads  Board,  American  Automobile 
Association. 

L.  W.  PAGE,  President,  American  Highway  Association. 

A.  G.  BATCHELDER,  Chairman,  Executive  Board,  American  Automobile  Asso- 
ciation. 

AUSTIN  B.  FLETCHER,  State  Highway  Engineer  of  California. 

RICHARD  H.  EDMONDS,  Editor,  Manufacturers  Record. 


AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 

COLORADO  BUILDING, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Officers  for  1915 

FAIRFAX  HARRISON,  President,  President,  Southern  Railway  Company. 
LOGAN  WALLER  PAGE,  Vice-President,  Director,  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads. 
JOHN  BURKE,  Treasurer,  Treasurer  of  the  United  States. 
I.  S.  PENNYBACKER,  Executive  Secretary. 
CHARLES  P.  LIGHT,  Field  Secretary. 

Board  of  Directors 

JAMES  S.  HARLAN,  Chairman,  Chairman,  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 

CHARLES  WHITING  BAKER,  Editor,  Engineering  News. 

A.  G.  BATCHELDER,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee,  American  Automobile 

Association. 

W.  T.  BEATTY,  of  Chicago,  Illinois. 

CHARLES  D.  BLANEY,  Chairman,  California  Highway  Commission. 
S.  E.  BRADT,  Secretary,  Illinois  Highway  Commission. 
R.  D.  CHAPIN,  President,  Hudson  Motor  Car  Company. 
GEORGE  W.  COOLEY,  State  Highway  Engineer  of  Minnesota. 
GEORGE  C.  DIEHL,  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
RICHARD  H.  EDMONDS,  Editor,  Manufacturers  Record. 
AUSTIN  B.  FLETCHER,  State  Highway  Engineer  of  California. 
FAIRFAX  HARRISON,  President,  Southern  Railway  Company. 
A.  N.  JOHNSON,  Engineer,  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  New  York  City. 
L.  E.  JOHNSON,  President,  Norfolk  and  Western  Railway  Company. 
JOSEPH  W.  JONES,  of  New  York  City. 

CLARENCE  A.  KENYON,  President,  Indiana  Good  Roads  Association. 
BRYAN  LATHROP,  Member  Lincoln  Park  Commission. 
E.  J.  MEHREN,  Editor,  Engineering  Record. 

JAMES  H.  MACDONALD,  Former  State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Connecticut. 
THOMAS  G.  NORRIS,  President,  Arizona  Good  Roads  Association. 
LOGAN  WALLER  PAGE,  Director,  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads. 
JOSEPH  HYDE  PRATT,  State  Geologist  of  North  Carolina. 
WILLIAM  D.  SOHIER,  Chairman,  Massachusetts  Highway  Commission. 
LEONARD  TUFTS,  of  Pinehurst,  N.  C. 
W.  TOM  WINN,  President,  Association  of  County  Commissioners  of  Georgia. 

WOMAN'S  DEPARTMENT 

MBS.  ROBERT  BAKER,  Chairman. 

AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 

437  FIFTH  AVENUE 
New  York  City 

JOHN  A.  WILSON,  President,  Franklin,  Pennsylvania. 
H.  A.  BONNELL,  Treasurer,  East  Orange,  New  Jersey. 
JOHN  N.  BROOKS,  Secretary,  Torrington,  Connecticut. 
A.  G.  BATCHELDER,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee. 
GEORGE  C.  DIEHL,  Chairman,  Good  Roads  Board. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Adaptability  of  Merit  System  to  the  Engineering  Service 98 

Address  of  George  C.  Diehl 24 

Address  of  President  Fletcher 10 

Address  of  Judge  Nat  E.  Harris 323 

Address  of  S.  Percy  Hooker 34 

Address  of  Robert  N.  Hooper 15 

Address  of  Joseph  W.  Hunter 128 

Address  of  Clarence  Kenyon 41 

Address  of  James  H.  MacDonald 170 

Address  of  Logan  Waller  Page 342 

Address  of  Joseph  Hyde  Pratt 37 

Address  of  Senator  Hoke  Smith 17 

Address  of  Col.  Sidney  Suggs 22 

Address  of  Leonard  Tufts 21 

American  Automobile  Association 4 

American  Highway  Association 4 

Annual  Meeting  of  American  Highway  Association 356 

Bishop  Candler 7 

Bituminous  Macadam  by  Cold  Mixing  Method 253 

Committee  on  Resolutions 46 

Convict  Labor 268 

Convict  Labor  in  Colorado 273 

Drainage  Structures 142 

Educational  Campaign  for  Good  Roads 316 

Educational  Field  For  Highway  Departments 64 

Efficiency  of  Highway  Organization 51 

Engineering  Supervision  of  Road  Construction 110 

Extent  to  VV'hich  Engineering  Schools  Give  Attention  to  Highway  Engi- 
neering Instruction 76 

Grades  and  Excavations 145 

Governor  Slaton 8 

Heavy  Traffic  Roads 175 

Highway  Engineering  Education 305 

How  to  Take  the  Roads  Out  of  Politics 81 

Hydrated  Lime  in  Road  Construction 180 

Maintenance  of  Earth  Roads 193 

Officers 3 

Possible  Lines  of  Improvement  in  Highway  Contract  Work 294 

National  Legislation  for  Good  Roads 29 

Report  of  Legislative  Committee  and  Discussion 46 

Resolutions  Adopted 47 

Rights  of  Way 131 

Road  Economics • 58 

Road  Maintenance 200 

Road  Work  by  the  Army 286 

Roy,  William  R 154 

Selecting  Roads  to  be  Improved 171 

Simplified  System  of  Town  Highway  Accounts 56 

Sound  Administration  of  Public  Service 91 

Speare,  Lewis  R 27 

State  Control  of  Road  Construction 117 

Street  Construction  and  Maintenance 337 

Surfaces  for  Light  Volume  Mixed  Traffic 157 

System  in  Road  Management 230 

Women's  Conference  on  Roads 337 

Woodward,  Mayor 9 

Why  Georgia  Builds  Top  Soil  Roads 329 


FOURTH  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

HELD  UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF 

AMERICAN  HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 

AMERICAN  AUTOMOBILE  ASSOCIATION 

COUNTY  COMMISSIONERS  ASSOCIATION  OF  GEORGIA 

ATLANTA,  GEORGIA 

November  9th,  1914,  10  A.M. 
PRESIDENT  A.  B.  FLETCHER  IN  THE  CHAIR 

THE  PRESIDENT:  The  Convention  will  please  come  to  order.  I 
have  the  honor  to  introduce  the  Right  Reverend  W.  A.  Candler, 
Bishop  of  Georgia. 

DR.  CANDLER:  Let  us  pray:  Our  Father  in  Heaven  we  wor- 
ship Thee  as  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  from  Whom  com- 
eth  every  good  and  perfect  gift.  We  are  grateful  for  Thy  good- 
ness unto  us.  Thou  hast  not  dealt  so  with  any  other  people.  Thy 
providence  has  been  over  our  nation  through  all  the  years  as  a 
very  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire.  We  thank  Thee  that  our  people 
are  at  peace,  that  the  rude  cries  of  war  are  not  heard  nor  is  there 
lamentations  in  our  streets  because  they  come  not  back  who  have 
gone  in  to  the  conflict.  Thou  hast  given  us  abundant  resources  of 
every  sort.  We  pray  Thee  to  bless  us  with  grateful  hearts  and 
faithful  spirits  that  we  may  fulfill  the  mission  set  before  us  by  the 
divine  providence  over  us.  Bless  this  assembly  of  men  here  met  to 
consider  a  great  interest  that  affects  the  social  and  moral  and 
material  welfare  of  our  people;  and  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God  be 
upon  them  individually  and  collectively  that  wisdom  may  char- 
acterize their  conclusions  and  harmony  their  proceedings  and  that 
good  may  come  to  our  land  and  as  we  affect  other  lands,  to  all  lands 
through  this  meeting.  God  be  merciful  unto  us  and  bless  us  and  cause 
His  face  to  shine  upon  us,  that  His  name  be  known  in  the  earth, 
his  saving  health  among  all  people.  We  remember  this  day  to 
pray  for  the  stricken  and  disturbed  peoples  grappling  with  one 
another  in  contest  of  war.  Oh  Thou  Prince  of  Peace,  calm  this 
combat,  bind  up  the  broken  hearted  and  subdue  the  passions  of  men 
and  let  good  prevail  over  all  evil.  Guide  us  by  Thy  counsel  whilst 
we  live  and  afterwards  receive  us  into  glory  through  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Lord.  Amen. 


8  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  have  the  very  great  honor  to  present  to 
you  the  Hon.  John  M.  Slaton,  Governor  of  California.  (Laughter) 
— I  mean  Georgia. 

GOVERNOR  SLATON:  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  suppose  it  was 
designed  when  the  President  introduced  me  as  the  Governor  of 
California.  The  idea  is  that  if  we  have  good  roads,  all  distances 
will  be  annihilated;  California  will  be  about  as  close  to  Atlanta 
as  some  parts  of  Georgia.  The  truth  is  that  one  of  the  benefits 
of  good  roads  is  this  unification  of  the  people  and  the  introduction 
of  them  to  each  other.  It  is  particularly  appropriate  that  you 
should  meet  in  Georgia.  You  understand  that  in  1834  the  State 
of  Georgia  built  the  first  State  constructed  railroad  and  it  still  owns 
it,  a  railroad  between  Atlanta  and  Chattanooga;  and  a  railroad  is 
nothing  hi  the  world  but  the  evolution  of  a  good  road.  We  recog- 
nized the  effect  of  transportation  upon  the  welfare  of  the  people 
and  therefore  we  appropriated  the  money  at  a  time  when  the  people 
were  in  hard  straits,  in  order  to  accomplish  the  purposes  for  which 
you  have  met.  Now  we  all  are  acquainted  with  the  benefit,  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  of  good  roads.  We  understand  the  effect  upon  the  school- 
house  and  upon  the  church  and  upon  rural  life;  we  understand  that 
it  relieves  the  farmer  of  his  burden  of  transportation,  thao  it  aids 
in  the  construction  of  homes  in  communities  where  Nature  can  be 
enjoyed  and  where  congested  communities  may  be  relieved,  but  we 
are  glad  to  have  you  because  you  come  for  a  practical  purpose. 
You  are  with  us  to  instruct  us.  There  was  a  proud  old  house  in 
Europe  whose  motto  was  "I  serve,"  and  you  gentlemen  and  ladies 
have  come  here  in  order  to  serve  the  State  of  Georgia.  Our  State 
is  alive  to  the  purpose  for  which  you  are  organized.  We  appro- 
priated in  1911  $4,500,000  for  the  purpose  of  good  roads.  This 
includes,  of  course,  the  service  of  the  convicts  upon  the  roads,  and  we 
utilize  them  for  that  purpose  and  find  that  it  is  in  accordance  with 
wise  penology  as  well  as  producing  a  return  to  the  people  for  the 
expense  which  these  criminals  occasion.  But  there  are  problems 
that  come  before  us  as  to  the  construction  of  roads.  What  we 
need  now  are  not  platitudes  but  specific  advice.  Problems  are 
coming  before  us  constantly  as  to  the  construction  of  roads — 
the  engineering  questions  which  arise — the  question  of  upkeep, 
the  question  of  materials  from  which  they  could  be  constructed; 
and  therefore  to  you  gentlemen  we  look.  You  represent  the  highest 
and  most  trained  intelligence  in  the  United  States  upon  the  sub- 
ject to  enlighten  us.  You  will  find  that  all  over  Georgia  there 
are  County  Commissioners  and  those  who  have  the  matter  of  con- 
struction of  roads  in  charge  who  will  be  present  and  listen  to  what 
you  all  have  to  say,  and  when  you  are  gone  the  seed  you  have  sown 
will  serve  to  benefit  the  State  and  its  people.  This  idea  of  serv- 
ice is  that  which  is  abroad  everywhere.  I  read  the  other  day 
that  the  Japanese  conquered  Russia  not  by  the  valor  and  gallantry 


PROCEEDINGS  9 

of  their  soldiers  but  by  the  skill  and  capacity  of  their  engineers, 
and  the  battle  was  won  by  shooting  over  mountain  tops  by  those 
who  had  calculated  with  the  theodolite  and  knew  the  measure  of 
the  angle.  You  gentlemen,  therefore,  and  ladies,  have  come  to  give 
us  that  information  and  when  you  have  gone  the  effect  of  your  visit 
will  be  remembered,  not  only  for  the  social  influence  you  have  ex- 
erted, but  because  of  the  information  you  have  left.  Allow  me 
to  say  that  the  people  of  Georgia  are  a  kindly  and  generous  people 
and  in  their  behalf  I  welcome  you  into  our  midst.  When  you  shall 
have  left,  I  hope  you  will  carry  with  you  the  kindest  recollections 
of  a  people  in  whose  behalf  I  welcome  you. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  take  pleasure  in  introducing  the  Honorable 
James  A.  Woodward,  Mayor  of  Atlanta. 

MAYOR  WOODWARD:  Mr.  President,  members  and  visitors  of 
the  Fourth  American  Road  Congress:  It  is  always  a  pleasure  rather 
than  a  duty  placed  upon  the  Mayor  and  the  Governor  of  the  State 
and  city  to  give  expression  to  words  of  welcome.  I  know  that  so 
far  as  Atlanta  is  concerned,  it  needs  no  words  from  me  to  tell  you 
that  you  are  welcome  to  this  city.  You  are,  and  we  are  glad  to 
have  you.  We  want  you  to  feel  while  here  that  the  latch  string 
of  every  door  is  open  to  you;  if  you  don't  see  what  you  want,  ask 
for  it  and  it  will  be  shown  you.  You  are  within  the  walls  of  a  city 
that  is  somewhat  remarkable.  Take  the  life  of  it;  there  are  few 
American  cities  that  can  come  anywhere  near  to  what  it  has  accom- 
plished. I  do  not  refer  to  it  in  any  spirit  of  alluding  to  war  times, 
but  take  it  from  that  time  on.  There  was  then  possibly  only  ten  or 
twelve  thousand  inhabitants  in  Atlanta.  It  reminds  me — for  I 
was  here  right  after  that  fateful  period — of  what  I  read  about  what 
is  going  on  in  the  old  country  now,  the  towns  and  cities  that  are 
being  devastated.  That  was  the  condition  of  Atlanta  at  that  time. 
People  had  come  home  without  a  dollar  to  invest  but  with  all  the 
desires  and  pluck  and  energy  to  build  up  their  homes  in  a  devastated 
country;  and  went  to  work.  So  you  can  see  that  Atlanta  is  really 
a  city  of  about  40  years,  and  take  all  of  its  actual  life  since  it  was 
in  the  woods  and  it  is  in  the  span  of  a  man's  lifetime  of  three  score 
and  ten;  but  Atlanta  as  you  see  it  today  has  grown  within  the  last 
20  or  25  years,  even  within  the  last  15  years.  Fifteen  years  ago  there 
was  not  an  office  building  here  except  the  Equitable  Building. 
They  have  all  been  built  within  that  time.  Atlanta  prides  herself 
on  being  a  city  of  more  fireproof  buildings — office  skyscraping  build- 
ings— than  any  city  of  twice  its  size  within  the  confines  of  the  Ameri- 
can continent.  I  imagine  that  a  good  many  of  you  people  who  have 
come  here  from  the  west  and  the  north,  when  you  get  into  our 
streets,  thought  something  of  home.  Now  for  the  past  25  years  we 
have  given  a  great  deal  of  time  and  a  great  deal  of  money  has  been 
expended  in  street  buildings.  I  have  not  the  exact  figures  with  me 


10  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

now,  but  I  should  say  that  Atlanta  has  close  to  200  miles  of  paved 
streets.  The  leadway  that  Atlanta  has  taken  in  such  measures  as 
that  has  gone  a  long  way  toward  encouraging  the  people  in  the  coun- 
try to  build  good  roads,  and  as  the  Governor  has  well  said,  within  the 
past  few  years  they  have  turned  the  convicts  from  the  lease  system 
to  that  of  appropriating  them  to  the  different  counties  for  the  pur- 
pose of  building  roads,  and  there  is  no  one  thing  that  I  can  call  to 
mind  that  will  do  more  toward  the  upbuilding  of  our  country  than  the 
building  of  good  roads.  To  the  truth  of  what  I  have  spoken  to  you 
as  regards  Atlanta  and  Fulton  County,  our  County  Commissioner 
will  show  you  before  you  leave  here.  We  are  well  provided — while 
we  have  not  got  enough — yet  with  good  roads  in  Fulton  County. 
You  have  got  a  convention  here  that  is  not  only  an  educational  one 
to  our  people  in  Atlanta,  but  to  people  from  all  over  the  country. 
You  come  here  largely — one  element  at  least — to  display  your  road 
making  machinery.  The  delegates  to  this  convention  have  come 
here  to  investigate  and  satisfy  themselves  and  see  for  themselves 
what  class  of  machinery  will  aid  them  best  in  their  work.  It  was 
quite  appropriate  for  you  to  meet  at  this  time  in  the  gate  city  of  the 
South,  where  possibly  the  building  of  good  roads  and  the  advance- 
ment of  good  road  machinery  is  more  necessary.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  advent  of  the  automobile  created  extravagance,  and  pos- 
sibly that  is  true  in  one  line,  but  we  must  all  admit  that  the  auto- 
mobile showed  us  the  necessity  for  good  roads;  [applause]  and  in  that 
manner  was  a  blessing  to  the  country  and  to  humanity.  Now  in 
conclusion  allow  me  to  say  that  Atlanta  extends  to  you  a  most 
gracious  welcome.  We  are  glad  to  have  you  within  our  city.  We 
want  your  stay  to  be  as  pleasant  as  it  can  be  made,  and  when  the 
time  comes  for  you  to  depart,  we  want  it  arranged  in  such  measure 
that  you  will  go  away  from  Atlanta  with  a  kind  word,  a  good  taste 
in  your  mouth  for  this  city  and  may  that  all  wise  Being  who  is 
overlooking  those  loved  ones  you  have  left  at  home,  preserve  them 
in  their  good  health  until  you  return.  Before  I  take  my  seat,  I 
would  like  to  inform  all  of  the  municipal  people  here — while  we 
appreciate  everybody  that  is  in  attendance  on  this  convention — that 
the  City  Government  desires  that  they  register  at  the  City  Hall. 
We  wish  to  meet  you  and  give  you  what  attention  we  can. 
Mr.  Page  takes  the  chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Next  on  the  program  is  the  response  by  Presi- 
dent Fletcher. 

PRESIDENT  FLETCHER:  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  The 
warmth  of  our  welcome,  the  refreshing  completeness  of  all  the 
measures  that  have  been  taken  for  our  comfort  and  the  spirit  of 
enthusiasm  displayed  by  this  great  gathering  of  good  roads  workers 
makes  us  all  from  north,  south,  east  and  west  glad  that  we  are 
here.  To  His  Excellency  the  Governor  of  Georgia  and  to  his 


PROCEEDINGS  1 1 

Honor  the  Mayor  of  Atlanta,  I  desire  to  express,  on  behalf  of  the 
delegates  and  visitors  to  the  American  Road  Congress,  their  deep 
appreciation  of  this  magnificent  welcome.  To  those  of  you  who 
are  attending  the  American  Road  Congress  for  the  first  time,  it 
may  be  of  interest  to  hear  a  word  or  two  as  to  why  this  great  na- 
tional road  meeting  has  become  an  established  institution  and  a 
necessary  factor  in  the  working  of  the  fundamental  problem  of 
road  improvement.  Interdependence  of  city  and  country,  of  pro- 
ducer, of  shipper,  of  consumer,  has  developed  to  such  a  degree 
that  the  public  road  once  of  local  importance  has  become  of  state 
wide  and  in  many  instances  of  interstate  importance.  This  neces- 
sitates a  readjustment  of  the  burdens  of  cost,  a  recasting  of  the 
regulations  of  traffic  while  all  this  great  passenger  and  freight 
traffic  that  now  weaves  in  and  out  on  this  network  of  roads,  has 
produced  conditions  of  wear  and  introduced  agencies  of  destruction 
which  make  new  and  difficult  problems  of  construction  and  main- 
tenance for  the  engineer  to  solve.  We  are  here  therefore  to  discuss 
and  devise  better  legislation,  better  systems  of  finance,  better  traffic 
regulations;  to  learn  by  discussion  and  exchange  of  experience  of  the 
types  and  of  the  methods  of  roads  which  are  best  adapted  to  meet 
the  conditions  of  traffic  which  confront  the  highway  engineer.  We 
are  here  to  urge  that  the  time  has  come  to  take  the  public  road  out 
of  politics,  to  handle  it  as  we  would  a  great  business  undertaking, 
and  to  urge  the  creation  and  development  of  a  nation-wide  corps 
of  trained  and  efficient  men  who  will  make  road  building  and  main- 
tenance their  life  work.  Gentlemen,  you  will  hear  these  great 
questions  discussed  in  detail  at  the  various  sessions  of  the  Con- 
gress and  I  merely  mention  them  at  this  time  in  the  hope  that  you 
will  take  the  proceedings  of  this  Congress  most  seriously  and  devote 
every  faculty  of  mind  and  heart  toward  making  this  year's  Congress 
useful  to  the  American  people  in  the  highest  degree. 
President  Fletcher  takes  the  Chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  have  the  honor  to  introduce  to  you  the  Hon- 
orable Logan  Waller  Page,  Director  of  the  United  States  Office  of 
Public  Roads  and  President  of  the  American  Highway  Association. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen:  The  fact  that  men  eminent  in  the 
good  roads  movement  are  here  from  the  far  off  Pacific  Coast,  from 
the  Northwest,  from  New  England  and  in  fact  from  nearly  all  of  the 
forty-eight  states  of  the  Union,  demonstrates  conclusively  that  the 
question  of  road  improvement  is  no  longer  of  merely  local  signifi- 
cance. It  is  proof  that  this  great  question  is  of  nation  wide  im- 
portance, and  well  it  may  be  so  considered,  for  it  touches  human 
welfare  at  every  angle  and  is  a  material  factor  in  the  development 
of  education,  in  our  home  life  and  in  religion,  the  three  great  funda- 
mentals of  our  civilization. 

You  will  hear  during  the  sessions  of  this  Congress  the  experience 


12  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

and  the  advice  of  the  best  known  specialists  on  every  phase  of  this 
great  subject.  I  shall  confine  my  remarks  therefore  to  a  few  com- 
ments on  what  has  been  done  to  further  the  road  movement  during 
the  past  year,  and  along  what  lines  we  may  hope  for  results  during 
the  year  1915. 

The  Office  of  Public  Roads,  has  an  organized  corps  of  collabora- 
tors composed  of  one  representative  at  each  State  capital  who  makes 
monthly  reports  to  the  Office  showing  what  has  been  accomplished 
in  the  State  and  what  measures  are  contemplated  or  pending. 
Through  this  source  of  information  we  have  ascertained  that  the  year 
1914  has  added  to  our  mileage  of  hard  surfaced  roads  a  total  of 
18,000  miles,  which  means  that  in  the  short  space  of  twelve  months 
we  shall  have  added  to  our  road  system  a  mileage  three-fourths 
as  great  as  the  total  length  of  the  National  Roads  of  France. 

We  are  spending  money  on  our  roads  with  a  rather  free  hand. 
Last  year  our  total  outlay^  in  money  and  labor,  was  in  excess  of 
$205,000,000,  and  I  think  we  are  safe  in  saying  that  the  aggregate 
will  reach  $225,000,000  this  year,  or  more  than  an  average  of  $100 
per  mile  for  every  mile  of  highway  throughout  the  United  States. 
This  average  looms  up  as  a  rather  impressive  figure  when  I  say  that 
according  to  the  best  information  available  20  per  cent  of  the  roads 
in  an  average  county  carry  80  per  cent  of  the  traffic.  This  great 
annual  expenditure,  therefore,  if  pro  rated  on  the  basis  of  the  really 
important  roads  gives  an  average  of  something  like  $500  per  mile 
per  annum. 

Our  system  of  road  management  is  admittedly  wasteful  and  in- 
efficient except  for  the  few  shining  exceptions  here  and  there,  and 
I  firmly  believe  that  with  good  business  methods  and  skillful  super- 
vision we  could  save  not  less  than  $50,000,000  per  year  and  obtain 
better  results  than  we  are  now  obtaining. 

An  exceedingly  important  factor  which  has  come  into  prominence 
in  solving  our  road  problems  during  the  past  ten  years  is  that  of 
convict  labor.  Many  of  the  States  are  using  their  convicts  in  the 
building  of  roads  and  in  the  preparation  of  road  materials,  and  I 
congratulate  the  State  of  Georgia  on  her  lead  of  all  States  in  this 
respect,  for  Georgia,  I  understand,  now  has  a  great  road-working 
army  of  more  than  5,000  convicts  which  are  rapidly  transforming 
the  road  system  of  the  State.  We  have  estimated  that  the  total 
convict  labor  days  on  road  work  throughout  the  United  States  in 
1914  will  exceed  3,000,000. 

As  indicating  the  trend  of  this  movement  I  may  say  that  dur- 
ing the  year  the  States  of  Ohio,  New  York,  Wisconsin  and  West 
Virginia  have  authorized  the  use  of  convicts  in  this  way,  thus  indi- 
cating that  this  policy  has  no  geographical  bounds  to  its  field  of 
usefulness. 

I  wish  particularly  to  call  your  attention  to  the  work  of  the  United 
States  Office  of  Public  Roads,  not  from  any  desire  to  boast  of  the 
results  which  we  have  accomplished,  but  in  order  that  you  may 


PROCEEDINGS  13 

understand  the  way  in  which  this  service  of  the  government  may 
be  utilized  to  help  your  own  local  problem,  if  you  need  such  help 
as  the  government  may  give. 

During  the  past  ten  years  our  engineers  have  supervised  in  all  parts 
of  the  country  the  building  of  what  we  term  Object  Lesson  Roads 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  to  the  local  officials  direct  instructions 
and  advice  on  the  best  methods  of  construction.  Recently  we  have 
found  that  an  even  more  important  problem  is  that  of  maintenance, 
for  the  practice  is  all  too  common  of  building  excellent  roads  and 
then  leaving  them  to  disintegrate  under  the  action  of  weather  and 
traffic.  Probably  the  most  striking  demonstration  in  proper  methods 
of  maintenance  which  has  ever  been  undertaken  as  an  Object  Lesson 
was  inaugurated  by  the  Office  of  Public  Roads  last  March  at  the 
suggestion  and  in  cooperation  with  the  American  Highway  Asso- 
ciation. 

Sections  of  road  forming  a  continuous  stretch  in  twenty-eight  out 
of  forty-nine  counties  between  Washington  and  Atlanta  have  been 
voluntarily  placed  under  the  direction  of  government  engineers 
by  the  county  authorities  and  cash  appropriations  made  for  ex- 
penditure in  such  manner  as  these  government  engineers  may  direct. 

To  facilitate  the  work  and  to  permit  the  engineers  to  cover  a 
relatively  large  territory,  the  American  Highway  Association  sup- 
plied without  cost  to  the  government  or  the  counties,  three  auto- 
mobiles. I  think  I  am  perfectly  justified  in  saying  that  the  improve- 
ment on  these  roads  has  equalled  the  most  sanguine  expectations 
of  those  who  inaugurated  the  project. 

I  have  mentioned  these  examples  of  government  work  to  indicate 
to  you  the  basis  upon  which  the  government's  assistance  is  granted. 
There  are  many  more  projects  under  way  designed  to  further  the 
building  and  maintenance  of  good  roads  in  accordance  with  sound 
economical  principles  and  good  engineering  practice,  and  I  wish  to 
emphasize  that  all  of  the  assistance  which  the  government  renders 
in  this  work  is  without  any  cost  whatever  to  the  local  communities. 

I  shall  not  review  the  work  of  the  American  Highway  Association 
during  the  past  year,  as  this  information  will  be  given  out  in  the 
various  annual  reports  of  the  officers  and  committees  of  that  organi- 
zation; but  I  wish  to  comment  most  particularly  upon  a  project 
which  holds  as  great  possibilities,  in  my  judgment,  for  the  better- 
ment of  road  management  as  any  one  project  which  has  ever  been 
undertaken. 

Last  year  at  the  Third  American  Road  Congress  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  take  steps  looking  to  a  revision  of  State  Road  Laws. 
At  the  request  of  the  committee  the  Office  of  Public  Roads  pre- 
pared a  literal  compilation  of  the  Road  Laws  of  each  and  every  one 
of  the  forty-eight  States,  and  the  result  is  a  huge  accumulation  of 
words  exceeding  3,500,000  in  number.  This  great  manuscript  is 
being  cross-indexed  and  I  understand  that  the  committee  will  get  in 
active  touch  with  each  State  Legislature  in  an  effort  to  bring  about  a 


14  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

simplification  and  a  revision  of  the  Road  Laws  at  the  earliest  pos- 
sible moment.  All  that  may  be  done  along  this  line  will  be  of  last- 
ing benefit  and  will  be  enough  of  itself  to  justify  a  continued  sup- 
port to  this  great  organization. 

Within  the  past  few  months  steps  have  been  taken  towards  bring- 
ing to  the  support  of  the  road  movement,  the  united  efforts  of  women 
in  every  county  and  in  every  community  throughout  the  United 
States.  This  work  has  taken  definite  form  through  the  establish- 
ment of  a  women's  department  of  the  American  Highway  Associa- 
tion, with  Mrs.  Robert  Baker,  of  Washington,  as  Chairman.  The 
first  conference  under  the  auspices  of  this  department  will  be  held 
in  the  city  of  Atlanta  tomorrow,  and  I  am  glad  for  the  success  of 
the  movement  that  it  is  being  launched  here  where  it  will  profit  by 
the  wonderful  Atlanta  spirit  of  progress.  I  hope  and  believe  that 
the  women  will  accomplish  marvelous  results  in  bringing  about 
through  moral  suasion  an  improvement  of  road  conditions  in  rural 
communities,  and  in  so  doing  help  the  cause  of  better  schools,  better 
churches  and  better  homes. 

I  will  not  go  into  any  detailed  statement  of  the  objects  and  working 
plan  of  the  women's  department,  as  this  will  be  fully  covered  by 
addresses  to  be  given  later  on  in  the  week.  I  may  say,  however, 
that  this  work  is  designed  to  introduce  particularly  better  road 
management  and  better  maintenance  of  our  public  roads. 

I  know  that  it  is  customary  for  speakers  to  extol  all  the  good 
qualities  of  the  cities  in  which  meetings  are  held;  but  I  wish  to  say 
more  than  the  usual  words  of  appreciation  of  Atlanta's  splendid 
hospitality  and  cordial  spirit  of  cooperation.  Not  in  my  whole  ex- 
perience in  attending  conventions  have  I  come  in  contact  with  a 
courtesy  so  all-pervading,  with  a  spirit  of  helpful  cooperation  so 
timely  and  practical,  and  with  a  knowledge  of  what  needs  to  be  done, 
and  the  energy  in  doing  it,  such  as  has  been  displayed  by  Atlanta 
in  connection  with  this  Congress.  The  arrangements  are  complete 
to  the  most  minute  details,  and  I  can  now  well  understand  the 
marvelous  progress  which  Atlanta  has  made  and  what  is  meant  when 
people  speak  of  the  "Atlanta  Spirit." 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  emphasize  that  the  year  of  1915  holds 
possibilities  for  progress  in  road  betterment  which  we  should  avail 
ourselves  of,  not  merely  through  zeal  but  through  zeal  coupled 
with  knowledge.  We  have  had  ample  opportunity  to  realize  that 
we  need  better  road  legislation,  and  with  so  many  legislatures  in 
session  this  coming  winter,  we  shall  have  the  opportunity  to  accom- 
plish results  through  revision  and  constructive  road  legislation. 
We  have  seen  what  has  been  accomplished  in  those  sections  of  country 
which  have  utilized  in  a  practical  way  skilled  supervision  of  road 
work.  We  have  learned  to  our  bitter  cost  the  danger  of  allowing 
our  well  constructed  roads  to  be  left  to  deteriorate  through  lack 
of  maintenance,  and  so  we  should  make  the  year  1915  conspicuous; 
not  so  much  through  the  spending  of  more  money  as  through  the 


WtOCEEDINGB  15 

wise  and  practical  expenditure  of  the  money  that  will  be  normally 
available. 

I  might  add  that  today  you  can  go  on  a  splendid  road  from 
Atlanta  to  Fredericksburg,  Va.,  within  40  miles  of  Washington, 
and  by  next  summer,  you  will  be  able  to  go  from  Atlanta  to  Rich- 
mond, Washington,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston  or 
Montreal  on  a  perfect  road,  and  that  road  is  going  to  be  maintained 
as  such. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  Governor,  who  was  obliged  to  leave  a  few 
moments  ago,  has  asked  me  to  call  your  attention  to  the  reception 
given  by  Governor  and  Mrs.  Slaton  to-night  at  8  o'clock,  and  to 
extend  you  a  cordial  invitation  to  be  present.  I  have  also  been 
asked  to  announce  that  there  will  be  a  Woman's  Conference  on 
Roads  in  the  ballroom  of  the  Ansley  Hotel  at  10  o'clock  and  at  2 
o'clock  to-morrow,  Tuesday.  There  will  be  addresses  by  dis- 
tinguished women  and  an  illustrated  lecture  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Penny- 
backer.  All  women  are  cordially  invited. 

Mr.  Robert  P.  Hopper  former  President  of  the  American  Auto- 
mobile Association  will  now  address  us. 

MR.  HOOPER:  I  am  taking  the  place  of  our  absent  president  of 
the  national  organization  of  automobilists,  who  regretted  exceed- 
ingly his  inability  to  be  present.  My  previous  automobile  visit 
to  your  hospitable  city  was  during  the  big  tour  from  New  York  to 
Jacksonville  via  Atlanta.  Senator  Hoke  Smith,  then  your  Governor, 
easily  was  the  central  figure  of  that  tour,  and  repeatedly  in  various 
cities  he  spoke  without  hesitation  for  roads  progress,  as  the  head 
of  your  State.  Now,  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  he  has 
opportunity  to  use  his  great  influence  in  a  logical  and  effective  plan 
of  Federal  roads  participation. 

Roads  improvement  in  Georgia  is  certainly  proceeding  in  a  most 
pronounced  manner,  and  the  day  is  near  at  hand  when  it  will  be 
just  as  comfortable  to  travel  by  road  in  Southern  territory  as  is 
now  the  case  in  New  England.  Here  is  Fulton  County,  you  have 
made  a  wonderful  advance  in  roads  construction,  and  furthermore, 
you  give  evidence  that  it  is  clear  to  you  that  the  most  used  roads 
must  be  constructed  in  such  manner  as  to  stand  the  multiplying  and 
heavier  traffic. 

You  are  particularly  fortunate  in  Georgia  in  having  in  Governor 
Slaton  another  chief  executive  who  is  not  afraid  to  set  forth  quite 
plainly  his  good  roads  beliefs,  and  I  thank  him  for  the  unhesitating 
manner  in  which  he  gives  deserved  credit  to  the  motor-driven  vehicle 
for  the  large  part  which  it  has  played  in  this  improvement  of  the 
avenues  of  communication. 

In  brief,  the  A.  A.  A.  believes  that  the  Federal  government  should 
help  the  several  States  on  their  most  important  arteries  of  communi- 


16  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

cation,  and  then  the  States  can  cooperate  more  thoroughly  with  the 
county  and  township  units  in  the  essential  lateral  roads. 

It  was  my  opportunity  to  have  been  the  first  active  chairman  of 
the  A.  A.  A.  National  Good  Roads  Board.  You  will  pardon  me  if  I 
make  reference  to  a  speech  delivered  by  me  at  Springfield,  Massachu- 
setts, in  September,  1907,  at  the  Goods  Roads  and  Legislative  Con- 
vention called  by  that  club  and  possessing  the  motto  of  "Good 
Roads  and  the  Sane  Use  of  Them."  In  that  convention  certain 
speakers  went  out  of  their  way  to  belittle  the  participation  of  the 
motorists  in  highway  progress.  I  confess  that  I  rather  impatiently 
accepted  this  kind  of  talk  until  it  came  my  turn  to  speak.  This, 
briefly,  is  what  I  found  myself  saying:  "I  think  it  is  time  that  some- 
one told  of  what  the  autoists  have  done.  The  movement  for  good 
roads  was  begun  by  the  bicyclists  and  has  been  taken  up  and  advanced 
by  the  autoists.  Our  damage  to  the  roads  has  been  more  than  off- 
set by  the  good  work  we  have  done  in  their  behalf.  I  say  that  it  is 
proper  for  the  autoists  to  be  compelled  to  obey  the  law;  but  we  do 
object  to  the  existing  laws.  Why  should  the  automobilists  pay  a 
tax,  when  any  wagon  can  draw  any  load  over  the  same  roads?  I 
see  no  reason  why  the  wagon  drivers  should  not  help  to  support 
these  roads. 

Perhaps  we  motorists  at  times  become  unduly  optimistic,  but  I 
look  forward  to  the  day  when  we  shall  have  highways  connecting  our 
several  States  the  equal  of  those  to  be  found  in  France.  Further- 
more, there  will  be  an  exchange  of  road  travelers  between  the  North 
and  the  South  that  will  be  beneficial  and  educational  to  both  sec- 
tions of  the  country.  In  no  way  can  we  become  better  acquainted 
than  through  the  intimate  channel  of  roads  travel,  for  then  we 
promptly  discover  that  we  are  all  only  human  beings,  interdepend- 
ent one  upon  the  other,  and  equally  interested  in  the  general  welfare 
of  our  great  country. 

When  I  came  down  South  on  this  trip  I  expected  to  see  before 
me  a  lot  of  men  who  were  walking  the  streets  of  Atlanta  in  sackcloth 
and  ashes.  But  instead  of  that,  I  hear  you  agreeing  to  spend  money, 
and  I  hear  you  putting  up  propositions  to  build  more  roads.  There- 
fore, we  in  the  North  cannot  feel  that  you  are  as  low  in  pocket  as 
your  "Buy  a  Bale  of  Cotton"  movement  would  lead  people  all  over  the 
United  States  to  believe.  Frankly,  I  think  it  is  a  great  mistake  for 
my  southern  friends  to  circulate  all  over  the  country,  this  "Buy  a 
Bale  of  Cotton"  movement,  indicating  that  you  are  financially  broke, 
because  you  are  not.  We  will  give  you  credit,  and  we  are  glad  to 
give  you  anything  you  want  at  any  time. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  sorry  to  announce  that  the  Hon.  A.  W. 
Campbell,  Deputy  Minister  of  Railways  and  Canals,  Government 
of  Canada,  will  not  be  with  us  this  morning.  It  gives  me  great 
pleasure  to  introduce  the  Hon.  Hoke  Smith,  United  States  Senator 
from  Georgia. 


PROCEEDINGS  17 

SENATOR  SMITH:  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  The 
first  notice  I  had  that  I  was  expected  to  address  you  this  morning 
was  when,  after  breakfast,  I  read  the  morning  paper,  and  found 
that  I  was  on  the  program.  I  should  have  been  very  much  dis- 
turbed by  the  announcement  had  I  not  seen  the  further  statement 
that  it  was  to  be  a  general  address,  from  which  I  understood  that  I 
was  not  expected  to  show  in  any  way  before  you  expert  road  build- 
ers, my  ignorance  of  the  subject  of  expert  work  in  the  construction  of 
roads,  but  that  I  was  permitted  to  talk  generally  about  anything 
I  want  to  talk  about  rather  than  upon  technical  road  building. 

I  am  deeply  interested  in  your  gathering  and  in  your  work,  I  agree 
with  my  friend  who  has  just  taken  his  seat,  that  we  had  rather  an 
overdrawn  picture  of  the  great  public  highway  that  stretches  from 
here  to  Fredericksburg,  and  will  soon  stretch  from  Fredericksburg 
to  Canada.  I  agree  with  him  that  it  is  well  paved  with  good  inten- 
tions, but  unfortunately  with  nothing  else.  Now,  just  a  word  about 
the  "Buy  a  Bale  of  Cotton"  movement.  I  wish  to  say  that  if  any 
one  came  here  expecting  to  see  a  poverty  stricken  section,  he  was 
vastly  mistaken. 

MR.  HOOPER:     I  did  not  say  that  I  did,  Senator. 

SENATOR  SMITH:  He  has  come  to  the  greatest  section  in  natural 
agricultural  resources  in  the  world,  and  I  say  that  advisedly,  and 
I  will  prove  it  with  just  two  or  three  statements.  In  this  section 
with  proper  attention,  the  soil  per  acre  will  produce  as  much  food- 
stuffs as  any  soil  that  can  be  found  anywhere.  It  begins  equal  in 
food  producing  capacity  with  any  acreage  in  the  world,  then  it  fur- 
nishes to  our  nation  a  monopoly  in  the  great  raw  material  that 
must  clothe  the  world. 

From  whatever  section  of  our  common  country  you  may  come,  you 
should  feel  proud  of  the  fact  that  our  United  States  has  a  monopoly 
in  the  production  of  the  raw  material  that  is  necessary  to  clothe  the 
world. 

They  can  raise  in  India  a  very  short  staple  cotton,  but  they  can- 
not make  much  out  of  it  unless  they  mix  our  American  cotton  with 
it.  They  can  raise  in  Egypt  some  very  long  staple  and  very  fine 
cotton,  but  it  is  limited  in  its  use,  and  it  is  our  cotton,  or  cotton 
that  is  produced  in  our  common  country,  that  is  absolutely  essential 
to  clothe  the  world  and  our  cotton  crop  is  growing  more  and  more 
important  every  year  for  this  nation.  [Applause.] 

I  am  deeply  interested  in  the  good  roads  problem;  not  exactly 
in  the  same  way  that  my  friend  Mr.  Hooper  is.  He  always  thinks 
of  a  great  national  highway  to  run  his  automobile  over,  and  to  have 
a  splendid  Glidden  tour  over.  I  am  in  favor  of  that  kind  of  good 
roads,  but  the  good  road  that  interests  me  most  is  the  good  road  that 
is  to  help  build  up  that  upon  which  our  country  rests  for  its  pros- 
perity more  than  any  thing  else.  [Applause]  Every  country,  ours 


18  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

especially,  rests  for  its  wealth  producing  power  upon  agriculture  and 
manufacture.  Agriculture  produces  something.  The  mill  adds  to 
the  value  of  the  raw  material  by  changing  it  into  something  of  addi- 
tional value.  Commerce  handles  these  products;  the  railroads  trans- 
port them,  but  the  wealth  producing  power  of  the  nation  is  found 
in  our  agriculture  and  in  our  mills,  and  our  manufacturing  com- 
panies must  rest  upon  our  agriculture  for  their  raw  material  as  the 
people  of  the  world  must  rest  upon  agriculture  for  their  food.  So  I 
place  first  among  the  things  that  should  receive  the  attention  of  a 
nation,  the  agriculture  of  a  nation. 

No  nation  ever  lapsed,  no  nation  ever  went  backwards  while  mak- 
ing progress  in  its  agriculture.  Now  our  manufacturing  enter- 
prises are  ahead  in  world  progress  as  compared  to  our  agriculture. 
We  rank  with  the  best  in  manufacturing  lines,  but  we  are  behind 
in  agriculture.  We  do  not  produce  per  acre  in  agriculture  what 
is  produced  in  other  countries.  We  have  not  studied  agricul- 
ture scientifically  as  agriculture  has  been  studied  in  other  coun- 
tries. We  have  not  handled  our  soil  with  the  consciousness  of 
the  fact  that  each  year  that  which  we  took  out  of  it  we  must  put 
back  with  more  to  increase  its  strength  and  power.  We  have 
rather,  through  the  richness  of  pur  soil,  handled  it  with  waste- 
fulness and  have  each  year  been  disposed  to  lessen  the  real  resources 
of  our  soil  rather  than  to  add  to  it  and  increase  it. 

We  have  neglected  the  roads  in  our  rural  sections;  we  have  left 
rural  Me  isolated;  we  have  left  rural  life  where  facilities  to  reach 
the  schoolhouse  have  been  lacking,  where  facility  to  reach  the  church 
has  been  lacking.  We  have  left  it  where  the  people  in  rural  sec- 
tions ofttimes  seek  the  town  rather  than  live  upon  the  farm  because 
of  the  lack  of  opportunity,  on  account  of  bad  roads,  to  pass  from 
place  to  place. 

I  look  upon  the  good  road  problem  as  preeminently  a  national 
service.  Because  it  is  to  lessen  the  cost  of  transportation  of  agri- 
cultural products,  and  the  cost  of  transportation  to  the  farm  of 
that  which  is  needed  on  the  farm,  and  because  it  is  to  take  from 
rural  life  its  isolation  and  help  make  rural  life  all  it  should  be  in 
its  beauty  and  its  charm. 

I  believe  we  have  just  begun  a  great  national  progress  toward  the 
development  of  the  farm.  Fifty  years  ago  we  established  our  national 
agricultural  colleges  through  the  Morrell  Bill,  giving  the  landscript 
in  each  State  to  an  agricultural  college.  They  struggled  along 
until  now  in  every  State,  supported  by  State  taxation  as  well  as 
by  the  Morrell  landscript  fund,  we  have  I  think  in  every  State  a 
splendid  agricultural  college. 

Twenty-five  years  ago,  we  passed  a  bill  to  establish  the  experi- 
ment stations,  and  for  25  years  we  have  had  our  agricultural  col- 
leges and  our  experiment  stations.  Vast  stores  of  knowledge  have 
been  gathered  in  these  two  institutions,  but  they  have  been  on  cold 
storage,  they  have  just  been  there  undistributed.  You  cannot 


PROCEEDINGS  19 

carry  that  information  to  the  farm  and  put  it  to  work  simply  by  cir- 
cularizing those  engaged  on  the  farm. 

Within  the  last  12  months,  Congress  has  passed  a  bill  for  agri- 
cultural extension  work.  Starting  with  the  first  of  this  last  July, 
each  State  received  from  the  national  government  $10,000  for  this 
purpose.  The  appropriation  increases  year  by  year  until  it  reaches 
$6,000,000,  each  State  beyond  the  $10,000  being  required  to  dupli- 
cate from  its  own  treasury  what  it  receives  from  the  national  gov- 
ernment, and  all  that  is  known  in  the  experiment  stations  and  the 
agricultural  colleges  is  to  be  carried  to  the  farm  home  and  by  dem- 
onstration on  the  farm,  given  for  the  use  of  every  farmer.  In  our 
own  country  it  has  been  tried  to  a  limited  extent.  Dr.  Knapp  was 
the  great  leader  of  farm  demonstration  work  in  the  United  States, 
but  he  turned  back  to  Germany  for  the  highest  character  of  work 
of  this  kind.  Those  wonderful  people  who  today  are  standing 
off  all  of  Europe,  not  by  their  numbers  but  by  their  training;  those 
wonderful  people  50  years  ago  realized  the  necessity  of  carrying 
accurate  and  scientific  knowledge  in  agriculture  to  the  farmer's 
home,  and  the  Wonderlehrer  and  Wonderlehrerin,  the  traveling 
teacher  of  Germany,  carried  to  the  home  of  the  farmer,  through  men 
and  women,  all  of  the  scientific  knowledge  of  the  soil  that  the  col- 
lege could  acquire  and  the  experiment  station  demonstrate,  and 
gave  it  with  practical  illustration  alongside  the  farmer's  home, 
upon  the  farmer's  land,  and  the  Wonderlehrerin  of  Germany,  the 
woman,  traveled  from  place  to  place  and  carried  the  knowledge 
of  domestic  science  and  of  all  those  things  which  study  and  in- 
vestigation could  acquire,  and  gave  it  to  the  German  woman  on  the 
farm. 

Now  our  agriculture  extension  bill,  passed  last  February  inau- 
gurates for  our  country  a  great  system  of  instruction  at  the  home 
of  the  farmer  by  which  we  expect  to  see  the  next  10  years  revolu- 
tionize the  productive  strength  of  the  soil  of  our  country,  and  help 
to  make  the  farm  home  more  beautiful,  more  hygienic,  more  cap- 
able of  developing  splendid  men  and  women,  for  after  all,  legisla- 
tion and  work  in  our  country  should  place  commerical  progress  far 
behind  the  problem  of  developing  the  men  and  women  of  our  country. 

We  have  added  another  measure,  last  January,  a  market  bill  it  is 
called,  and  starting  with  the  first  of  July,  the  Agricultural  Depart- 
ment has  $250,000  to  be  spent  this  year  to  organize  the  farmers 
for  the  study  of  the  better  preparation  and  the  better  marketing 
of  their  products,  and  for  the  study  of  the  condition  of  the  people 
in  the  cities  that  they  may  be  brought  in  closer  touch  with  the 
farmer  and  be  prepared  to  get  the  benefit  of  the  better  marketing 
by  the  farm,  to  bring  consumer  and  producer  closer  together,  that  the 
enormous  economic  waste  that  has  been  going  on  may  be  brought  to 
an  end. 

Secretary  Wilson,  who  for  so  many  years  made  this  country  a  great 
Secretary  of  Agriculture,  said  not  long  ago  that  for  every  50  cents 


20  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

the  farmer  got  for  what  he  raised,  the  ultimate  consumer  paid  a 
dollar,  and  then  he  asked  "What  becomes  of  the  other  50  cents?" 
An  investigation  of  the  question  shows  that  but  a  small  percentage 
of  it  goes  to  transportation  and  but  a  small  percentage  of  it  really 
has  gone  to  the  middle  man;  the  bulk  of  it  has  been  an  economic 
waste,  and  we  are  seeking  and  will  continue  to  seek  to  make  a  live 
part  of  the  work  of  the  National  Agriculture  Department  the  study 
of  the  problem  of  marketing,  that  the  product  of  the  farm  may 
bring  more  to  the  producer  and  yet  go  to  the  ultimate  consumer 
at  a  less  cost  than  he  pays  today.  That  one-half  waste  can  at  least, 
half  of  it,  be  saved,  and  if  a  fourth  of  that  went  to  the  farmer  and  a 
fourth  of  it  went  to  the  consumer,  splendid  would  be  the  improve- 
ment for  both. 

Then  we  have  added  a  practical  parcels  post,  progressive  and 
developing,  through  which  we  furnish  the  means  for  the  farmer  and 
the  man  in  the  city,  the  ultimate  consumer,  to  get  closer  together, 
and  the  merchant  and  the  farmer,  without  waste,  to  get  closer 
together.  Those  are  three  things  that  have  been  done  for  agricul- 
ture, another  is  lacking,  it  takes  a  fourth.  The  fourth  is  good  roads. 

Do  not  allow  charming  advocates  of  great  national  highways  to 
sweep  away  from  your  minds  the  thought  that  the  greatest  of  all 
good  that  can  come  from  good  roads  is  the  development  of  the 
agriculture  of  our  country. 

Nobody  likes  his  automobile  better  than  I  do,  and  nobody  enjoys 
a  great  national  highway  or  a  Glidden  tour  more  than  I  do,  for  I  rode 
with  our  friend  Mr.  Hooper  from  New  York  through  to  Atlanta 
on  one  of  those  tours.  They  are  splendid,  but  their  chief  value  is 
that  they  may  stimulate  better  roads  away  from  the  great  high- 
ways. If  we  are  to  simply  have  the  great  highways  and  nothing 
more,  I  would  give  little  for  them  as  an  economic  force  to  develop 
the  country,  but  as  an  inspiration  to  build  feeders  all  around,  and 
to  have  good  roads  every  where,  I  recognize  their  value  and  I  am 
thankful  for  them.  Ah,  gentlemen,  as  we  study  the  people  of 
Europe,  as  we  study,  the  force  and  the  intelligence  that  they  are 
wasting  in  a  horrible  struggle,  as  we  thank  God  that  we  are  at  peace 
and  ask  His  blessing  to  every  movement  for  a  world  wide  peace, 
we  come  to  the  study  of  our  own  people,  and  we  come  to  the  greatest 
problem  that  confronts  a  country,  the  development  of  men  and 
women;  and  we  are  made  conscious  of  the  fact  that  there  is  no 
greater  duty  resting  upon  any  individual  than  to  contribute  all 
he  can  to  the  mental  and  moral  growth,  to  the  character  building 
of  the  great  body  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  United  States.  And 
believing  as  I  do  that  the  broadest  field  for  the  development  of  our 
people  is  found  among  those  who  live  in  rural  sections,  and  be- 
lieving as  I  do  that  the  isolation  of  rural  life  has  been  one  of  the 
greatest  drawbacks  to  the  development,  to  the  furnishing  of  an 
opportunity  to  our  people  in  rural  sections,  I  congratulate  you 
upon  your  gathering  and  I  wish  you  God  speed  in  everything  that 
you  may  do  to  help  make  better  roads  all  over  our  country. 


PROCEEDINGS  21 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  going  to  call  now  on  several  good  roads 
enthusiasts  for  short  talks.  I  will  call  first  on  Mr.  Leonard  Tufts, 
Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Highway 
Association. 

MR.  TUFTS:  Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  There  is 
a  little  mix-up  on  this  question,  this  through  road.  Mr.  Hooper 
has  my  deepest  sympathy.  After  talking  with  him  I  find  that 
the  route  he  took  is  not  the  route  Mr.  Page  was  discussing  at  all. 
I  went  over  Mr.  Hooper's  route  some  three  or  four  years  ago;  it 
rained  every  day  I  was  on  the  trip  and  it  took  me  16  days  to  cover 
about  1000  miles  and  I  was  stuck  in  the  mud  16  times;  not  all  in  one 
place,  but  in  many  places.  So  Mr.  Hooper  has  my  deepest  sym- 
pathy. The  road  that  Mr.  Page  spoke  of  is  not  entirely  improved. 
As  I  believe  he  told  you,  only  some  28  of  the  47  counties  have  been 
accepted  for  maintenance,  but  the  improvement  in  those  counties 
is  very  remarkable.  In  one  section  in  northern  North  Carolina 
an  excellent  road  was  built  some  10  years  ago  and  I  went  over  it  last 
year  when  we  were  making  these  arrangements  for  the  office  of 
public  roads  to  look  out  for  maintenance,  and  there  was  no  visible 
sign  of  its  ever  having  been  improved.  That  all  has  been  brought 
back  again  into  its  original  shape  and  is  very  good  now.  What 
the  American  Highway  Association  and  the  office  of  public  roads 
are  interested  in  in  this  through  road  is  simply  a  demonstration 
to  the  people  of  the  system  of  maintenance  and  in  that  it  is  bound 
to  do  a  tremendous  lot  of  good.  Georgia  I  understand,  has  not  been 
accepted  as  a  maintenance  proposition  except  in  a  few  counties. 

I  came  down  here  some  8  or  9  months  ago  with  Mr.  Pennybacker 
to  look  over  the  question  of  holding  the  Road  Convention  in  At- 
lanta and  I  was  never  more  surprised  than  when  I  learned  of  the 
change  in  the  streets  here.  Those  of  you  who  are  not  from  Atlanta 
will  be  interested  to  know  that  it  was  necessary  to  re-grade  cer- 
tain streets  here  and  in  some  places  to  make  deep  cuts  of  some  10 
feet  and  I  don't  know  but  what  it  was  perhaps  more.  Only  a  small 
portion  of  the  expense  was  borne  by  the  city.  Most  of  that  work 
was  done  by  the  people  who  had  property  on  those  streets.  They 
made  no  claims  for  damages;  I  understand  they  all  signed  off  before 
the  grades  were  made,  so  that  there  were  no  damages  paid  by  the 
city.  Many  of  the  buildings  had  to  be  re-built  and  the  expenses 
were  great.  It  is  such  cooperation  as  that  that  you  have  here  in 
Atlanta  that  counts,  and  it  is  such  cooperation  as  that,  that  we 
expect  on  our  roads  throughout  the  State. 

We  came  here  to  look  after  space  for  exhibits.  We  were  told 
that  we  could  use  this  street  by  the  side  here;  we  were  told  that  we 
could  use  the  space  under  the  viaduct.  It  seemed  absurd  to  me 
that  a  city  would  give  up  a  street  in  the  heart  of  the  city  for  ex- 
hibition purposes,  but  it  was  done  and  it  is  that  sort  of  cooperation 
that  counts.  Thank  you. 


22  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  will  next  call  on  Mr.  George  W.  Cooley, 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  Minnesota. 

MR.  COOLEY:  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  don't 
know  why  I  should  be  called  upon  at  this  time  unless  it  is  to  fill 
up  a  little  space  m  the  program,  because  I  am  really  not  due  until 
Wednesday  afternoon  at  2  o'clock,  according  to  contract.  If  I 
should  talk  very  much  now  on  the  subject  to  which  I  will  allude 
in  my  formal  address,  it  would  seem  like  a  waste  of  time.  I  am 
going  to  touch  Wednesday  on  two  special  points  that  have  already 
been  outlined  here  by  Mr.  Page  and  other  speakers.  The  question 
preeminently  before  us  now  is  the  question  of  maintenance.  There 
is  no  use  in  constructing  a  road,  no  matter  how  good  or  what  class  of 
material  it  is  made  of,  unless  some  provision  is  made  to  maintain 
it  and  we  have  the  experience  of  all  our  western  States,  or  most  of 
them,  and  the  eastern  States,  especially  in  maintaining  roads,  and 
I  expect  to  hear  from  them  Wednesday  afternoon  in  the  considera- 
tion of  the  paper  that  I  will  read  at  that  time. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  Sidney  Suggs,  Chairman  of  the  Oklahoma 
Highway  Commission  will  please  come  up  to  the  platform. 

MR.  SUGGS:  Mr.  Sargeant-at-arms,  I  wish  you  would  close  that 
door.  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  having  men  leave  the  hall  when  I  am 
speaking.  I  had  an  audience  of  1500  not  long  ago,  and  not  one  of 
them  left  the  hall  during  my  three  hours'  talk.  Some  of  them 
cried.  Some  of  them  said  "Damn  it."  Some  of  them  went  to 
sleep,  but  there  was  not  one  of  them  left  the  hall;  not  one.  Did  I 
say  who  it  was  I  was  addressing?  Why  it  was  the  inmates  of  the 
Oklahoma  Penitentiary  on  the  subject  of  the  Honor  System.  So 
you  see  they  could  not  leave.  I  am  like  my  friend  here  who  re- 
marked that  this  was  not  his  time.  I  want  you  to  be  here  though 
when  my  time  comes,  because  I  am  going  to  tell  you  how  it  hap- 
pened in  Oklahoma  in  my  native  way,  just  like  I  would  talk  it  to 
Oklahoma  people.  I  am  going  to  tell  you  that  you  are  not  religious 
people,  you  are  infidels  if  you  are  not  in  favor  of  good  roads,  you  are 
absolutely — undesirable  citizens.  That  is  the  idea.  I  tell  them 
I  can  prove  it  by  the  Bible  and  I  proceed  to  do  it.  It  has  been  some 
time  since  I  read  that  portion  of  the  Scriptures,  but  the  way  I  re- 
member it,  it  says  that  any  man  that  will  not  provide  for  his  family 
is  worse  than  an  infidel.  Does  that  mean  to  buy  them  something 
to  wear  in  the  shape  of  5  cent  muslin,  cotton  goods,  or  a  little  some- 
thing to  eat?  I  say  no,  if  a  man  undertakes  to  raise  a  family  and 
provide  for  it,  it  means  not  only  food  and  clothing  but  it  means 
schools,  books,  music,  flowers  and  it  means  contentment,  what 
God  Almighty  intended  for  his  children  to  have  in  this  world  and 
the  man  that  don't  provide  those  things  for  his  family  is  not  a  de- 
sirable citizen.  Now  that  is  the  way  I  talk  to  them  in  Oklahoma 


PROCEEDINGS  28 

and  I  make  them  take  it.  I  tell  them  that  if  they  have  anything 
to  say  about  it,  to  look  me  in  the  eye  and  say  it  while  I  am  here. 
If  they  want  to  criticize  me,  do  it  while  I  am  present  so  that  I  can 
defend  myself.  Don't  wait  until  I  get  off  and  say  "Well  that's  a 
lot  of  hot  air."  I  tell  them  to  do  with  what  we  have,  we  need  not 
wait  for  an  earthquake,  we  need  not  wait  for  another  European 
war — take  advantage  of  this  one.  I  like  the  machinery  man;  I 
like  to  meet  him;  I  like  to  see  the  fire  of  business  in  his  eye;  I  like 
to  talk  to  him  about  road  building  machinery.  I  like  to  see  the  man 
with  the  material  and  get  acquainted  with  his  methods,  but  in 
Oklahoma,  provide  the  ways  and  means  and  there  will  be  no  dearth 
of  material  and  machinery.  I  tell  them  down  there  that  when  Elias 
was  going  through  the  country  and  met  that  widow  who  had  to 
sell  her  children  to  pay  the  funeral  expenses  of  her  dead  husband, 
as  was  the  custom  of  that  day  and  time,  he  did  not  ask  her  what 
political  pull  she  had,  he  did  not  ask  her  what  her  bank  account 
was,  he  asked  her  what  she  had  in  the  house.  She  told  him  a  few 
jars  and  a  little  oil.  He  told  her  what  to  do  with  what  she  had, 
go  into  the  house,  go  and  borrow  jars  and  not  be  saving,  but  to 
borrow  all  she  could,  and  that  is  the  first  time  I  remember  seeing 
the  word  borrow  in  the  Bible;  but  she  went  and  did  what  Elias  told 
her,  and  what  was  the  result?  She  had  plenty  of  oil  for  her  family; 
enough  to  pay  her  debts  and  enough  to  live  on  for  some  time  after- 
wards, because  she  did  with  what  she  had.  We  in  Oklahoma  have  got 
to  do  with  what  we  have  and  make  the  best  of  it.  I  like  the  way  Hoke 
Smith  talked;  in  some  respects  I  was  highly  entertained,  but  I  want 
to  say  to  him  and  to  you  all  that  I  believe,  my  friends,  we  have  got 
to  build  the  main  trunk  lines  before  we  build  the  laterals;  at  least 
we  have  got  to  start  the  trunk  lines,  to  set  the  example.  I  believe 
it  is  as  much  the  government's  duty  to  assist  in  the  building  of  these 
roads  as  to  build  $500,000,000  canals;  this  money  belongs  to  all  the 
people,  and  we  have  been  waiting,  and  waiting  for  the  construction 
of  roads.  Whenever  they  start  to  build  those  trunk  lines,  when- 
ever the  government  becomes  interested  in  those  things,  the  States 
will  become  interested,  and  when  the  State  becomes  interested  the 
counties  and  the  townships  become  interested  and  we  will  build  up 
the  system,  but  if  the  national  government  waits  for  the  State,  and 
the  State  waits  for  the  county  and  the  county  waits  for  the  town- 
ship, it  will  be  a  waiting  outfit,  and  I  am  afraid  we  will  wait  until 
some  of  us  go  over  the  range.  I  want  to  see  something  done. 

I  am  a  convention  fiend,  I  go  to  all  of  them;  if  I  have  not  got 
the  money  to  go,  I  borrow  it,  because  I  like  to  go  to  a  convention 
and  mix  and  mingle  with  men  that  I  believe  are  trying  to  do  some 
good  for  the  future  of  the  country.  I  am  glad  to  be  with  you;  I 
want  to  get  acquainted  with  all  of  you.  Sometimes  down  in  my 
State  it  seems  to  me  I  need  more  friends  than  I  have;  I  talk  roads 
until  they  say  it  is  a  habit.  I  went  to  a  hanging  one  day — I  am  a 
newspaper  man,  I  have  been  in  the  newspaper  business  a  long  time 


24  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

and  am  still  running  the  paper,  don't  have  to  do  anything  but  look 
after  the  payroll,  four  boys  run  the  paper — but  I  was  at  a  hanging 
and  there  were  5000  people  there  to  witness  it  and  when  the  Sheriff 
brought  the  prisoner  out  he  said,  "We  are  here  15  minutes  ahead 
of  time.  There  is  a  great  crowd  of  your  friends  here;  if  you  want 
to  say  anything  to  them,  you  have  15  minutes  to  do  it."  He  said, 
"Yes,  I  presume  they  are  all  my  friends  or  they  would  not  have 
come  here  to  see  me  hung,  but  I  have  warned  them  everywhere  I 
could  and  I  don't  know  that  there  is  anything  more  I  care  to  say." 
Then  I  jumped  up  and  said,  "There  are  5000  people  here  and  if  the 
gentlemen  will  yield  the  time,  I  would  like  to  tell  them  a  little  about 
good  roads,"  and  I  asked  the  gentleman  who  was  going  to  be  hung 
8  he  would  yield  the  time.  He  said,  "Well,  I  think  Mr.  Suggs  ought 
to  be  allowed  to  talk  good  roads;  I  understand  that's  all  he  does 
and  I  am  perfectly  willing,  but  Mr.  Sheriff,  please  hang  me  first." 
Now  gentlemen,  I  want  to  meet  all  of  you. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  will  now  adjourn  until  2  o'clock  this  after- 
noon, at  the  same  place. 

November  9,  2  P.M. 
MR.  GEORGE  DIEHL  IN  THE  CHAIR 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  The  afternoon  session 
is  devoted  to  the  subject  of  Federal  Aid,  and  is  in  charge  of  the  Ameri- 
can Automobile  Association.  I  was  asked  to  introduce  the  chair- 
man of  the  afternoon,  and  it  was  not  my  intention  to  say  anything. 
But  after  hearing  the  speech  of  the  eminent  and  eloquent  Senator 
from  this  State,  wherein  he  indicated  that  he  had  not  exactly  in  his 
mind  the  idea  of  the  work  that  the  American  Automobile  Association 
is  doing,  I  think  a  short  statement  of  what  the  American  Automobile 
Association  stands  for  in  the  matter  of  good  roads,  and  why  they  now 
have  their  principal  headquarters  in  Washington  might  not  be  amiss. 

The  A.  A.  A.  believes  in  Federal  aid  in  highway  construction. 
The  A.  A.  A.  believes  that  within  a  year  or  two  at  the  most  the  Fed- 
eral Government  will  make  appropriations  to  assist  in  constructing 
important  roads.  The  A.  A.  A.  believes  that  should  be  done  for  sev- 
eral reasons;  first  that  these  roads  should  be  paid  for  in  proportion 
to  the  benefit  received.  The  construction  of  these  roads  not  only 
benefits  the  farmer,  but  the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  as  Senator  Smith 
said  this  morning;  and  the  reduction  in  the  cost  of  transportation 
is  not  only  a  benefit  to  the  farmer  but  to  the  city  resident  as  well, 
and  it  is  no  more  than  right  that  the  city  should  help  pay  for  good 
roads. 

For  over  a  hundred  years  an  effort  has  been  made  to  maintain 
roads  by  the  expense  being  borne  solely  by  the  locality,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  hundred  years,  the  roads  were  not  much  better  than  at 


PROCEEDINGS  25 

the  outset.  Then  the  States  of  Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  Massachu- 
setts and  New  York  enacted  laws  providing  for  State  aid,  and  in 
some  of  the  larger  counties  laws  were  passed  providing  for  county 
aid.  The  idea  of  county  aid  where  a  county  contained  a  large  city 
was  merely  an  effort  to  distribute  the  cost  of  construction  between 
the  rural  and  urban  localities,  and  in  a  county  where  there  was  a 
large  city,  a  fair  distribution  was  often  obtained  by  a  county  aid  law. 
In  other  places,  however,  counties  contained  no  large  cities  and  the 
cities  which  benefitted  from  the  construction  of  those  roads  did  not 
bear  the  expense;  and  so  came  the  adoption  of  State  aid  laws. 

In  the  richer  Eastern  States  that  contain  the  large  cities  this  pro- 
vided for  an  equitable  distribution  of  expense;  but  the  roads  which 
are  constructed  in  the  far  Western  States  and  the  Central  States  and 
the  Southern  States,  which  bring  the  wheat  and  other  products  to 
the  railroad,  where  in  turn  they  are  brought  to  the  larger  cities, 
these  roads  benefit  to  an  equal  extent,  or  to  a  certain  extent,  the 
great  cities  of  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia  and  Boston,  and 
the  only  way  in  which  those  cities  can  bear  their  proportion  of  ex- 
pense is  by  enlarging  the  unit  which  is  taxed  for  these  roads,  and  that 
is  one  of  the  arguments  for  Federal  aid  in  highway  construction. 

Just  to  give  you  a  little  illustration  of  the  difference  in  the  tax- 
able assets  of  the  various  States  of  the  Union — the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts has  about  20,000  miles  of  roads  and  about  $4,000,000,000  of 
taxable  assets;  that  means  $200,000  of  taxable  assets  for  every  mile 
of  highway.  The  State  of  Nevada  has  only  got  $700  per  mile  to  tax; 
they  have  got  one  three-hundredths  part  of  the  taxing  ability  to 
build  their  roads  that  the  State  of  Massachusetts  has.  One-half 
of  the  States  in  the  Union  have  got  less  than  $10,000  per  mile;  one- 
half  of  the  States  have  only  a  twentieth  of  the  ability  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  or  New  York,  and  it  is  also  on  that  theory  that  the 
government  should  assist  in  this  burden,  as  there  are  many  counties 
in  this  country  which  cannot  afford  to  build  roads  without  assist- 
ance, and  there  are  also  States  which  need  assistance  in  construction 
of  highways.  Therefore,  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  that 
this  Association  stands  for  is  that  the  government  should  assist  in 
highway  construction,  also  that  every  political  sub-division  has  a 
vital  duty  to  perform,  and  that  the  township,  county,  and  State 
each  has  a  duty  and  that  the  Federal  Government  has  a  duty. 

Very  often  the  phrase  is  used  by  public  speakers  and  seen  in  the 
good  roads  press,  that  what  we  want  is  good  roads  from  the  farm 
to  the  railroad  station  or  from  the  farm  to  the  market,  and  that  we 
don't  want  "peacock  lanes"  across  the  country  for  a  few  motorists; 
and  I  am  afraid  that  Senator  Smith  fell  into  that  error  in  thinking 
that  the  Automobile  Association  is  tiying  to  have  roads  constructed 
from  ocean  to  ocean  or  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  What 
we  stand  for  is  that  the  government  money  should  be  spent  on  main 
market  highways  and  that  it  should  not  be  spent  on  lateral  or  unim- 
portant highways. 


26  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

The  statement  has  often  been  made  that  the  construction  of 
roads  is  a  local  question,  and  men  oppose  county,  State,  or  Federal 
aid  because  it  is  a  local  question.  It  is  a  local  question,  but  it  is  also 
a  county  question,  a  State  question,  and  a  national  question.  If  the 
farmer  starts  from  his  farm  with  a  load  of  produce  for  the  market, 
he  passes  over  his  own  land  and  the  roads  on  his  own  land  until  he 
reaches  a  public  highway;  then  he  passes  over  that  public  highway 
until  he  gets  to  a  more  important  highway,  and  then  passes  over 
that  until  he  reaches  a  highway  which  runs  through  three  or  four 
townships  and  is  what  might  be  called  a  county  highway;  then  he 
frequently  passes  over  a  highway  which  connects  the  great  centers 
of  population  and  is  a  State  highway.  It  must  be  perfectly  evident 
that  the  construction  and  improvement  of  the  road  on  his  own 
property  is  purely  a  personal  matter,  and  that  he  should  keep  up  the 
road  on  his  own  farm.  It  is  equally  apparent  that  the  road  which  is 
used  only  by  the  people  of  the  township  is  a  purely  local  question  and 
should  be  kept  up  by  the  township,  and  that  the  State  and  Federal 
government  should  not  be  asked  to  assist  in  the  construction  and 
maintenance  of  that  road;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  county 
thoroughfare  should  be  cared  for  by  the  counties,  and  that  the 
State  should  care  for  the  State  highways,  and  that  the  national 
government,  in  turn,  should  assist  in  the  construction  of  those  roads 
which  necessarily  come  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  national  gov- 
ernment and  are  of  inter-state  importance. 

I  want  to  draw  your  attention  to  one  fact,  that  this  talk  of  build- 
ing the  road  from  the  farm  to  the  railroad  station  is  something  we  all 
agree  on;  but  we  believe  in  starting  at  the  railroad  station,  because 
you  can  readily  see  the  question  would  arise  "A  road  from  what 
farm?"  "Every  farm?"  Of  course,  if  a  road  goes  from  every  farm 
to  the  railroad  station,  then  every  mile  of  road  in  the  United  States 
will  be  built;  there  are  2,000,000  miles  of  road,  and  everybody  knows 
that  all  of  the  highways  cannot  be  constructed  at  once.  We  claim 
that  those  roads  should  be  constructed  first  which  carry  the  greatest 
volume  of  the  tonnage  and  accommodate  the  greatest  number  of 
people;  that  the  road  should  start  at  the  railroad  station  and  work 
toward  the  farm,  start  at  the  main  center  of  the  population  and 
work  toward  the  farm. 

The  statement  is  also  made  that  the  railroads  of  the  country  are 
the  natural  highways  of  the  country.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  the 
railroads  do  carry  and  will  cariy  for  years  the  great  through  traffic; 
but  the  local  traffic  is  largely  being  carried  by  either  electric  roads 
or  motor  vehicles;  in  fact  in  New  York  State  it  is  not  at  all  uncom- 
mon to  see  delivery  wagons  40,  50,  and  60  miles  from  the  cities. 
Consequently  we  advocate  the  main  roads  to  be  built  first,  and  those 
are  the  two  fundamental  principles  that  this  Association  is  working 
for:  that  the  government  should  aid,  and  that  the  government 
money  should  be  spent  only  on  the  main  thoroughfares  and  should 
not  be  dissipated  by  trying  to  spend  it  on  2,000,000  miles  of  road. 


PROCEEDINGS  27 

We  feel  confident  that  real  results  will  be  obtained,  that  the  roads 
the  government  builds  will  furnish  examples  for  the  various  States, 
and  we  believe  that  this  work  should  not  of  necessity  be  done  by  the 
government,  but  that  the  State  highway  officials,  in  cooperation 
with  the  government,  should  agree  on  the  roads,  the  plans,  and  the 
specifications,  and  on  the  various  features  of  the  contract.  Then 
it  is  only  a  question  of  time  before  those  great  national  roads  and  the 
State  highways  will  form  the  backbone  from  which  will  radiate  the 
county  roads  and  the  township  roads  and  the  whole  will  be  combined 
into  one  properly  connected  and  well  developed  system  of  highways, 
which  together  with  the  use  of  motor  vehicles,  will  make  for  the 
greatest  development  this  country  has  ever  known. 

I  did  not  start  to  make  a  speech,  but  I  want  to  impress  these  two 
things  on  your  mind:  that  the  American  Automobile  Association  or 
the  organized  motorists  of  this  country  are  not  standing  for  roads 
upon  which  to  run  a  Glidden  tour  or  roads  from  ocean  to  ocean, 
but  they  do  stand  for  government  aid  in  the  construction  of  highways, 
and  for  State,  county,  and  township  aid;  and  we  do  say  that  the 
government  money  should  only  be  spent  on  the  main  roads  of  this 
country  and  that  it  would  be  foolish  to  spend  and  dissipate  it  on 
2  or  3,000,000  miles  of  roads. 

It  is  now  my  pleasure  to  introduce  a  gentleman  who  has  baen  presi- 
dent of  the  American  Automobile  Association,  is  president  of  the 
Massachusetts  State  Automobile  Association,  and  a  man  who  is  promi- 
nent in  the  social  and  business  life  of  the  city  of  Boston  and  has  been 
well  known  for  years  as  a  sturdy  advocate  of  road  construction,  Mr. 
Lewis  R.  Speare. 

Mr.  Speare  then  took  the  Chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  Mr.  Diehl  informed 
me  that  I  was  only  supposed  to  get  up  here  and  say  a  few  words,  a,ud 
give  people  time  to  get  in  here  so  they  could  hear  the  good  roads 
speeches,  and  the  few  ideas  that  I  have  were  covered  so  admirably 
that  it  would  sound  very  foolish  for  me  to  attempt  to  cover  them 
again.  As  he  stated,  I  come  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
where  we  had  the  first  Highway  Commission  and  the  first  real 
organized  work  on  State  highways  of  any  State  in  the  Union.  We 
have  some  good  roads,  quite  a  number  of  them,  and  when  we  got 
down  to  real  work,  we  built  our  main  highways,  and  you  never 
find  that  the  Grange  or  the  farmer  in  our  State  objects  to  the  policy 
of  the  State  in  building  its  main  highways  first.  Those  highways 
have  been  of  great  benefit  to  the  agricultural  work  of  our  Common- 
wealth. We  are  not,  of  course,  a  large  agricultural  State,  but  I 
heard  one  member,  a  lecturer  of  the  Grange  on  one  occasion,  give  an 
account  of  agricultural  work  in  Massachusetts,  and  he  referred  to 
the  fact  that  our  State  roads  had  made  possible  the  cultivation  of 
onions  throughout  the  Connecticut  valley,  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  Bermudas  had  almost  been  driven  our,  of  our  markets,  and  he 


28  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

gave  facts  and  figures  on  loads  carried  over  the  State  roads  compared 
to  what  had  formerly  been  carried  over  the  old  roads.  The  farmers 
in  the  New  England  States  are  most  enthusiastic  over  our  roads.  You 
must  remember  that  all  automobilists  do  not  own  high  priced  cars, 
but  that  the  great  bulk  of  cars  today  are  those  sold  at  the  low 
prices,  and  the  biggest  trade  for  automobiles  is  from  the  farmer — 
what  you  might  call  the  farmer  interests.  This  country  seems  to  be 
divided  into  about  three  parts,  one-third  being  real  farmers,  the 
second  those  who  call  themselves  farmers  and  perhaps  are  going 
to  farm  some  day,  and  the  remainder,  all  those  who  are  looking  for- 
ward to  the  time  when  they  can  simply  farm.  All  through  Massa- 
chusetts we  had  abandoned  farms;  and,  in  fact,  throughout  our  New 
England  States  we  had  farm  after  farm  that  had  been  abandoned. 
Why  have  they  now  disappeared  from  the  market?  At  the  present 
moment  you  have  to  pay  more  for  a  farm  anywhere  within  fifty 
miles  of  Boston  than  you  would  if  you  were  to  buy  an  elegant  place 
within  eight  miles  of  Boston.  The  automobile  and  good  roads 
have  brought  those  farms  to  the  attention  of  people  and  they  are 
being  occupied  and  owned  as  summer  homes,  and  the  abandoned 
farm  in  the  New  England  States  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  You  will 
have  to  hunt  with  a  fine  tooth  comb  to  find  any  abandoned  farms 
in  New  England  to-day. 

I  do  not  propose  to  take  up  your  time,  but  I  want  to  emphasize 
what  Mr.  Diehl  has  so  admirably  covered,  that  the  American  Auto- 
mobile Association  is  not  a  pleasure  touring  organization.  The  great- 
est work  we  have  is  the  Good  Roads  work  and  we  are  working  for  all 
the  people  and  for  good  roads  in  all  parts  of  our  country.  We  call 
attention  to  the  fact  also  that  for  military  purposes  this  govern- 
ment needs  roads.  We  would  be  in  a  sorry  plight  if  we  did  get  into 
trouble  and  had  no  better  roads  that  we  have  today  for  moving  our 
troops,  etc.,  and  whoever  heard  of  a  railroad  building  its  feeders 
before  it  built  its  trunk  lines?  Now  we  believe  in  building  the  trunk 
line  roads  and  then  building  the  feeders  to  their  natural  sources, 
and  if  you  get  a  good  road,  the  farmers  who  live  near  that  road 
will  take  hold,  and  the  whole  community  will  take  hold  and  get  a 
pretty  fair  road  connected  with  that  trunk  road,  so  we  do  believe 
that  the  national  government  should  aid  in  the  building  of  through 
inter-state  roads,  that  the  States  should  take  hold  of  the  lateral 
roads,  and  the  counties,  cities  and  towns  of  the  feeders.  I  have 
great  pleasure  in  introducing  to  you  at  the  present  time  Congress- 
man Borland.  He  is  from  Missouri,  and  therefore  he  can  show  us, 
and  I  am  very  glad  to  have  a  good  audience  here  to  hear  him.  I 
have  only  one  request  to  make,  and  that  is,  that  on  account  of  the 
number  of  ladies  who  have  favored  us  with  their  presence  today, 
the  gentlemen  kindly  refrain  from  smoking. 


NATIONAL  LEGISLATION   FOE  GOOD   ROADS  29 

NATIONAL  LEGISLATION  FOR  GOOD  ROADS 

BY  REPRESENTATIVE  WM.  P.  BORLAND 
Of  Missouri 

The  subject  of  good  roads  is  one  upon  which  city  and  country 
are  united  in  a  common  interest.  I  have  the  good  fortune  to  repre- 
sent a  congressional  district  which  contains  a  city  of  over  a  quarter 
of  a  million  people  but  which  also  contains  a  large  and  populous 
rural  county.  I  feel  able  to  speak  after  considerable  personal  inves- 
tigation upon  the  subject  of  the  absolute  identity  of  interest  of  the 
city  and  country  upon  this  matter.  Good  roads  are  beneficial  alike 
to  the  city  and  the  country.  In  fact  they  are  vital  to  the  interest 
of  the  rural  section  and  of  the  small  town.  The  city  which  can 
depend  for  transportation  upon  the  great  trunk  lines  of  the  rail- 
roads could  very  easily  get  along  under  present  conditions  with  a 
purely  local  system  of  highways  connecting  the  farm  with  the  nearest 
railroad  station.  This  system  will  drain  the  country  of  all  of  its 
resources,  agricultural  and  financial  and  will  draw  to  the  city  like 
a  powerful  agent  the  social  and  religious  life  of  the  small  communities. 

Those  who  advocate  the  system  of  purely  local  highways  con- 
necting the  farm  with  the  nearest  railroad  station  are  seeking  to 
perpetuate  and  strengthen  a  system  which  has  built  up  enormous 
cities  by  a  steady  drain  of  wealth  and  population  from  the  country 
districts.  Everything  in  modern  industrial  life  has  tended  to  the 
aggrandisement  of  the  cities  and  the  destruction  of  the  small  town. 
It  would  be  very  easy  to  build  a  system  of  highways  under  the 
present  enthusiasm  for  good  roads  that  would  have  practically  the 
same  effect.  Such  highways  would  be  what  are  commonly  called 
post  roads  whose  only  purpose  is  to  get  the  produce  out  of  the 
country  district  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  into  the  big  centers. 
A  system  of  highways  can  be  built  however  which  will  do  more 
towards  the  social,  beneficial  and  industrial  upbuilding  of  the  small 
towns  and  rural  communities  than  anything  else  in  modem  life. 

Such  a  system  of  highways  would  open  up  every  section  of  our 
country,  turn  the  streams  of  wealth  and  population  back  again  to 
the  rural  districts,  make  the  small  towns  again  the  center  of  indus- 
trial and  social  activity  and  check  the  terrible  drain  of  wealth  and 
population  towards  the  cities. 

The  time  has  arrived  for  cooperation  between  the  State  and  nation 
on  the  subject  of  road  building.  I  have  always  been  an  advocate 
of  federal  road  legislation  because  I  believe  the  subject  is  one  of 
national  importance.  The  rural  highway  is  the  first  link  in  the 
great  chain  of  transportation.  Over  the  rural  highway  goes  annu- 
ally the  food  supply  of  the  nation.  Every  pound  of  raw  material 
destined  for  the  factories  of  our  land  and  all  of  the  great  export 
wealth  which  moves  abroad  must  begin  its  journey  to  market  over 
the  rural  road.  No  more  national  subject  is  before  the  American 


30  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

people  at  this  time  than  that  of  good  roads.  It  is  not  sufficient 
merely  to  spend  money  under  the  attractive  title  of  a  road  fund. 
It  would  be  perfectly  easy  to  do  this  with  considerable  political 
success  for  a  few  years,  but  as  soon  as  the  people  find  that  they 
were  getting  no  results  for  their  money  a  very  violent  revulsion  of 
feeling  would  occur  which  might  easily  make  road  legislation  a 
scandal  and  a  reproach.  What  is  needed  at  this  time  therefore  is 
not  simply  to  work  up  an  enthusiasm  for  the  expenditure  of  public 
money  for  roads,  but  to  work  out  a  sane  and  practical  system  by 
means  of  which  the  roads  can  be  secured  at  a  minimum  expense 
and  maintained  in  passable  condition  without  unreasonable  burden 
on  the  people.  For  more  than  a  century  we  have  struggled  along 
under  the  most  clumsy  and  archaic  road  system  from  which  a  country 
ever  suffered.  We  have  confided  the  building  and  maintenance  of 
our  public  highways  to  the  smallest  political  sub-division  known  to 
our  governmental  system.  This  policy  of  isolated  local  control  was 
adopted  from  the  English  common  law  at  a  time  when  England  was 
a  hermit  nation  with  three-fourths  of  her  land  in  virgin  forests  which 
were  hiding  places  for  bold  bands  of  outlaws,  and  at  a  period  in  her 
growth  when  more  than  90  per  cent  of  her  educated  citizens  went 
to  foreign  universities  for  their  schooling.  We  have  borrowed  that 
system  of  local  control  over  the  highways  born  in  such  an  age  of 
English  jurisprudence  and  have  retained  it  long  after  the  mother 
country  has  abandoned  it.  We  have  tried  to  adapt  it  to  a  great 
undeveloped  country  3000  miles  in  extent,  most  of  which  is  removed 
from  the  seaboard  and  even  remote  from  natural  water  courses. 
The  only  wonder  is  that  we  have  succeeded  in  developing  our  country 
at  all  under  such  an  expensive  and  burdensome  system.  We  have 
expected  the  little  local  road  district  to  build  and  maintain  highways 
without  aid  in  most  cases  either  from  the  county  or  the  State,  and 
with  no  aid  whatever  from  the  nation,  although  the  duty  they  were 
performing  was  largely  a  national  one  and  the  burden  they  were 
assuming  was  for  the  direct  benefit  of  the  great  centers  of  wealth 
and  commerce.  The  problem  before  us  now  is  to  equalize  the  bur- 
den of  taxation  so  that  the  wealth  which  is  drawn  from  the  produc- 
tion of  the  agricultural  regions  of  the  country  and  centralized  in 
the  great  cities  of  the  State  and  nation  and  in  the  great  export 
markets  of  the  east,  shall  be  available  to  carry  a  portion  of  the 
burden  of  building  and  maintaing  the  good  roads  of  the  country. 
The  narrow  gauge  politician  will  see  in  this  only  an  attempt  to 
procure  money  from  the  public  treasury  for  a  particular  locality,  the 
broad  gauge  statesman  will  see  in  it  the  equalization  of  the  burdens 
of  government  for  the  common  benefit  of  the  productive  forces  of 
the  country. 

The  failure  of  our  present  road  system  is  due  to  many  causes, 
but  they  are  all  traceable  to  the  one  feature  of  the  isolated  local 
control  of  the  road  district.  Each  little  road  district  is  expected 
to  maintain  the  best  highways  that  it  can  under  the  legal  powers 


NATIONAL  LEGISLATION  FOR  GOOD   ROADS  31 

which  the  State  chooses  to  give  it,  with  the  taxable  wealth  that  it  hap- 
pens to  have  at  its  command  and  without  any  scientific  or  technical 
knowledge  of  the  subject  of  road  building  except  what  can  be  picked 
up  by  an  honest  overseer.  The  result  is  a  patch  work  of  highways 
on  which  a  large  amount  of  the  people's  money  is  spent  annually 
without  any  permanent  improvement.  The  roads  in  one  road  dis- 
trict may  be  fairly  well  constructed  and  maintained  because  of 
favorable  local  conditions.  The  amount  of  taxable  wealth  may  be 
fairly  high  in  proportion  to  the  road  mileage:  The  topography  of 
the  country  may  present  few  engineering  problems :  A  road  material 
may  be  easily  accessible  at  reasonable  prices.  In  other  road  dis- 
tricts upon  the  same  highway  the  conditions  may  be  adverse.  The 
available  amount  of  taxable  wealth  may  be  very  small  compared 
with  the  amount  of  road  mileage  to  be  improved.  The  topographi- 
cal conditions  may  present  very  serious  and  expensive  engineering 
problems.  The  road  material  may  be  difficult  to  obtain  within  a 
reasonable  distance  or  at  a  reasonable  price.  It  frequently  happens 
that  the  communities  which  need  good  roads  most  are  less  able  to 
secure  them  than  other  communities  that  need  them  less.  Such  a 
thing  as  a  continuous  good  road  built  by  purely  local  efforts  is  almost 
an  impossibility.  It  may  be  said,  why  do  we  need  a  continuous 
good  road.  Why  will  not  disjointed  fragments  of  roads  do  just  as 
well?  If  roads  are  looked  upon  solely  as  an  accessory  to  the  nearest 
railroad  station  a  few  fragments  of  disjointed  sections  of  roads  would 
do  just  as  well  as  continuous  good  roads,  but  if  roads  are  looked 
upon  as  a  means  of  opening  up  and  developing  the  country,  raising 
land  values  and  improving  the  social,  intellectual  and  religious  life 
of  the  rural  community,  then  it  is  necessary  that  the  roads  go  some- 
where and  be  connected  up  into  a  system  of  county,  State  and 
national  highways. 

Most  nations,  have  approached  the  road  problem  wholly  from  the 
point  of  military  necessity.  The  great  highways  of  antiquity  were 
military  roads  built  to  enable  the  power  entrenched  in  an  imperial 
capital  to  send  its  legions  speedily  against  distant  provinces  for  the 
purpose  of  either,  putting  down  insurrections  or  collecting  tribute. 
This  was  the  purpose  of  the  great  imperial  highways  of  the  Romans. 
In  modern  life,  however,  roads  are  not  built  for  pillage  and  con- 
quest but  for  civilization  and  trade. 

Every  great  nation  that  has  successfully  built  and  maintained  a 
system  of  highways  had  found  it  necessary  to  classify  its  highways 
according  to  the  demands  of  the  traffic.  It  will  be  impossible  for 
our  country  to  solve  the  road  problem  without  some  sane  classifica- 
tion founded  upon  common  sense.  One  of  the  great  defects  of  our 
system  has  been  to  place  all  rural  highways  in  the  same  class.  If 
one  road  happens  to  be  improved  better  than  another  it  was  due 
entirely  to  the  happy  accident  of  the  local  situation  or  local  enter- 
prise and  not  due  to  any  general  plan  for  better  means  of  communi- 
cation. Modern  scientific  study  shows  that  under  any  condition 


32  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

80  per  cent  of  the  traffic  will  go  over  15  per  cent  of  the  roads.  This 
is  true  even  in  the  most  primitive  conditions  and  where  the  roads 
have  no  improvements  whatever.  It  is  not  only  unnecessary  but 
it  is  extremely  wasteful  to  attempt  to  improve  the  entire  system  of 
highways  upon  the  same  basis.  It  is  equally  wasteful  to  attempt 
to  distribute  federal  money  among  the  highways  upon  the  acci- 
dental circumstances  of  the  way  in  which  they  happen  to  be  im- 
proved at  the  present  time.  My  county  in  Missouri  has  over  300 
miles  of  highly  improved  rock  roads  because  the  taxing  power  is 
ample  and  local  conditions  are  favorable.  More  than  100  counties 
in  Missouri  have  not  a  single  mile  of  rock  road  and  yet  the  public 
need  for  permanent  roads  in  those  counties  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  productive  energies  of  the  nation  is  just  as  great.  If  federal 
money  is  distributed  wholly  upon  the  basis  of  the  present  condition 
of  the  roads,  those  counties  that  happen  to  be  fortunate  in  having 
rock  roads  at  this  time  will  get  the  bulk  of  the  money  while  those 
that  are  unfortunate  and  have  not  been  able  to  secure  rock  roads 
will  get  very  little  if  any.  I  know  of  no  justification  of  this  system 
of  distribution  of  the  federal  money  except  the  Biblical  injunction, 
"Unto  him  that  hath  shall  be  given,  and  unto  him  that  hath  not 
shall  be  taken  away  even  what  he  has."  I  have  always  supposed 
however,  that  this  statement  in  the  Bible  applied  entirely  to  spiritual 
matters  and  was  not  a  rule  of  justice  as  to  public  taxation. 

It  will  be  necessary  in  my  judgment  to  classify  all  existing  high- 
ways into  at  least  three  classifications.  The  first  is  the  great  cross 
State  or  interstate  highways  reaching  into  every  county  in  the  State 
and  opening  up  every  section  to  the  benefits  of  the  improved  land 
values,  freer  social  intercourse  and  higher  intellectual  life.  The 
second  is  the  main  feeders  or  great  country  roads,  and  third,  the 
by-roads,  local  roads  or  lands.  These  various  classes  of  roads  should 
be  built,  improved  and  maintained  with  a  view  to  the  amount  of 
traffic  that  they  can  bear  and  must  bear.  The  first  class  should  be 
of  the  most  permanent  and  scientific  construction.  The  second  class 
could  be  of  a  less  expensive  nature  and  would  need  less  maintenance. 
The  third  class  could  be  improved  only  to  the  extent  that  the  com- 
munity required.  The  expense  of  building  and  maintaining  these 
roads  should  be  distributed  upon  the  same  basis.  The  roads  of  the 
first  class  should  be  supported  by  the  taxing  power  of  a  large  area 
of  country  including  at  least  the  entire  State,  because  the  wealth 
gathered  in  the  cities  ought  to  contribute  to  them.  The  second 
class  of  roads  should  also  have  a  wide  taxing  power  at  least  co- 
extensive with  the  county  and  possibly  with  a  group  of  counties 
or  with  some  State  aid.  This  would  leave  the  small  road  district 
or  local  community  only  the  burden  of  the  smaller  or  purely  local 
roads.  However  much  politicians  may  twist  and  turn  and  argue 
about  the  question  we  must  eventually  come  to  some  scientific  solu- 
tion of  the  problem.  I  realize  that  when  we  begin  to  talk  about 
real  road  improvement  political  difficulties  of  all  kinds  are  encoun- 


PROCEEDINGS  33 

tered.  It  is  easy  enough  to  shout  of  good  roads  and  to  convey  the 
adroit  impression  on  the  minds  of  every  hill  farmer  that  he  will 
have  the  road  pass  his  place;  but  when  we  get  down  to  practical 
business  we  will  find  that  only  a  very  limited  percentage  can  ever 
be  improved  to  a  high  condition  and  that  these  roads  must  be  the 
ones  which  will  serve  the  greatest  number  of  people.  It  is  very 
easy  to  defeat  the  whole  plan  by  appeals  to  the  prejudices  of  those 
voters  who  would  be  led  to  believe  that  they  will  get  no  direct 
benefit  from  the  roads.  It  is  possible  even  to  inflame  them  to 
high  indignation  against  the  people  whom  they  think  will  be  bene- 
fited. This  is  true  even  though  the  total  expense  for  a  system  of 
roads  will  not  be  a  cent  more  than  the  present  expense  for  a  bad 
system  of  roads.  What  the  people  will  demand  in  the  next  few 
years  in  this  country  is  good  roads  and  no  politics. 

It  is  a  fatal  mistake  to  mix  politics  with  the  good  road  question. 
In  the  legislation  enacted  by  Congress,  it  is  my  judgment  that  pro- 
vision should  be  made  for  a  practical  and  scientific  classification  of 
roads,  not  on  the  basis  of  the  present  accident  of  their  construction 
but  on  the  basis  of  their  need  for  future  development.  It  is  neces- 
sary also  that  provision  be  made  for  the  maintenance  of  roads  after 
they  are  built.  It  is  useless  and  expensive  to  build  good  roads 
unless  some  provision  is  made  to  maintain  them  and  roads  ought 
not  to  be  built  faster  than  they  can  be  properly  maintained.  It 
will  be  necessary  in  the  third  place  to  provide  for  a  system  of  State 
Highway  Commissions  which  shall  be  in  direct  touch  with  the  Office 
of  Good  Roads  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  of  the  U.  S.  Gov- 
ernment so  that  the  most  advanced,  scientific  and  economical  methods 
of  road  engineering,  construction  and  maintenance  may  be  at  the 
service  of  all  of  the  roads  of  the  country,  even  down  to  the  smallest 
by-road  or  lane. 

I  have  proposed  legislation  in  Congress  embodying  those  ideas 
and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  these  proposals  have  met  with  the 
approval  of  the  real  friends  of  good  roads  all  over  the  country.  I 
have  no  pride  of  opinion  as  to  the  details  of  the  plan  nor  have  I  any 
pride  of  authorship.  I  am  willing  that  the  cause  of  good  roads  should 
be  advanced  by  any  method  and  through  any  channel  that  will 
be  of  service,  but  in  my  judgment  it  is  time  for  the  politician  to 
quit  shouting  good  roads  and  get  down  to  some  practical  benefit 
for  the  people. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Four  years  ago  we  had  a  good  roads  congress 
at  St.  Louis  and  at  that  time  things  did  not  look  as  promising  as 
they  do  today  and  I  certainly  congratulate  this  country  on  the 
movement  brought  forward  in  such  a  short  time.  If  it  keeps  on  at 
the  same  rate,  we  certainly  will  have  good  roads  in  this  country. 
At  that  convention  there  were  a  lot  of  men  who  came  down  there  to 
get  information.  I  suppose  that  is  what  a  great  many  of  you  are  here 
for,  and  when  they  got  up  and  told  us  how  to  build  roads  that  cost 


34  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

$35,000  a  mile,  they  did  not,  some  of  them,  seem  very  much  inter- 
ested, they  said,  "We  have  about  $35,000  to  spend  in  the  State  to 
say  nothing  of  a  mile,  and  we  want  to  know  how  to  build  roads 
without  this  enormous  expenditure."  They  got  down  to  $6,000, 
but  that  did  not  interest  some  of  them  very  much.  There  was  a 
gentleman  present  at  that  meeting  who  had  charge  of  the  expendi- 
ture of  some  $50,000,000  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  was  doing 
some  great  work.  He  gave  us  this  theoiy  in  regard  to  road  main- 
tenance; I  can  remember  very  well  some  points  he  made  four  years 
ago  at  that  meeting.  A  road  commences  to  deteriorate  the  day 
it  is  opened,  and  from  that  day  they  must  commence  to  repair  it. 
No  road  should  be  open  to  the  public  until  they  are  ready  to  repair 
it;  that  was  his  theory.  In  the  light  of  later  events,  that  same  gentle- 
man wont  to  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  where  they  perhaps  had 
as  many  dollars  as  they  had  millions  to  expend  in  the  State  of  New 
York  and  in  a  conversation  I  had  with  the  then  Governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  I  said,  "You  have  got  one  of  the  greatest  road  makers 
in  the  country,  but  what  in  the  world  do  you  suppose  he  is  going 
to  do  up  in  your  State  without  any  money?"  "That  man  has 
been  handling  $50,000,000  and  it  was  only  a  question  how  fast  he 
could  spend  it  without  wasting  it,  and  now  he  is  coming  up  to  New 
Hampshire  and  the  Lord  only  knows  whether  they  are  going  to  give 
him  any  appropriation  next  year  or  not."  And  as  I  had  to  travel 
over  those  roads,  I  was  personally  interested  to  see  what  he  would 
do.  I  did  not  know  what  his  theory  was.  I  have  not  seen  him 
until  today  since  I  bade  him  goodbye  in  St.  Louis,  but  I  have  seen 
his  work,  and  the  first  thing  it  seemed  to  me  he  did  was  to  repair 
his  State  roads  which  were  already  in  existence  and  were  wearing 
out  or  worn  out  and  he  did  not  seem  at  all  in  a  hurry  in  building  any 
more  roads.  What  he  has  accomplished  with  a  small  amount  of 
money  at  his  command  in  New  Hampshire  is  something  wonderful, 
and  I  believe  that  information  from  him  as  to  how  he  can  build 
such  high  grade  roads  with  such  a  small  amount  of  money  would  be 
more  interesting  than  how  you  can  build  a  brick  or  concrete  boule- 
vard at  $35,000  a  mile.  I  refer  to  Mr.  S.  Percy  Hooker,  State 
Superintendent  of  Highways  of  New  Hampshire,  and  I  take  very- 
great  pleasure  in  introducing  him. 

MR.  HOOKER:  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  could 
not  ask  a  greater  compliment  than  to  be  credited  with  the  ability 
to  build  something  out  of  nothing.  I  have  not  been  able,  however, 
to  get  quite  that  far.  There  was  one  point  the  Congressman  made 
when  he  said  he  did  not  believe  there  was  any  man  who  understood 
the  road  situation  at  all  that  thought  there  was  any  possibility  of 
maintaining  a  road  without  building  it  properly.  Well,  he  picked 
the  one  man  then,  because  I  do,  to  a  large  extent,  I  think  we  are 
going  too  fast.  When  I  go  over  the  entire  United  States  and  see 
what's  got  to  be  done  to  make  passable  roads,  to  make  roads  that 


PROCEEDINGS  35 

you  can  go  over,  I  do  not  believe  that  we  are  following  the  right  line 
in  endeavoring  to  build  all  that  mileage  as  we  now  talk  of  construct- 
ing roads.  I  don't  think  it  is  possible.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  it  is 
possible.  I  went  in  to  New  Hampshire  with  a  small  contribution 
and  a  large  road  mileage.  New  Hampshire  is  largely  a  tourist  State, 
a  State  where  it  was  necessary  not  to  have  short  roads  from  the 
farm  to  the  station,  but  to  have  roads  so  that  you  could  travel 
from  the  Massachusetts  line  to  the  Canadian  line  and  from  Ver- 
mont across  to  Maine,  and  we  had  hardly  any  money.  With  that 
in  my  mind  I  turned  around,  turned  a  complete  somersault.  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  it  was  not  possible  for  us  to  talk  about 
concrete  or  brick  roads  and  get  anywhere,  that  our  situation  was 
not  as  much  an  engineer's  proposition  as  it  was  a  common  sense 
proposition,  of  getting  the  worth  of  our  money  and  maintaining 
the  roads  that  we  should  put  in  condition.  Well,  of  course,  there 
is  one  thing  we  had  to  start  with;  you  have  got  to  start  with  the 
drainage  of  the  State  road.  It  does  not  make  any  difference  if  I 
am  going  to  put  on  a  brick  surface  at  a  cost  of  $22,000  a  mile  or 
take  the  natural  sand  clay  where  the  surface  only  comes  to  $1500 
a  mile.  I  build  the  road  in  its  foundation,  in  its  drainage  exactly 
the  same,  because  that  is  where  my  road  is  going  to  pieces.  With 
that  value,  that  thought  in  mind,  we  constructed,  the  last  three  years, 
the  roads  in  the  State  of  New  Hampshire.  We  find  that  they  are 
pretty  generally  satisfactory  to  the  people  that  go  over  them.  They 
say,  "You  have  good  roads."  My  average  cost  is  only  about  a 
quarter  of  what  it  is  in  the  other  States,  and  as  I  say,  my  drainage 
is  just  as  good.  My  theory  is  that  if  you  will  attend  to  the  drain- 
age, if  you  will  attend  to  your  grades  on  your  roads,  it  don't  make 
such  an  awful  lot  of  difference  what  you  put  on  for  your  surfacing. 
I  don't  see  many  material  men  here;  they  are  all  in  the  other  part, 
they  will  all  deny  this  proposition  and  say  how  foolish  it  is,  but  when 
we  can  build  a  road  at  a  cost  of  $150  to  $200  a  mile,  we  keep  that  road 
through  the  entire  season  so  it  is  good  enough  to  drive  over,  so 
nobody  kicks  about  the  condition  of  your  road,  so  it  will  never  mire 
a  team  or  stop  an  automobile.  I  think  we  have  a  different  idea  from 
the  ordinary  idea,  and  an  idea  that  a  good  many  of  you  fellows  have 
to  follow  out.  Now  this  Road  Congress  I  assume  is  not  for  this 
purpose.  I  don't  know  why  I  was  asked  to  talk  today.  I  have 
a  technical  paper  on  surfacing  roads,  but  I  was  just  asked  to  get 
up  here  and  fill  the  gap  because  somebody  had  gone  and  they  knew 
I  was  a  crank  and  an  enthusiast  and  would  be  glad  to  tell  you  what 
I  think  about  the  way  you  have  to  build  roads.  Before  you  can 
run  you  have  to  walk,  and  when  I  come  down  from  Washington 
over  the  railroad  and  see  the  road  you  now  have  through  this  entire 
section  of  the  country,  I  don't  believe  you  want  brick  roads  or  con- 
crete roads  as  much  tas  you  want  more  intelligent  work  in  taking 
care  of  the  drainage  and  building  up  the  preliminary  of  your  present 
roads.  We  are  liable  to  go  too  far.  They  come  down  out  of  their 


36  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

pockets  in  good  shape  now,  in  my  State,  but  I  have  only  half  a 
million  to  spend  in  half  a  year;  I  have  between  1100  and  1200  miles 
of  road  to  keep  in  condition  so  you  can  drive  over  it  at  any  period 
of  the  year  without  any  inconvenience  or  trouble,  and  people  pat 
me  on  the  back  and  say,  "How  well  you  are  doing."  I  can  take 
that  money  and  build  20  miles  of  brick  road,  but  how  far  would 
that  go?  You  have  got  to  divide  it  equitably.  It  is  well  enough 
to  say,  as  the  Congressman  did,  we  will  take  them  in  order,  but  you 
are  not  going  to  do  it  as  long  as  the  people  in  Washington  are  pay- 
ing for  it.  You  have  got  to  divide  those  roads  up  and  the  money 
will  be  spread  out  so  thin  with  that  class  of  roads  that  a  lot  of  you 
won't  see  it,  it  won't  get  to  your  county.  Now,  talking  not  as  a 
road  commissioner  but  as  a  Yankee,  I  believe  we  have  got  to  spread 
that  money  so  that  the  fellows  living  in  the  country  will  see  some- 
thing you  are  doing  and  be  willing  to  stand  back  of  you.  Perhaps 
you  can  point  out  a  road  and  say,  "That  is  not  as  good  as  a  con- 
crete or  brick  road,  but  you  can  go  clear  across  the  county  on  it." 
When  a  man  is  starting  across  the  county,  if  he  can  go  through  that 
county  on  a  road  that  you  can  guarantee  to  him  is  properly  drained, 
it  is  pretty  good  to  drive  over  and  he  can  go  clear  across  the  county 
on  it,  he  will  like  it  a  good  deal  better  than  to  go  one-eighth  of  a 
mile  in  this  direction  at  $25,000  a  mile,  and  you  won't  get  many 
advocates  of  the  building  of  that  sort  of  a  road  until  you  have  edu- 
cated them  up  to  it.  My  theory  is  that  my  road  shall  be  just  as 
good  so  that  the  State  or  county  or  locality  can  at  any  time  put 
on  that  the  surfacing  they  are  able  to  pay  for.  You  will  have  the 
essentials  and  from  that  you  will  educate  whatever  locality  it  is, 
much  easier  to  the  proposition  of  putting  on  that  other  surfacing. 
You  will  all  of  you  get  proud  and  chesty  some  day  and  say,  "They 
have  got  it  over  in  that  other  county  and  we  will  put  on  the  best 
surfacing."  You  will  be  a  great  deal  more  apt  to  do  it  if  you  will 
get  a  pretty  good  road  there  than  if  you  started  very  many  of  the 
roads  I  have  seen  coming  down  in  the  country.  A  man  way  up 
in  New  Hampshire  has  no  business  to  come  down  in  Georgia  and  tell 
you  what  you  can  do  here.  A  road  proposition  is  just  as  much  a  spe- 
cial feature  as  a  man's  suit  of  clothes  is,  you  have  got  to  cut  the  road 
to  fit  the  case,  but  I  am  pleading  for  us  meek  and  lowly  ones  that 
cannot  go  in  for  the  best  work  and  can't  build  the  expensive  roads, 
and  yet  I  want  you  to  feel  that  you  have  a  future  if  you  will  start, 
if  you  will  take  the  essentials  of  this  road  and  build  it  up,  show 
that  you  have  started  and  people  will  back  it  up  to  a  far  greater 
extent  than  you  dream  of  now.  I  don't  know  why  I  am  here  today, 
I  have  another  paper  to  take  up  and  had  no  idea  of  speaking  in  any 
way  except  to  plead  for  the  meek  and  the  lowly — there's  a  lot  of  us 
in  the  country.  Then  the  Congressman  was  talking  about  his 
Ford  car;  I  go  about  40,000  miles  a  year  in  a  Ford  car.  They  told 
me  I  would  have  Bright's  disease  if  I  rode  in  that  car,  but  I  have 
done  pretty  well  so  far  and  don't  see  that  I  have  gotten  more  humps 


PROCEEDINGS  37 

in  my  back  than  I  would  have  if  1  had  ridden  in  a  Fierce-Arrow 
or  a  Packard.  There  are  lots  of  us;  there  are  some  plutocrats  but 
they  are  the  favored  ones  and  the  rest  of  us  have  got  to  go  as  we 
can  and  I  contend  it  is  much  easier  for  me  to  go  around  in  a  Ford  car 
than  on  my  feet;  I  am  sure  I  would  have  corns  if  I  had  tried  to  cover 
30,000  or  40,000  miles  on  my  feet;  and  I  think  in  most  instances  you 
will  find  people  generally,  when  you  begin  the  road  movement, 
if  I  say  I  guess  it  will  cost  us  $12,000  or  $15,000  a  mile  you  will  find 
lots  of  people  that  will  have  cold  feet,  but  if  I  show  them  a  road  that 
they  can  get  over,  show  them  a  road  on  which  a  man  can  carry  as 
big  a  bale  of  cotton  or  as  many  bushels  of  wheat  as  on  the  other  road 
and  tell  them  it  is  not  going  to  cost  you  any  more  a  year  to  do  it, 
you  will  interest  them  quicker  and  I  believe  that  in  a  way  we  are 
on  the  wrong  end  of  the  game,  we  ought  to  take  the  fellow  where 
you  have  not  any  roads  and  show  him  the  best  you  can  do  for  a  small 
sum  of  money  rather  than  show  him  the  best  you  can  do  for  a  big 
sum  of  money.  I  have  just  seen  a  distinguished  advocate  of  brick 
roads  here  and  I  wish  he  had  been  in  here  a  minute  earlier  so  I  could 
show  him  how  it  figured  out.  It  would  cost  $700  or  $800  a  mile 
interest  charges.  I  think  I  happened  to  be  one  of  the  first  highway 
commissioners  that  put  in  a  brick  road  as  a  highway  proposition, 
but  I  don't  see  how  that  is  going  to  help  a  man  out  in  Oklahoma  at 
present.  I  think  you  have  got  to  tell  him,  "Improve  your  road 
to  the  best  of  your  ability  with  the  money  you  have  and  you  will 
find  a  gain  in  that  whether  you  have  the  best  road  or  not."  I  thank 
you  gentlemen. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  I  have  heard  from  the  North  and 
a  section  of  the  country  where  the  State  finds  it  necessary  to  build 
roads  at  a  low  price.  The  crying  need  of  this  country  today  is 
how  to  build  roads  at  a  low  price.  The  next  gentleman  I  will  call 
upon  is  from  the  South.  He  has  made  this  road  problem  a  study. 
I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  Dr.  Joseph  Hyde  Pratt, 
State  Geologist  of  North  Carolina. 

DR.  PRATT:  This  afternoon  I  feel  a  little  bit  like  the  man  who 
goes  to  a  banquet  and  just  as  he  is  sitting  down  at  the  table  the 
toastmaster  whispers  to  him,  "I  am  going  to  call  on  you  later  for  a 
toast."  When  I  have  been  in  that  predicament  it  has  very  often 
nearly  ruined  my  appetite  for  the  good  things  on  the  table.  I  am 
in  somewhat  the  same  position  this  afternoon.  When  I  came  onto 
the  platform,  Mr.  Diehl  stated  that  I  would  be  called  upon  this 
afternoon  to  take  part  in  the  discussion  of  this  question  of  national 
aid,  and  I  have  had  to  busy  myself  while  these  others  were  talking 
to  make  up  my  mind  what  I  was  going  to  say,  instead  of  enjoying 
to  the  fullest  extent  the  splendid  things  said  thus  far  in  regard  to 
national  aid  and  the  general  question  of  road  work.  I  was  extremely 
interested  in  what  Mr.  Hooker  said,  although  it  did  not  deal  di- 


38  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

rectly  with  the  question  of  Federal  aid,  yet  it  does  have  a  close  bear- 
ing upon  my  idea  of  Federal  or  national  aid.  I  am  very  much 
in  favor  of  national  aid,  and  I  do  not  believe  there  are  very  many 
men  in  Congress  or  out  of  Congress  that  are  not  in  favor  of  some  form 
of  Federal  aid  in  the  construction  of  roads  throughout  this  country. 
I  have  forgotten  how  many  bills  have  been  introduced  into  Con- 
gress in  regard  to  this  question  of  Federal  aid.  Thus  far  none  of 
them  have  been  successful  in  passing  both  branches  of  Congress. 
Some  of  them  have  passed  one  branch  and  been  tabled  or  defeated 
in  the  other,  and  vice  versa.  It  does  indicate  that  the  question  of 
Federal  aid  is  gaining  strength  day  by  day,  and  to  my  mind  it  is 
simply  a  question  of  a  short  time  when  some  Federal  aid  bill  will 
be  passed  by  Congress.  Now  I  suppose  in  the  discussion  it  is  ex- 
pected that  the  speaker  will  give  to  a  certain  extent  his  ideas  as 
to  what  he  believes  is  a  practical  form  of  Federal  or  national  aid. 
I  wish  first  to  discuss  a  few  ideas  that  Mr.  Hooker  brought  out 
that  especially  appealed  to  me.  First,  that  the  surfacing  material 
of  a  road  shall  be  dependent  upon  the  traffic  that  goes  over  that 
road.  Now  you  may  need  in  New  York  State,  in  certain  sections 
and  similarly  in  Ohio  and  other  States,  a  concrete  or  vitrified  brick 
road  that  costs  anywhere  from  $12,000  to  $15,000  or  even  $18,000 
per  mile,  but  do  we  need  it  in  my  State  (North  Carolina)  where 
the  traffic  is  probably  one-tenth  or  one-twentieth  of  what  it  is  in 
those  States  I  have  mentioned  where  they  do  need  an  extremely 
hard  surfaced  road? 

Would  it  not  be  much  better  to  put  in  a  surface  that  is  satis- 
factory to  the  traffic  that  is  now  going  over  the  road  and  what 
may  be  expected  in  the  next  five  years,  so  that  instead  of  the  road 
costing  $12,000  to  $18,000  a  mile,  it  can  be  put  in  at  a  cost  of  $1500 
to  $2500  a  mile,  and  yet  give  perfect  satisfaction  as  regards  the 
traffic  that  goes  over  it,  provided  that  the  original  road  bed  has 
been  so  located  and  drained,  that  there  will  never  be  any  question 
after  the  highway  has  been  built  of  re-locating  it?  They  put  on 
any  surfacing  material  you  may  wish,  if  your  traffic  is  such  that 
you  can  put  a  sand-clay  or  gravel  surface  or  a  top  soil  surface  on 
at  a  cost  running  anywhere  in  the  various  counties  of  North  Caro- 
lina from  $500  to  $2500  a  mile  and  satisfy  the  traffic,  is  not  that 
the  best  surface  to  use?  There  is  no  pavement  you  can  put  down 
today,  I  don't  care  what  it  is,  that  doesn't  have  to  be  maintained. 
It  is  necessary,  right  from  the  minute  the  pavement  is  built  or  the 
surfacing  material  put  down,  to  provide  a  maintenance  fund  with 
which  to  constantly  repair  the  surface  of  the  road.  For  years  with 
us  the  sand  clay,  gravel  or  top  soil  surface  is  going  to  be  perfectly 
satisfactory  as  regards  the  traffic  that  goes  over  the  road.  As 
the  traffic  increases  it  means  one  thing — that  the  county  is  be- 
coming more  thickly  populated,  has  greater  wealth,  and  that  the 
road  revenue  or  the  amount  that  will  be  raised  by  taxes  for  road 
purposes  is  constantly  increasing.  As  the  traffic  increases  and 


PROCEEDINGS  39 

finally  becomes  so  great  that  the  present  surfacing  material  is  not 
satisfactory,  then  you  are  financially  ready  and  able  to  put  in  a 
harder  surfacing  material;  you  have  not  lost  anything;  and  yet  you 
have  had  the  use  of  the  cheaper  surfacing  material  over  a  large 
mileage  for  a  series  of  years.  We  have  a  splendid  foundation  for 
any  kind  of  surfacing  material,  the  grading  and  draining  is  all  fin- 
ished, and  we  simply  come  back  and  put  down  the  surface  the  traffic 
demands.  If  it  is  virtified  brick,  you  have  one  of  the  very  best 
foundations  on  which  to  put  your  vitrified  brick  pavement,  and 
it  is  the  same  way  if  we  decide  to  put  in  some  form  of  bituminous 
macadam. 

We  come  now  to  the  question  of  national  aid.  I  believe  in 
national  aid;  I  believe  it  is  a  function  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  assist  us  in  developing  our  counties  and  States.  I  believe 
that  public  roads  are  public  necessities  and  that  it  is  as  much 
the  function  of  the  Federal  Government  to  assist  us  as  it  is  for 
the  States  to  assist  the  counties  and  townships.  I  do  not  believe 
it  is  feasible  in  framing  such  a  bill  to  say  that  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment shall  build  the  same  type  of  road  in  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  that  it  shall  build  a  vitrified  brick  or  cement  road  and  that 
such  roads  shall  be  built  in  every  State.  North  Carolina  had 
much  rather,  if  there  is  going  to  be  a  certain  amount  of  money 
appropriated  with  which  to  build  roads  in  North  Carolina,  that 
they  locate  the  road,  properly  grade  it  and  drain  it  and  then  surface 
it  with  such  materials  as  will  be  satisfactory  to  the  traffic  that  is 
going  over  that  road  in  North  Carolina.  A  road  does  not  need  the 
same  surfacing  in  North  Carolina  as  in  New  York  State  where  you 
have  1000,  1500  or  perhaps  2000  automobiles  over  each  mile  of  road 
per  day,  where  in  North  Carolina  we  have  100  to  200  automobiles 
going  over  each  mile  of  road  per  day.  We  get  more  mileage  and 
get  just  as  satisfactory  a  road.  I  don't  believe,  in  connection 
with  Federal  appropriations  for  road  work,  that  they  should  be  used 
in  any  way  in  the  question  of  maintenance  of  roads  built  by  the 
State.  I  believe  they  should  be  used  in  building  the  main  high- 
ways, and  I  further  believe  that  the  Federal  Government  should 
build  these  roads  and  that  the  States  should  have  nothing  to  do 
in  regard  to  their  construction;  but  if  the  government  builds  so 
many  miles  of  road  in  a  State,  it  should  be  obligatory  on  the  State 
to  build  a  certain  number  of  State  roads,  or  roads  leading  into 
the  highway  that  the  government  itself  shall  build;  on  the  same 
plan  that  if  you  build  a  State  road  in  most  States,  it  is  obligatory 
on  the  counties  that  they  build  so  many  miles  of  county  roads 
leading  in  to  the  main  State  roads.  Now  the  question  has  been 
raised  that  in  any  Federal  appropriation  for  road  construction, 
it  would  always  be  apportioned  or  tried  to  be  apportioned  the 
same  as  other  appropriations  so  that  each  Congressman  would 
be  able  to  get  a  little  for  his  Congressional  District.  If  you  could 
see  road  money  spent,  Federal,  State,  or  county,  in  the  way  I  think 


40  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

it  ought  to  be  spent,  it  would  create  and  build  up  a  citizenship 
of  the  most  unselfish  people,  because  I  believe  that  money  for  road 
work  should  be  spent  in  such  a  way  as  to  insure  the  road  being  built 
and  located  where  it  will  serve  the  best  interests  of  the  county, 
State  or  nation  according  as  it  is  a  county,  State  or  national  highway. 
I  want  to  illustrate  that.  I  have  been  advocating  in  North  Carolina 
State  aid.  As  yet  we  have  not  got  what  we  want;  but  we  have  got 
certain  State  convicts  at  work  on  the  roads.  The  first  road  the 
State  agreed  to  build  was  across  a  portion  of  Henderson  County  in 
Western  North  Carolina.  The  extreme  northeastern  portion  of  this 
county  is  a  jog  between  two  other  counties,  Buncombe  and  Ruther- 
ford, which  wished  to  be  connected  by  a  good  road.  As  far  as  Hen- 
derson County  was  concerned,  the  building  of  this  road  across  the 
jog  of  the  county  would  be  of  little  or  no  actual  value  to  the  county 
itself.  The  township  containing  this  part  of  the  county  could  not 
afford  to  build  the  road.  There  was  seven  miles  across  Henderson 
County  that  was  needed  to  be  built  to  complete  a  State  road  from 
Charlotte  to  Asheville.  I  advocated  the  State's  building  this 
seven-mile  link,  arguing  that  the  county  could  not  afford  to  build 
it;  that  it  was  a  road  that  the  State  needs  and  that  the  State  can't 
build  a  mile  of  road  anywhere  in  North  Carolina  on  a  through 
highway  that  is  not  a  great  benefit  to  the  State  as  a  whole.  You 
cannot  build  a  road  anywhere  in  the  United  States  that  is  not  of 
some  benefit  to  the  United  States  as  a  whole.  The  public  roads  be- 
long to  the  people  of  a  State.  They  belong  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States;  every  single  man,  woman  and  child  has  a  right  to  go 
on  any  mile  of  public  road  that  may  exist  in  this  country,  and  if  we 
can  ever  make  up  our  minds  that  we  will  be  willing  to  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  Commission,  that  the  Federal  Government  undoubtedly 
will  appoint,  and  let  them  decide  where  the  Federal  money  shall 
be  spent,  I,  for  one,  will  be  perfectly  satisfied  that  in  the  end  North 
Carolina  will  get  her  part  of  whatever  Federal  appropriation  may 
be  made;  she  may  not  get  it  this  year  or  next  year,  but  you  will 
in  the  end  see  North  Carolina  getting  her  proportional  part  of  any 
Federal  appropriation  that  may  be  made  for  Federal  roads.  In 
Orange  County  we  carried  a  bond  issue  of  $250,000  against  great 
opposition,  the  Road  Commission  was  appointed  and  the  question  of 
location  of  the  roads  was  left  to  this  Commission.  A  man  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  county  did  his  best  to  defeat  the  bond  issue. 
It  happened  that  one  of  the  new  roads  was  built  right  by  his  farm 
and  he  now  says:  "If  there  is  any  talk  of  an  additional  bond  issue 
or  the  county  wants  to  raise  any  more  money  to  build  roads  in 
Orange  County,  I  will  go  out  and  work  my  best  to  carry  that  bond 
issue;  a  road  has  gone  by  my  house  and  I  realize  what  good  roads 
mean  and  want  to  see  the  rest  of  the  people  get  the  benefit  of  them." 
If  we  put  the  question  of  where  the  money  shall  be  spent  into  the 
hands  of  a  competent  Commission,  I  believe  we  can  leave  it  to  them 
and  in  the  end  get  the  best  results  and  we  won't  have  a  little  piece  of 


PROCEEDINGS  41 

good  road  here  and  another  piece  there  and  another  there  and  perhaps 
none  of  any  particular  importance  as  interstate  or  intercounty  roads, 
and  all  brought  about  because  some  Congressman  wanted  to  bring 
so  much  money  into  his  district.  I  do  not  believe  in  Federal  appro- 
priations for  maintenance  of  post  roads  or  appropriating  so  much 
for  each  mile  of  macadam  or  sand  clay  or  dirt  road.  I  believe  in 
spending  Federal  money  in  the  construction  of  roads.  In  State  or 
county  bond  issues,  I  believe  that  just  as  much  of  that  money  should 
be  spentiin  connection  with  the  grading  and  draining  of  the  roads  and 
just  as  small  a  percentage  as  possible  in  the  surfacing  of  those  roads. 
The  grading  or  location  is  what  you  might  call  the  permanent  part 
of  the  road,  and  I  want  to  see  the  Federal  money  spent  on  a  perma- 
nent road,  not  on  patch  work  to  repair  a  mudhole  here  or  cut  down  a 
grade  there,  but  I  want  to  see  permanent,  main  highways  located  and 
built  through  this  country.  Thank  you. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  introduce  to  you 
a  gentleman  who,  for  over  20  years,  made  an  interesting  study  of 
this  good  roads  movement,  Mr.  Clarence  Kenyon,  President  of  the 
Indiana  Good  Roads  Association. 

MR.  KENYON:  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  I  think  that  you 
are  all  interested  in  this  question  of  national  aid.  1  congratulate 
you  on  having  listened  to  not  only  an  eloquent  but  a  convincing 
argument  in  favor  of  national  aid  by  Mr.  Borland  of  Missouri  here. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  that  argument  would  convince  anyone  of  the 
necessity  and  the  usefulness  of  Federal  aid  in  the  construction  of 
main,  interstate  highways.  I  want  to  talk  a  few  minutes  about  the 
practical  side  of  this  proposition.  Just  to  sit  here  and  listen,  and 
generally  think  about  good  roads  don't  produce  results.  What 
has  been  done?  What  is  going  to  be  done,  and  what  are  you  going 
to  do  to  help  the  cause?  It's  the  important  thing.  Just  to  listen 
to  an  argument,  or  read  a  story  in  a  paper,  may  give  you  a  nice 
mental  reaction,  as  President  Wilson  says,  but  it  don't  cause  you  to 
do  anything,  it  does  not  make  such  a  conviction  in  your  mind  that 
you  get  out  and  hustle  for  it.  I  had  a  queer  experience  a  short 
time  ago.  I  was  going  by  auto  from  Chicago  to  Indianapolis,  where 
I  live.  A  highway  superintendent  stopped  me  and  said,  "I  want 
you  to  be  sure,  in  going  down,  to  note  a  certain  bit  of  road."  So 
when  I  came  to  that  place  I  was  looking  at  the  road  which  was  pretty 
well  furrowed,  when,  I  saw  a  farmer,  that  classed  himself  as  a  hay- 
seed, and  thought  he  was  pretty  smart,  as  I  found  out  afterwards, 
call  his  boy.  I  was  going  very  slow  and  stopped.  The  little  fellow 
ran  out  behind  the  automobile  to  catch  the  number  and  where  it 
was  from.  Well  I  saw  this  operation,  although  I  was  part  of  the 
time  looking  at  the  road.  I  went  in  to  see  him  and  said,  "  Why  did 
you  send  that  boy  out  to  catch  the  number  on  my  machine?  Have 
I  been  violating  the  law?"  He  said,  "No;  come  in.  How  would 


42  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

you  folks  like  to  have  a  glass  of  milk?  Johnnie,  go  and  get  a  pitcher 
of  milk  and  take  it  out  and  give  the  ladies  a  glass  of  milk.  I  will 
tell  you  why  that  was.  Look  at  that  road.  I  was  taxed,  and  am 
being  taxed  for  10  years  to  come  for  building  that  road  and  it  has 
been  down  only  a  little  over  two  years,  and  look  at  it."  "Well," 
I  said,  "what  about  it?"  "Well,"  he  said,  "it  is  nearly  worn 
out  already."  I  says  "Well,  how  can  I  help  it?"  He  said,  "I  have 
been  sitting  here  on  my  porch  day  after  day  counting  and  looking 
at  the  vehicles  that  go  by,"  and  he  brought  out  a  little  pad  of  paper 
where  he  had  been  keeping  tab  on  traffic  on  that  road.  He  says, 
"Here  was  yesterday,  there  were  105  automobiles  passed,  and  not 
one  single  one  of  that  105  had  an  Indiana  mark  on  it;  they  were 
all  Illinois,  Ohio,  New  York,  or  some  other  State."  And  he  said, 
"I  sent  my  boy  out  today,  because  I  could  not  catch  what  was 
on  your  car,  to  see  where  you  are  from  and  where  you  live."  I  said, 
"Mine  is  Indiana  and  I  live  in  Indianapolis."  "But  you  don't 
live  in  my  township  and  my  county,  you  don't  pay  any  part  of  the 
cost,  and  yet  you  are  wearing  out  the  road  and  tearing  it  up.  I 
want  to  know  about  it."  I  said,  "What  is  your  theory?"  "Well," 
he  said,  "I  don't  know  of  any  way  of  taxing  the  people  over  in 
Illinois  and  New  York,  that  go  through  here  to  Chicago,  Cleve- 
land, South  Bend,  and  other  places,  in  troops  unless  we  have  the 
Federal  Government  pay  part  of  the  cost  of  building  these  roads 
that  they  are  wearing  out."  I  said,  "I  agree  with  you  that  far." 
And  he  said,  "I  don't  see  any  reason  why  you  people  down  in  In- 
dianapolis should  not  help  pay,  if  you  come  up  here  and  use  this 
road,  too.  We  are  willing  to  pay  our  share  of  the  cost,  but  you  are 
asking  us  now,  under  the  State  law,  to  pay  the  whole  cost,  and 
spread  it  over  ten  years,  and  this  road  has  only  been  down  two  years 
and  is  nearly  worn  out  now."  I  said,  "That  is  a  splendid  argument 
for  Federal  and  State  aid,  and  I  agree  with  you  about  it,  but  what 
have  you  done  outside  of  keeping  a  tab  on  the  traffic  and  cussing 
me,  and  the  other  fellows,  and  things  generally,  because  your  road 
is  being  worn  out?  Have  you  said  anything  to  your  Congressman 
about  it?  Have  you  gone  to  him  before  election  and  said,  'I  want 
to  know  what  your  position  on  this  national  aid  question  is?' ' 
"Well,  no  I  had  not  thought  of  that."  I  said,  "that's  the  reason 
why  Federal  aid  is  not  any  further  along  than  it  is,  because  you  are 
talking  about  it,  and  swearing  about  it  around  at  the  corner  grocery, 
or  here  on  your  own  porch  or  out  at  road  conventions,  where  you  get 
with  a  few  road  enthusiasts  that  agree  about  it,  and  you  don't  go  after 
the  fellow  that  has  the  say  so  about  it."  He  said,  "Right  you  are; 
the  first  time  I  see  my  Congressman  I  will  say  a  few  things  to  him, 
by  gum."  That's  what  is  the  matter  with  us.  We  get  a  sort  of 
academic  interest  in  this  thing,  but  we  have  such  a  lot  of  interests 
of  our  own  that  we  won't  consecrate  a  little  bit  of  time  to  push  the 
cause  in  a  place  where  it  is  effective,  because  it  is  some  trouble,  and 
we  can't  get  away  from  our  business,  and  it  is  a  little  out  of  the 


PROCEEDINGS  43 

way,  and  we  don't  like  to  write  letters,  etc.  The  Congressman 
might  throw  them  in  the  waste  basket,  and  so  forth  and  so  on. 
We  are  not  going  to  get  results  until  the  people  get  an  understand- 
ing of  the  question  and  think  it  so  strongly,  that  they  will  go  after 
the  man  who  has  got  the  say  so  about  it.  This  farmer  said  to  me — 
"What  made  you  in  favor  of  the  government  helping  to  pay  for  roads?" 
"Well,"  I  said,  "the  government  builds  the  Panama  Canal  costing 
$400,000,000,  many  thousands  of  miles  away  from  here  and  pays 
for  it  out  of  public  funds.  It  is  just  a  transportation  system,  and 
Uncle  Sam  goes  down  to  Porto  Rico  and  builds  miles  and  miles 
of  roads,  and  pays  for  them  out  of  the  general  treasury  and  we  don't 
kick  at  all,  we  don't  shake  our  fists  at  the  Congressman  about  that. 
Then  he  goes  up  to  Alaska  and  builds  not  only  miles  and  miles  of 
highways,  but  in  this  last  Congress,  this  Democratic  Congress, 
led  by  the  Democratic  President — they  have  appropriated  $35,- 
000,000  for  building  a  railroad,  up  there,  a  long  way  from  us,  and  who 
is  paying  for  it?  We  are.  You  are.  You  don't  kick  about  it. 
Congress  goes  on  and  does  it,  and  yet,  the  same  amount  of  money 
that  went  to  build  the  Panama  Canal,  invested  in  roads  in  this 
country,  would  be  of  more  material  benefit  to  the  home  people  of 
this  country  than  three  Panama  Canals.  Yet  you  don't  say  a 
word  about  it.  Again  we  go  over  to  the  Philippines  and  say,  "Do 
you  needs  roads  over  here?"  "Yes."  "Here  is  the  money,  we 
will  pay  for  them."  We  go  out  to  Hawaii;  oh,  yes  the  Federal 
Government  will  pay  for  the  roads,  but  if  they  need  roads  in  Georgia 
and  Indiana  and  Ohio  and  Missouri,  oh,  no,  let  the  people  build 
their  own  roads.  There  is  your  proposition,  and  yet  you  don't 
put  it  right  in  your  fist,  and  go  and  shake  it  under  the  nose  of  your 
Congressman  and  say,  "I  want  you  to  understand  if  you  are  not 
in  favor  of  a  little  Federal  aid  for  our  highways,  I  am  not  in  favor 
of  you."  When  the  voters  get  to  doing  that,  Congress  will  do  some- 
thing, and  then  you  will  get  somewhere  and  not  till  then.  Now, 
just  a  word  more;  Congress  has  heard,  and  is  trying  to  do  some- 
thing, but  politics  must  be  in  it.  Along  comes  one  man  and  intro- 
duces a  bill  in  Congress  for  a  $25,000,000  appropriation  and  he 
says,  "Here,  for  every  mile  of  post  road  in  your  county,  that  is  an 
earth  road  over  which  the  mail  is  carried,  we  will  pay  $10  a  mile, 
and  pay  it  to  the  county  or  to  the  township — just  hand  it  out  to 
you,  and  we  will  not  ask  any  questions  about  how  it  is  spent,  we 
will  just  hand  it  out.  If  it  is  a  gravel  road,  we  will  give  you  $15 
a  mile,  and  if  it  is  a  macadam  road,  $20  or  $25  a  mile  and  this  money 
will  go  into  every  Congressional  District,  every  place  will  get  part 
of  it.  See  what  we  are  doing  for  the  people.  We  are  not  going  to 
ask  you  how  it  is  spent,  but  you  will  get  it."  Now  that  was  one  plan, 
and  the  House  passed  that  bill  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  The 
money  was  to  be  spent  under  no  supervision,  in  no  particular  place, 
but  just  everywhere.  Well,  when  people  commenced  to  think 
about  it  a  little  bit  they  said,  "That's  just  a  pork  barrel  measure; 


44  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

when  you  spread  $25,000,000  over  1,200,000  miles  of  road,  what  is 
it  going  to  do?  Why,  it  is  such  a  small  amount  that  it  will  do  no 
good,  and  by  the  time  you  give  it  into  the  hands  of  150,000  officials 
to  expend,  what  would  become  of  it  and  who  is  going  to  make  a  re- 
port about  it?"  And  so  a  lot  of  pretty  sensible  men,  as  it  seemed 
to  me,  opposed  the  bill,  and  when  it  got  over  to  the  Senate,  they 
had  heard  from  the  country,  and  said  no!  Now,  that  is  one  plan; 
bear  that  in  mind.  The  Chairman  of  the  House  Committee  on 
Roads  is  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  that  is  the  way  to  do  it,  that 
that  is  going  to  solve  the  problem.  Come  to  the  next  plan.  "If 
the  government  expends  say  $25,000,000  and  it  is  apportioned  on 
some  fair  basis  among  the  States,  why  the  States  must  expend  an 
equal  amount,  and  the  States  can  raise  the  money  as  they  choose, 
by  bond  issue  or  otherwise,  and  that  fund  will  be  spent  under  the 
direction  of  a  State  Highway  Department."  Well,  here's  a  lot  of 
States  that  have  no  Highway  Department,  and  they  would  not  get 
any  of  the  fund;  again  there  are  19  States  that  have  no  power,  under 
their  constitution,  to  issue  bonds  for  that  purpose  and  they  would 
not  participate  in  it.  Well,  I  don't  know,  that's  a  pretty  tough 
proposition,  where  are  we  at  on  it?  So  there  was  another  difficulty, 
that  was  urged  as  a  reason  why  nothing  should  be  done,  instead  of 
putting  it  up  to  them,  and  saying  "then  for  God's  sake  to  find  a 
way  to  do  it,"  the  plan  as  proposed  was  merely  argued  down  or 
in  abeyance.  There  is  still  another  plan,  that  is  proposed,  namely: 
that  the  nation  should  appropriate  a  certain  amount  of  money 
for  roads  and  then  have  a  National  Roads  Commission  and  put 
the  money  into  the  hands  of  that  Commission  to  build,  as  Dr.  Pratt 
and  some  others  of  these  gentlemen  said,  a  system  of  national  high- 
ways, not  all  at  once,  but  build  them  gradually  as  they  are  needed, 
where  the  traffic  goes  and  where  the  necessities  of  the  nation  require. 
Is  not  that  practical?  If  that  is  not  practical,  and  the  other  is 
not  and  the  township  plan  of  sending  it  out  to  our  rural  routes  is 
not,  is  it  not  their  business  as  legislators  to  solve  that  problem 
the  same  as  they  solved  the  money  question?  The  way  to  resume, 
is  to  resume.  Are  they  doing  anything  about  really  solving  it? 
Not  a  thing.  The  good  roads  people  have  to  go  down  to  Wash- 
ington every  session  and  urge  them  to  do  something.  Why?  Be- 
cause the  people  don't  go  up  to  their  noses  with  their  fists  and  say, 
"If  you  don't  take  a  little  more  interest  in  this  road  question  that 
affects  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  this  country,  that  affects  the 
cost  of  their  living,  their  social  relations,  and  all  that  will  make 
this  nation  better  and  greater,  we  are  going  to  do  something  to 
you,"  and  then  you  can  bet  there  will  be  some  response  on  this  road 
question,  and  it  won't  be  until  then.  Some  say  too,  "If  we  build 
national  roads,  they  will  be  nothing  but  roads  for  joy  riders  and 
automobiles."  I  will  tell  you  a  little  experience  I  had  about  that. 
I  went  up  into  Marshall  County,  one  of  the  northern  counties  of  our 
State,  at  the  request  of  someone  to  make  a  good  roads  speech,  it  was 
in  the  evening  and  in  a  little  town  between  500  and  1000  inhabit- 


PROCEEDINGS  45 

ants  and  I  was  quite  surprised  to  find  100  or  so  people  there,  and  I 
referred  to  the  fact  that  some  people,  especially  farmers,  have  a 
sort  of  prejudice  against  automobiles,  and  I  made  such  argument 
as  I  could,  that  that  prejudice  ought  not  to  be  because  it  did  not 
make  any  difference  if  an  automobile  did  use  the  road,  it  did  not 
prevent  the  farmers  from  using  it,  it  was  just  like  a  railroad,  because 
the  King  goes  over  it,  or  the  President  goes  over  it,  or  someone  with 
a  special  train  goes  over  it  filled  with  champagne,  well  dressed 
ladies,  and  a  lot  of  jolly  fellows,  that  don't  keep  the  farmer's  corn 
and  cotton  and  potatoes  and  other  things  from  going  over  that 
same  road.  At  any  rate,  when  I  got  through,  there  was  a  farmer 
with  three  or  four  of  his  neighbors  came  up  and  said,  "I  wanted 
to  talk  with  you  a  little  about  that  speech  you  just  made.  Your 
remark  about  the  prejudice  that  the  farmers  had  against  the  auto- 
mobile. Now  I  will  admit  we  used  to  have  some  considerable  preju- 
dice against  the  automobile,  but  if  you  would  go  around  a  little  bit 
now,  you'd  find  that  that  is  dying  out  pretty  fast."  He  continued, 
"I  live  out  in  the  country,  8  miles  from  here  and  these  are  my  neigh- 
bors; and  I  have  got  a  cheap  car,  and  when  we  heard  you  were  going 
to  make  a  speech  about  roads,  we  thought  we  would  come  in  and 
hear  you,  even  though  it  was  cold  and  the  roads  were  muddy,  but 
let  me  tell  you  one  thing,  Mister,  if  we  had  had  to  drive  a  team 
in  here  to-night,  8  miles  and  back,  to  hear  you,  if  you  had  been 
the  President  we  would  not  have  come.  Farmers  have  found  out 
the  convenience  of  automobiles  just  as  well  as  you  city  fellows  and 
you  might  just  as  well  get  next  to  that  idea,  too."  I  was  out  in  Kan- 
sas a  short  time  ago,  in  Barton  County,  I  said,  "How  about  the 
automobile  prejudice  out  here?"  A  fellow  says,  "Go  on;  there  are 
18,000  automobiles  here."  I  said,  "What?"  He  said,  "Yes,  there 
are  automobiles  enough  to  carry  every  man,  woman  and  child  out 
of  this  county  in  one  day.  All  you  need  to  do  is  to  go  to  the  county 
fair,  and  you  will  see  whether  or  not  the  farmers  have  automobiles." 
That's  the  idea.  Remember  that  Federal  aid  can  only  be  obtained, 
and  your  State  aid  obtained  by  getting  next  to  the  legislators,  and 
going  after  them. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  Dr.  Pratt  has  some  announcements 
to  make. 

DR.  PRATT:  Mr.  Winn  has  asked  me  to  call  your  attention  to  the 
reception  by  the  Governor  at  the  State  Capitol  from  eight  to  ten- 
thirty  this  evening,  and  also  that  delegates  desiring  to  take  the  trip 
over  the  Fulton  County  roads  will  please  register  at  the  Information 
Bureau.  The  Committee  has  prepared  a  little  folder  which  gives  a 
description  of  the  itinerary  and  various  points  of  interest  on  the 
route. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    Gentlemen,  the  meeting  will  stand  adjourned 

it.il  t.pn  nV.lnnlr  t.nmrvrrnw  mnrnincr 


flW«W«M         V4*AA*MKMJh*^    .  VJ«  WJk*W*V4^*W**J          W*. 

until  ten  o'clock  tomorrow  morning 


46  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

November  10,  10  a.m. 
PRESIDENT  FLETCHER  IN  THE  CHAIR 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  want  to  call  attention  again  to  the  W°men's 
Conference  at  the  Hotel  Ansley,  at  ten  o'clock  this  morning  and 
two  this  afternoon.  All  ladies  are  invited  to  attend.  I  also  want 
to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  annual  meeting  of  the  High- 
way Association  will  be  held  on  Thursday  at  8  p.m.  in  this  room, 
instead  of  Friday  as  announced  in  the  program. 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  announcing  the  appointment  of  the  follow- 
ing Committee  on  Resolutions,  which  will  meet  at  the  call  of  the 
Chairman. 

COMMITTEE  ON  RESOLUTIONS 

Chairman,  W.  Tom  Winn,  Commissioner  of  Fulton  County, 
Georgia. 

William  R.  Roy,  State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Washington. 

George  C.  Diehl,  Chairman,  Good  Roads  Board,  American  Auto- 
mobile Association. 

Charles  J.  Bennett,  State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Connecticut. 

H.  J.  Kuelling,  County  Engineer  of  Milwaukee  County,  Wis. 

W.  D.  Sohier,  Chairman,  Massachusetts  State  Highway  Commis- 
sion. 

Henry  W.  Durham,  Chief  Engineer  of  Highways,  Manhattan, 
N.Y.  ' 

Frank  F.  Rogers,  State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Michigan. 

C.  A.  Kenyon,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

W.  S.  Gearhart,  State  Highway  Engineer  of  Kansas. 

E.  R.  Morgan,  State  Road  Engineer  of  Utah. 

James  R.  Marker,  State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Ohio. 

Major  Amos  A.  Fries,  Corps  of  Engineers  U.  S.  Army. 

J.  W.  Hunter,  Deputy  Highway  Commissioner  of  Pennsylvania. 

Prof.  E.  J.  McCaustland,  Dean  of  Engineering,  University  of 
Missouri. 

The  first  matter  on  the  program  this  morning  will  be  a  report 
by  Mr.  A.  N.  Johnson  of  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  New 
York  City. 

MR.  JOHNSON:  Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  The 
Chairman  of  this  Committee,  Mr.  Wadhams,  is  unable  to  be  here, 
so  I  have  been  asked  to  present  the  report  of  your  Committee  on 
State  Legislation. 

Your  committee  on  "State  Legislation"  begs  to  submit  the  follow- 
ing report  of  its  work: 

It  was  first  necessary  that  a  compilation  of  all  the  State  road 
laws  should  be  made.  This  was  seen  to  be  so  large  a  task  that 
unless  it  was  possible  to  get  some  assistance  the  committee  could 


PROCEEDINGS  47 

not  undertake  it.  The  matter  was  therefore  taken  up  with  Mr. 
W.  L.  Page,  Director  of  the  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads,  and  the 
purpose  of  the  work  explained  to  him.  He  advised  the  committee 
that  he  would  have  his  office  undertake  the  work  of  compilation, 
which  has  been  done  and  is  now  practically  complete.  The  mag- 
nitude of  this  task  can  be  somewhat  appreciated  when  it  is  realized 
that  it  comprised  something  over  3,500,000  words. 

The  laws  have  been  indexed  for  each  State  and  cross-indexed 
by  subject  for  all  the  States  combined.  But  the  work  so  far  done 
will  form  merely  a  basis  for  the  real  purpose  of  the  work  of  your 
committee,  which  is  to  formulate  a  plan  upon  which  the  various 
States  would  be  able  to  revise  their  road  laws  so  that  there  may 
be  a  proper  foundation  for  highway  work  throughout  the  country. 

It  is  evident  that  much  work  will  be  necessary  before  such  a 
program  can  be  definitely  offered.  A  chart  should  be  made  of  the 
present  road  laws,  by  which  it  would  be  possible  to  visualize  present 
conditions.  With  such  a  chart  at  hand,  there  would  then  be  pre- 
pared an  outline  of  the  fundamental  principles  that  the  road  legis- 
lation in  every  State  should  include. 

When  such  a  program  has  been  formulated,  it  is  suggested  that 
the  State  Legislatures  be  advised  of  the  committee's  work,  and  that 
provision  should  be  made  whereby  it  would  be  possible  for  the  com- 
mittee to  come  in  direct  contact  with  the  legislatures  of  those  States 
that  might  request  such  assistance.  Inasmuch  as  your  present 
committee  was  appointed  by  the  Third  American  Road  Congress, 
and  as  the  work  is  so  far  from  complete,  it  is  suggested  that  there 
should  be  constituted  in  the  place  of  the  present  committee,  a  com- 
mittee of  the  American  Highway  Association  to  carry  on  the  work 
as  here  outlined;  and  it  is  further  suggested  that  the  American 
Highway  Association  provide  financial  aid  that  would  be  necessary  for 
the  work.  Your  committee  therefore  offers  the  following  resolutions : 

WHEREAS:  On  account  of  the  continuous  characte  of  the  work 
necessary  to  be  done  in  connection  with  the  compilation  and  revision 
of  road  laws,  and 

WHEREAS:  The  American  Road  Congress  is  not  a  continuing 
body:  Therefore  BE  IT  RESOLVED: 

First:  That  the  report  of  the  committee  on  legislation  be  adopted 
and  the  committee  discharged; 

Second:  That  the  American  Highway  Association  be  requested 
to  appoint  a  standing  committee  on  legislation  to  continue  the  work 
of  this  committee; 

^  Third:  That  the  American  Road  Congress  expresses  its  appre- 
ciation of  the  splendid  cooperation  and  value  of  the  assistance  ren- 
dered by  the  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads  which  has  made  the  work 
of  your  committee  possible. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

A.  N.  JOHNSON, 
Acting  Chairman. 


48  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

On  motion  the  report  of  the  Committee  was  adopted,  and  its 
recommendations  concurred  in. 

MR.  JOHNSON:  The  committee  would  further  suggest  that  the 
chair  call  upon  various  members  here  present  to  present  such  views 
as  they  have  in  mind  as  to  what  should  be  embodied  in  fundamental 
road  legislation. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  will  first  call  upon  Mr.  Henry  G.  Shirley,  of 
Maryland. 

MR.  SHIRLEY:  This  subject  is  one  of  the  most  important  before 
the  Congress,  in  my  judgment,  and  one  that  should  be  given  close 
consideration.  Your  committee  has  gotten  together  extracts  from  all 
the  laws  of  the  different  States  and  if  you  would  put  them  together, 
you  would  have  a  crazy  quilt — they  are  so  different  that  no  one  could 
possibly  get  up  a  law  that  embodies  the  different  phases  of  all  the 
laws  of  the  different  States.  I  believe  it  is  an  impossibility  to  draw 
a  standard  law  that  will  take  into  consideration  all  the  different 
conditions  that  are  to  be  met  in  each  State,  but  there  are  cardinal 
principles  in  drawing  a  law  which,  in  my  judgment,  should  be  fol- 
lowed in  every  State  in  the  Union.  I  think,  first,  there  should  be 
in  each  State  a  State  Highway  Department,  a  head  that  can  look 
after  the  State  roads.  Then  there  should  be  under  the  same  head  a 
State  Aid  Department;  you  can  govern  that  as  you  see  fit;  then  the 
county  laws  and  the  township  laws.  Now  in  getting  these  all  com- 
piled, there  are  certain  conditions  in  each  State  that  will  have  to  be 
met.  Those  conditions  are  restiicted  to  that  State,  but  there  are 
general  principles  that  can  be  brougnt  out  and  put  into  a  law  that 
can  be  applied  to  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  to  every  highway 
department.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  think  that  your  committee  should  be 
continued  and  should  give  every  assistance  possible  to  the  different 
legislatures  and  State  highway  departments  which  are  trying  to  im- 
prove the  many  laws  they  have  now.  There  has  been  brought  be- 
fore the  Congress  many  instances  where  the  laws  of  a  number  of  States 
are  absolutely  inadequate — they  do  not  cover  the  conditions  at  all, 
and  will  not  meet  the  requirements  on  account  of  not  being  flexible. 
In  drawing  a  law,  I  would  like  to  impress  upon  the  members  of  the 
committee,  and  the  different  legislatures,  that  the  law  be  general 
in  its  terms.  There  is  always  a  tendency  in  legislation  to  restrict 
or  to  practically  say  how  to  build  a  road.  "The  road  shall  be  built 
so  and  so,  using  sand-clay  or  macadam.7'  That,  in  my  judgment,  is 
absolutely  wrong.  The  law  should  be  made  general  and  leave  it 
to  the  highway  departments  to  use  their  discretion.  It  has  become 
my  duty  to  have  to  build  a  road  that  had  been  attempted  to  be 
built  by  the  legislature  absolutely.  They  said,  "You  shall  use  so 
many  oyster  shells  and  put  on  so  much  gravel  and  put  it  on  so  thick," 
and  when  I  got  through  I  did  not  have  a  road  at  all — there  was 


PROCEEDINGS  49 

nothing  there.  The  law  that  should  be  drawn  up,  in  my  judgment, 
should  be  made  broad,  giving  to  the  Ftate  or  county  commissioner 
or  highway  commissioner  broad  power.  Without  proper  power  you 
cannot  do  good  work;  with  proper  power  you  can.  If  it  is  badly 
handled,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  law  but  of  the  man  who  carries 
out  the  law,  and  I  think  it  is  very  necessary  that  in  drawing  a  law 
this  very  important  phase  of  all  the  highway  legislation  should  be 
closely  studied  so  as  to  draw  a  law  that  is  flexible  and  broad  and  gives 
each  department  the  proper  authority. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  will  next  call  upon  Mr.  S.  E.  Bradt,  Secretary 
of  the  Illinois  State  Highway  Department. 

MR.  BRADT:  This  is  rather  a  short  notice  to  cover  a  subject  of  this 
kind.  I  concur  in  what  the  gentleman  who  has  just  spoken  has  said 
as  to  the  organization  of  highway  departments  in  the  several  States. 

The  first  thing  for  a  State  to  determine  is  whether  the  commission 
shall  consist  of  one  member  or  more.  The  advantage  of  having 
the  authority  centered  in  one  man  will  very  often  expedite  the  work. 
But  in  States  where  a  large  amount  of  work  is  being  done  and  in 
consequence  a  large  amount  of  money  is  being  expended,  a  com- 
mission consisting  of  three  members  will  often  get  better  results 
and  give  better  satisfaction  to  the  public.  Also,  with  a  commis- 
sion of  three  members  there  is  the  opportunity  of  making  their  term 
of  office  expire  in  different  years  so  as  to  avoid  the  entire  change  of 
officials  with  a  change  in  administration. 

Probably  the  most  important  factor  in  connection  with  a  State 
highway  department  is  the  chief  State  engineer.  Practically  every 
decision  which  he  is  called  upon  to  make  affects  in  some  degree  the 
efficiency  in  durability  of  the  work.  He  should  be  chosen  by  the 
commission  and  should  be  selected  as  much  upon  his  record  for  accom- 
plishment as  upon  his  technical  knowledge.  His  term  of  office  should 
be  during  good  behavior. 

The  further  organization  of  the  department  will  naturally  depend 
upon  the  scope  of  the  law  under  which  the  department  is  working. 
In  a  State  doing  a  large  amount  of  work  there  should  be  a  bureau  of 
roads  in  charge  of  a  road  engineer,  a  bureau  of  bridges  in  charge  of 
a  bridge  engineer,  a  laboratory  bureau,  an  accounting  bureau  and  a 
bureau  of  statistics.  If  the  work  is  of  sufficient  magnitude,  the 
State  should  be  divided  into  a  number  of  districts  with  an  engineer 
in  charge  of  each. 

The  authority  given  to  the  State  highway  department  should 
at  least  cover  aU  expenditures,  both  for  construction  and  maintenance, 
upon  the  main  roads.  And  if  the  State  should  see  fit  to  give  to 
this  department  the  control  of  all  road  and  bridge  moneys  expended 
in  the  State,  it  will  add  greatly  to  the  efficiency  and  economy  of 
the  entire  road  work  of  the  State.  The  law  under  which  the  de- 
partment is  working  should  provide  the  necessary  funds  with  which 


50  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

to  carry  on  the  work  either  through  State  or  county  appropriations, 
or  both. 

It  will  be  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  State  also  if  the  dif- 
ferent counties  or  parishes  shall  be  authorized  to  issue  bonds  upon 
a  vote  of  the  people;  thus  permitting  any  particular  county  or  parish 
where  the  sentiment  is  favorable  to  proceed  with  the  construction  of 
roads  and  bridges  as  rapidly  as  the  people  of  the  locality  shall  de- 
mand. I  consider  there  is  no  danger  in  going  too  rapidly  provided 
the  people  are  required  to  vote  upon  the  propostion,  and  provided 
further  that  the  bonds  for  the  road  improvement  shall  be  issued 
so  as  to  mature  serially  and  all  within  the  life  of  the  improvement. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  will  next  call  on  Mr.  Charles  J.  Bennett,  of 
Connecticut. 

MR.  BENNETT:  This  is  a  surprise.  In  connection  with  uni- 
form legislation  for  highway  departments,  I  think  there  are  cer- 
tain broad,  general  principles,  that  can  be  laid  down.  I  agree 
with  the  previous  gentleman  that  these  principles  are  few  and 
are  of  great  importance.  The  establishment  of  a  highway  de- 
partment, the  establishment  of  town  aid  and  of  aid  on  all  roads 
in  the  State,  is  a  very  good  idea.  The  establishment  of  a  finan- 
cial principle  which  will  indicate  to  the  people  of  the  State  how 
much  is  expected  from  year  to  year  for  highway  purposes — all 
these  things  can  be  put  in  a  law,  but  beyond  that  one  cannot  go. 
In  almost  every  case  the  administration  of  the  highway  depart- 
ment is  a  purely  local  problem,  one  that  can  be  solved  only  by  the 
locality  to  which  it  must  be  applied,  so  that  the  law  to  be  formed  by 
a  committee  on  standard  legislation  must  of  necessity  contain  only 
these  cardinal  principles  and  beyond  that  each  State  should  draw 
its  own  conclusions.  The  main  fault  that  I  have  to  find  with  all 
highway  laws  is  this,  that  they  are  altogether  too  long,  they  con- 
tain altogether  too  much  that  is  not  pertinent  to  the  question  at 
hand,  and  my  plea  for  a  uniform  State  highway  law  or  for  any  high- 
way law  is  to  give  us  one  that  is  brief  and  clear  and  in  simple  Eng- 
lish without  a  great  many  "Whereas's"  and  "Aforesaid's"  and  a 
whole  lot  of  legal  verbiage.  If  the  laws  of  the  States  are  drawn  so 
that  the  ordinary  man  can  read  and  understand  them  and  they  mean 
what  they  say,  we  will  have  taken  a  great  step  forward.  Most  of 
the  States  have  laws  which  no  one  can  understand.  I  know  that  is 
true  in  our  particular  case  and  it  is  true  in  almost  every  law  with 
which  I  have  had  any  connection  or  of  which  I  have  made  any  study, 
so  whoever  draws  the  standard  law,  for  goodness  sake  make  it  clear 
so  that  we  can  understand  it. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Is  there  anybody  else  present  who  would  like 
to  be  heard  on  this  subject?  If  not,  I  will  yield  the  chair  at  this 
point  to  Mr.  J.  P.  Wilson,  member  of  the  State  highway  commission 


PROCEEDINGS  51 

of  Illinois,  who  will  take  charge  of  the  meeting  during  the  remainder 
of  the  session.     Mr.  Wilson. 
Mr.  Wilson  takes  the  chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  Mr.  W.  G.  Edens,  who 
is  President  of  the  Highway  Improvement  Association  of  Illinois, 
had  been  selected  to  preside  at  this  meeting.  In  the  absence  of 
Mr.  Edens  they  have  forced  me  into  harness  with  the  distinct  under- 
standing that  I  would  not  make  a  speech.  It  appears  that  Mr 
Buck  and  Mr.  Stevens  are  not  present,  but  their  papers  will  be 
read  and  the  discussion  of  Colonel  Stevens'  paper  opened  by  Mr. 
J.  S.  Gillespie,  Road  Commissioner  of  Allegheny  County,  Pa. 

EFFICIENCY  OF  HIGHWAY  ORGANIZATION 

BY  COL.  E.  A.  STEVENS 
State  Highway  Commissioner  of  New  Jersey 

The  very  size  and  the  commercial  importance  of  the  highway 
problem  in  these  United  States  make  efficiency  necessary  to  a  fully 
successful  solution.  Today  we  can  state  the  problem  in  general 
terms  only.  Even  the  total  mileage  of  roads  and  what  portion  of 
them  have  already  been  improved  are  only  approximately  known 
facts.  There  has  been  but  little  done  in  the  way  of  scientific  planning 
of  State  road  work,  or  of  any  nation-wide  system.  Yet,  even  thus, 
we  can  easily  foresee  an  expenditure  for  roads,  that,  in  its  totals, 
is  staggering.  There  is  today  no  need  of  arguing  the  necessity  of 
good  roads.  The  questions  to  be  answered  are:  Where  will  the 
roads  to  be  built  be  located?  What  will  they  cost?  How  are  we 
to  insure  that,  once  built,  they  will  give  us  the  service  for  which  they 
were  built,  and  for  which  the  people  are  paying?  In  all  of  this  how 
are  we  to  insure  that  the  man  who  pays  the  bill  is  not  to  be  taxed 
more  than  need  be,  that  he  gets  value  received  for  every  dollar 
expended? 

It  would  be  a  foolish  man  who  would  undertake  to  dig  the  cellar 
and  lay  the  foundation  for  his  house  without  first  deciding  how  much 
room  he  needed  to  house  his  family;  how  much  he  could  afford  to 
spend  therefor;  how  he  is  to  meet  the  cost  of  housekeeping,  repairs, 
insurance,  and  taxes;  and  finally  how  all  this  is  to  be  done  without 
waste. 

In  such  a  case,  it  is  easy  to  see  the  need  of  some  forethought.  In 
the  much  larger  problem  of  providing  good  roads  for  this  country 
of  ours,  the  very  immensity  of  the  quantities  and  costs,  and  the 
difficulty  of  gathering  the  data  necessary  to  state  them  with  approxi- 
mate accuracy,  or  the  failure  to  realize  the  importance  of  this  knowl- 
edge, seems  to  have  prevented  preliminary  study.  With  our  usual 
national  impatience  and  confidence  in  ourselves,  we  have  in  general 
tackled  the  problem  with  a  view  limited  to  a  solution  over  a  very 


52  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

narrow  field.  Since  we  took  up  the  subject  twenty  years  or  so  ago, 
the  problem  of  administration,  design,  and  construction,  have  been 
changed  by  motor  traffic.  This  traffic  has  made  the  road  a  matter 
of  general  and  not  of  local  interest;  has  shown  us  that  hitherto 
approved  methods  of  construction  are  no  longer  generally  available, 
and  that  systematically  organized  methods  of  caring  for  our  roads 
and  of  raising  our  road  funds  are  at  least  worthy  of  our  most  careful 
thought. 

The  road  conditions  of  today  in  New  Jersey  and  Massachusetts 
may  not  show  the  general  problem.  They  are  both  old,  thickly 
settled  States,  and  they  were  pioneers  in  road  improvement.  But 
what  road  improvement  has  brought  about  in  those  States  it  will  in  a 
like  way,  if  not  to  the  same  extent,  also  bring  about  elsewhere.  In 
both  of  these  States  there  is  a  motor  registration  of  about  four  vehicles 
per  mile  of  road,  exclusive  of  city  streets.  In  France  this  figure  is 
about  or  a  little  less  than  four-tenths. 

Evidently  European  experiences  are  not  to  be  our  final  and  only 
guide. 

Let  us  therefore  look  at  our  problem  for  a  moment  without  worry- 
ing about  what  others  have  done.  The  best  way  of  doing  the  job 
is  still  an  unsettled  question.  On  whom  shall  we  place  the  burden 
of  arriving  at  the  best  method?  Taking  John  Fritz's  quip  that 

"an  engineer  is  the  man  who  can  do  with  one  dollar  what  any fool 

can  do  with  two,"  it  is  clear  that  that  sort  of  an  engineer  is  the  man 
we  want.  Without  a  force  properly  drilled  in  the  work,  and  properly 
organized  to  do  it,  efficiency,  the  getting  for  one  dollar  what  with 
waste  will  cost  us  two,  is  impossible. 

With  such  a  force,  money  and  time  spent  in  careful  preliminary 
study,  in  being  sure  we  are  right  before  we  go  ahead,  will  not  be 
wasted.  Once  when  in  charge  of  a  machine  shop,  I  hired  a  new 
planer  hand.  Early  in  the  game  we  had  a  set  of  small  engine  beds 
to  plane.  I  gave  the  work,  one-half  to  an  old  and  tried  hand,  the 
other  to  my  new  man.  The  special  job  was  new  to  both  of  them. 
The  old  hand  started  in  to  set  a  bed  on  his  planer  without  much 
thought  or  study,  he  finished  it  ard  set  the  second  in  a  slightly 
different  way,  and  had  the  chips  falling  from  it  before  my  new  man 
did  anything  but  sit  still  looking  at  his  tool  and  his  castings  with 
his  chin  in  his  hands  and  a  look  of  abstraction  on  his  face.  I  came 
near  bouncing  him  then  and  there,  but,  on  second  thought,  let  him 
work  it  out.  He  had  his  half  done  in  time  to  help  my  old  hand  out 
with  a  few  of  his  castings.  That  hour  or  more  that  looked  like  a 
waste  of  time  turned  out  to  be  a  good  investment.  We  have,  and 
are  doing,  our  work  too  much  in  the  way  of  my  old  and  tried  man. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  roads  designed  and  built  without  knowledge  as 
to  the  traffic  intensity  on  them  should  prove  either  too  weak  or  more 
costly  than  necessary  for  their  purpose.  In  both  cases  there  is  waste. 

We  need,  first,  a  force  that  can  lay  out  a  well  thought  out  plan 
with  a  fair  chance  to  do  so  without  political  meddling.  The  cost 


EFFICIENCY   OF  HIGHWAY   ORGANIZATION  53 

can  then  be  forecast.  Changes  in  traffic  may  lead  to  changes  in 
general  design  and  detail  as  happened  at  Panama,  without  making 
efficiency  impossible.  The  same  happens  so  often  with  even  so  simple 
a  task  as  building  a  house,  that  the  wise  man  always  allows  some 
margin  on  the  first  detailed  estimate  of  cost.  With  the  cost  known, 
plans  for  raising  money  can  be  made  for  meeting  it,  and  a  program 
of  construction  arranged  with  a  view  of  giving  the  earliest  and 
greatest  return  for  the  money  spent. 

Bond  issues  and  the  "pay  as  you  go"  plan  must  be  considered.  It 
is  evident  that  over  any  period  for  which  bonds  are  issued,  the  tax 
levy  must  include  interest  and  amortization  charges  on  the  bonds, 
as  well  as  the  cost  of  caring  for  the  roads  built,  and  to  meet  depreci- 
ation. If  the  same  amount  be  raised  each  year  by  taxation,  and  used 
to  meet  road  building,  repair  and  depreciation  charges,  it  is  clear  that 
the  amount  raised  for  interest  and  amortization,  and,  in  the  first 
part  of  the  period,  some  of  the  amount  raised  for  repair,  etc.,  can 
be  used  for  new  work.  The  net  result  over  the  whole  period  is  a 
reduced  cost  for  a  given  mileage.  Against  this  we  have  the  use  of 
the  roads  built  for  a  longer  average  time.  This  benefit,  will,  in  many 
cases,  be  cheap  at  the  increased  price,  but  only  on  the  assumption 
that  bonds  are  issued  on  some  definite  and  business-like  plan,  and  the 
proceeds  wisely  invested.  This  has  not  always  been  the  case. 

Any  satisfactory  road  administration  must  provide  for  proper 
design.  The  data  for  this  is  not  readily  at  hand.  Traffic  figures 
over  an  unimproved  road  bear  no  relation  to  the  traffic  to  be  expected 
after  improvement.  Even  were  satisfactory  traffic  data  readily 
available,  the  economic  values  of  different  types  of  construction  are 
unknown.  Motor  traffic  for  not  over  ten  years  has  been  a  serious 
destroyer  of  road  surfaces.  It  is  increasing  yearly  in  intensity.  The 
surfaces  specially  designed  to  carry  this  troublesome  and  valuable 
load  have  not  been  in  use  long  enough  to  determine  their  probable 
lives  and  cost  of  upkeep  under  the  conditions  of  today.  The  cost  of 
the  road  is  a  yearly  one  and  must  include  depreciation,  if  the  waste 
of  road  material  is  not  made  good  every  year.  Therefore,  it  may  well 
be  cheaper  to  spend  money  in  the  repair  of  a  cheap  type,  such  as 
macadam  or  gravel,  rather  than  to  resurface  with  an  expensive 
pavement  whose  life  is  at  the  best  uncertain. 

For  example,  a  macadam  road  under  heavy  traffic  may  be  main- 
tained at  about  the  following  cost  per  square  yard : 

Cents 

Stone,  say  $  in.  or  42  Ibs.  @  $3.00  a  ton  rolled  in  place 6.3 

Bituminous  binder,  say  f  gal.  @  15  cents,  spread  and  covered 5.6 

Ditches  and  drains,  say 1.0 

12.9 

If  an  improved  type  of  surface  is  laid  on  the  old  macadam  at  a 
cost  of  say  $1.25  a  yard,  the  annual  charge  to  be  seen  in  the  tax 
levy  will  for  some  years  be  merely  the  cost  of  ditch  and  drain  work 
and  a  small  amount  to  care  for  imperfections.  The  community 


54  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

might,  however,  have  used  the  $1.25  for  new  work,  or  might  have 
left  it  with  the  taxpayer;  in  either  case,  it  is  costing  the  interest  which 
at  4  per  cent  is  5  cents.  We  have  then  a  saving  of  6.9  cents,  but  it 
seems  fair  to  assume  that  over  a  life  of  from  10  to  20  years  we  should 
allow  at  least  0.9  cent  for  repairs.  Our  saving  is  then  6  cents.  We 
would  have  to  realize  this  saving  for  about  21  years  to  get  back  our 
$1.25  and  if  the  new  surface  lasts  less  than  that  period  it  may  well 
prove  wasteful. 

But  any  such  figures  are  of  academic  interest  only,  unless  we  have 
the  organized  repair  force  needed  to  keep  our  roads  in  repair  and  a 
system  of  accounting  that  will  give  accurate  data  and  that  is  based 
on  an  outlook  over  a  period  somewhat  longer  than  that  covered  by 
next  year's  tax  bill.  On  the  basis  of  such  a  system  and  with  such  a 
force  are  our  railroads  operated.  Their  problem  is  of  the  same  kind 
as  ours — a  matter  of  cheap  and  efficient  transportation.  It  is  per- 
haps curious  that  while  the  tendency  of  the  day  is  to  regulate  these 
and  other  public  service  corporations  as  to  the  safety  and  adequacy 
of  their  service,  and  as  to  their  methods  of  financing,  the  people  of 
this  country  have  in  no  case  insisted  on  such  safeguards  as  to  the 
work  of  those  entrusted  with  their  roads. 

The  engineering  problems  of  railroading  have  been  solved  in  their 
broad  lines.  We  will  probably  be  able,  as  in  the  past,  to  keep  on 
increasing  axle  loads  and  reducing  ton  mile  costs,  but  along  lines 
indicated  by  carefully  collected  and  thoroughly  digested  data  of 
many  years'  work.  This,  as  in  the  past,  will  be  done  by  thoroughly 
trained  and  competent  men  knowing  their  business  and  eagerly  look- 
ing for  ways  and  means  of  getting  better  results. 

With  our  highways  problem  we  are  now  searching  for  the  best 
solution.  We  have,  generally  speaking,  inadequate  and  untrained 
or  only  partially  trained  forces.  We  have  no  accepted  traffic  unit 
and  no  generally  recognized  system  of  accounting.  These  must  be 
supplied  if  we  are  to  solve  our  problem  as  it  should  be  solved. 

MR.  GILLESPIE:  I  heartily  agree  with  Colonel  Stevens.  He  has 
brought  out  many  good  points  which  we  must  all  admit  we  have 
been  prone  to  consider  too  lightly.  It  is  only  by  careful  and  thorough 
consideration  that  matters  of  a  constructive  nature  can  be  ma- 
terialized. To  get  efficiency  in  road  construction  it  is  necessary 
that  definite  data  be  secured  along  the  lines  of  location,  type  of  travel 
and  type  of  surface.  The  engineer  should  not  base  his  figures  upon 
the  travel  on  the  old  road,  but  upon  the  increased  travel  that  will  be 
diverted  to  the  new  road.  As  he  states,  sufficient  attention  was  not 
given  to  these  important  features  when  our  first  roads  were  con- 
structed or  we  would  not  be  worrying  about  the  type  of  surface  for 
the  present  day  travel. 

The  travel  of  today  was  not  anticipated  15  or  20  years  ago.  The 
heavy  trucks  have  displaced  the  ordinary  horse  drawn  vehicles,  and 
truck  manufacturers  seem  to  be  inspired  with  the  idea  of  "How 


EFFICIENCY    OF    HIGHWAY  ORGANIZATION  55 

big  a  load  can  we  possibly  haul  and  still  maintain  touring  car  speed.7' 
This,  then  brings  out  the  question,  are  the  roads  we  are  now  con- 
structing ample  for  future  wear  and  tear. 

The  question  of  efficiency  is  right.  It  must  be  solved  and  every 
corporation  in  existence  is  endeavoring  to  reach  the  highest  possible 
point.  To  get  engineers  of  ability  to  place  in  charge  of  road  construc- 
tion, is  one  of  the  important  features.  The  question  of  salary, 
ofttimes,  is  a  drawback.  When  you  get  a  good  man  on  road  work, 
pay  him  as  much  salary  as  any  corporation  would  be  willing  to  give 
him. 

The  road  building  proposition  is  an  enormous  one.  People  from 
our  boroughs  and  cities  are  moving  out  to  the  suburbs,  purchasing 
small  farms,  and  travelling  back  and  forth  to  their  places  of  employ- 
ment. The  steam  and  electric  roads,  we  admit,  will  care  for  a  good 
part  of  this  continual  increasing  travel,  but  there  are  those  who  have 
automobiles  and  must  have  some  type  of  an  improved  road  which 
will  permit  of  travel  the  whole  twelve  months  of  the  year.  The 
establishment  of  well  considered  routes,  along  the  lines  of  serving  the 
majority  of  the  people,  and  constructed  to  stand  the  wear  and  tear 
of  a  constantly  changing  mode  of  travel,  is  what  is  required. 

The  question  of  financing  road  improvements,  is  one  that  must  be 
considered  by  the  community  in  which  the  improvement  takes  place. 
The  bond  issue  and  the  tax  levy  plan  both  have  their  advocates.  I, 
personally,  favor  the  bond  issue,  for  what  is  considered  the  most 
durable  or  permanent  type  of  surface.  Posterity,  in  my  opinion, 
will  not  be  saddled  with  an  unjust  debt.  Safe  and  sane  construction 
and  systematic  maintenance  will  insure  posterity  of  a  road  com- 
mensurate with  its  value. 

The  question  of  purchases  is  one  that  must  be  along  systematic 
lines.  Carefully  prepared  specifications,  competitive  bidding  and 
rigid  inspection  should  be  the  motto.  Once  a  road  is  constructed, 
much  can  be  wasted  in  the  maintenance  thereof  by  inconsistent  or 
lax  methods  in  the  purchasing  end. 

The  unit  cost  system  is  being  advocated  more  and  more.  It  is 
therefore  necessary  that  the  purchasing  of  supplies  be  systematic, 
properly  maintained  records,  so  as  to  furnish  accurate  data  for  the 
unit  cost  scheme. 

In  whole,  the  road  construction  game  is  a  serious  proposition,  and 
needs  to  be  based  along  the  most  simple  and  best  business  principles, 
and,  to  accomplish  this,  it  will  require  well  considered  plans  as  to 
location,  carefully  prepared  specifications  and  rigid  inspection,  and 
above  all,  personal  supervision  at  all  times. 


56  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

SIMPLIFIED  SYSTEM  OF  TOWN  HIGHWAY  ACCOUNTS 

BY  FRED  BUCK 
Assistant  Deputy  Commissioner,  New  York  State  Highway  Department 

In  conducting  the  work  of  any  town  highway  system  which  is  or- 
ganized as  a  distinct  branch  of  a  state  system  the  fact  must  be  con- 
stantly borne  in  mind  that,  in  order  to  secure  the  best  results  possible, 
simplicity  must  be  the  watchword.  The  comparatively  great  volume 
of  mileage,  the  extremely  small  average  amounts  available  per  mile 
and  the  agencies  through  which  these  amounts  must  be  expended  all 
demand  a  close  adherence  to  plain  and  simple  methods  in  all  stages 
of  the  work,  and  fully  as  much  in  the  accounting  as  in  any  other 
branch. 

By  adopting  a  system  of  town  highway  accounts  which  can  be 
easily  followed  by  the  local  officials  in  charge  of  the  work,  two  impor- 
tant results  are  accomplished :  First,  a  complete  and  accurate  account- 
ing of  funds  expended  is  secured,  and,  second,  the  lessons  of  order  and 
system  learned  in  this  are  carried,  perhaps  in  the  majority  of  instances 
unconsciously,  to  other  parts  of  the  work  and  a  more  orderly  and 
systematic  management  of  the  whole  is  secured  thereby.  Careful 
and  systematic  methods  in  one  part  of  any  enterprise  will  induce  the 
same  effort  in  other  portions  just  as  surely  as  lax  and  inefficient  meth- 
ods, if  allowed  to  obtain  a  foothold,  will  spread  from  one  section  to 
another  and  gradually  seriously  impair  or  destroy  the  efficiency  of 
the  whole. 

The  system  of  town  highway  accounts  which  went  into  effect 
January  1,  1909,  as  a  part  of  the  present  highway  law  of  New  York 
State  has  proven  very  satisfactory,  and  excellent  results  have  been 
obtained  under  it.  In  order  to  clearly  understand  the  workings  of 
this  system  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  funds  for  town  highway 
work  in  New  York  State  are  derived  from  two  sources :  First,  a  tax 
levied  by  local  officials  upon  the  several  towns,  this  tax  being  supple- 
mented by  moneys  paid  by  the  State  to  the  towns  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, which  moneys  are  known  as  "State  aid,"  the  amount  payable 
to  each  town  being  dependent  upon  the  assessed  valuation  per  mile 
of  highways  of  the  town  and  the  amount  raised  by  the  town  as  the 
highway  tax  in  each  year.  These  moneys  combined  form  what  is 
known  as  the  highway  fund. 

In  the  prosecution  of  the  work  the  town  superintendent  of  highways 
is  the  man  in  charge.  He  hires  the  men  and  teams,  purchases  mate- 
rials, directs  the  work  and  acts  as  paymaster;  the  paying,  however, 
being  done  by  means  of  vouchers  issued  by  himself  as  town  superin- 
tendent, the  vouchers  being  redeemed  in  cash  by  the  supervisor  (who 
is  the  chief  fiscal  officer  of  the  town)  and  retained  by  him  as  a  receipt 
for  money  paid  until  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year,  when,  upon  rendition 
of  his  annual  report  and  its  acceptance  by  the  town  board,  these 
vouchers  are  filed  with  the  town  clerk  and  become  a  part  of  the 


SIMPLIFIED   SYSTEM   OF  HIGHWAY   ACCOUNTS  57 

permanent  records  of  the  town.  These  vouchers,  which  are  furnished 
to  all  towns  by  the  State  Highway  Department,  consist  of  a  printed 
form  with  the  necessary  blank  space  for  the  insertion  of  the  date, 
the  name  of  the  payee,  the  dates  on  which  service  was  rendered,  the 
number  of  hours  of  service  or  quantity  of  material,  as  the  case  may 
be,  and  the  road  for  which  it  was  furnished.  Each  voucher  is  attached 
to  a  stub  upon  which  are  blank  spaces  similar  to  that  of  the  voucher. 

The  supervisor  is  provided  with  a  supervisor's  account  book, 
printed  and  ruled  to  receive  an  entry  of  each  voucher  paid,  spaces 
being  provided  for  data  relative  to  the  voucher  corresponding  to 
that  in  the  body  of  the  voucher  itself.  Pages  are  provided  at  regular 
intervals  for  a  recapitulated  statement  of  vouchers  paid,  the  data 
upon  these  recapitulated  pages  being  finally  carried  forward  to  a 
single  page  thereon  condensed  into  a  form  of  statement,  which  is  the 
annual  report  of  receipts  and  disbursements  required  of  each  town 
supervisor  under  the  highway  law.  Blank  forms  are  provided  for 
such  additional  copies  of  this  report  as  are  required  to  be  furnished 
to  the  county  superintendent  of  highways,  the  State  highway  com- 
mission and  the  State  comptroller. 

No  other  books  nor  accounts  are  necessary  for  the  town  superin- 
tendent of  highways  or  the  supervisor  in  properly  receiving,  dis- 
bursing and  accounting  for  the  highway  moneys  of  any  town  those 
which  have  just  been  described.  With  practically  no  exceptions 
the  town  officials  are  pleased  with  the  form  of  accounting,  and  errors 
and  mistakes  have  been  reduced  to  a  minimum  so  small  as  to  be  al- 
most a  negligible  quantity.  Partial  audits  of  the  highway  accounts 
of  any  town  are  made  by  a  representative  of  the  State  highway  de- 
partment at  any  time  during  the  year  when  for  any  reason  it  shall 
be  deemed  that  the  same  is  necessary  or  expedient.  By  doing  this 
many  errors  are  prevented  which  might  otherwise  occur  and  unwise 
or  extravagant  expenditures  are  prevented,  or  checked  if  begun. 

Each  year  a  complete  audit  of  the  highway  accounts  of  each  town 
in  the  State  is  also  made,  and  it  is  found  that  the  form  of  voucher 
and  manner  of  accounting  for  the  same  provided  for  the  supervisor 
greatly  simplify  and  facilitate  the  work  of  the  auditor. 

It  is  pleasing  to  be  able  to  state  that,  while  the  audits  of  the  first 
year  in  which  this  system  was  put  in  operation  showed  a  large  amount 
of  errors  and  discrepancies  (due,  mainly,  to  unfamiliarity  with  the 
system  or  to  carelessness  in  making  entries)  the  audits  of  the  years 
since  the  first  show  a  constantly  decreasing  number  of  inaccuracies. 
It  is  also  pleasing  to  be  able  to  state  that  extremely  few  instances 
of  actual  dishonesty  have  ever  been  uncovered  and  that  in  very  nearly 
all  cases  in  which  reimbursement  has  been  required  the  occasion  for 
the  same  was  due  to  ignorance  or  carelessness  and  not  to  actual  dis- 
honesty on  the  part  of  any  town  official. 

Those  who  have  been  most  closely  associated  with  the  work  are 
also  firm  in  the  belief  that  the  quality  of  the  town  highway  work 
of  the  State  as  a  whole  and  the  very  excellent  results  secured  have 


58  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

been  contributed  to  in  no  small  degree  by  the  simplified  system  of 
town  highway  accounting  which  has  been  used  in  connection  with 
the  work. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  will  now  pass  to  the  subject  of  road  eco- 
nomics by  Mr.  J.  E.  Pennybacker,  Chief  of  Road  Economics,  U.  S. 
Office  of  Public  Roads. 

MR.  PENNYBACKER:  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  They 
say  that  when  a  man  begins  to  read  a  paper,  he  can  feel  the  psychic 
effect  of  the  audience  pulling  away  from  him,  and  if  he  looks  up 
from  his  paper  sufficiently  he  will  see  them  staring  at  the  flags  and 
corners  of  the  room  and  gradually  slipping  out.  Unfortunately 
the  subject  of  road  economics  is  one  so  vaguely  understood  and  so 
capable  of  misinterpretation  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  give  it  in  a 
general  address  with  anything  like  the  exactness  which  the  subject 
deserves.  With  your  kind  indulgence  therefore  I  will  read  the 
paper — as  it  is  very  short — in  which  I  have  endeavored  to  lay  down 
those  basic  principles  of  economics  which  I  believe  should  be  the 
foundation  of  any  scheme  for  road  improvement,  whether  it  be 
on  the  part  of  the  State,  on  the  part  of  the  county,  or  on  the  part 
of  the  municipality.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  the  conditions  vary  so 
much  in  different  parts  of  the  country  that  specific  measures  to  meet 
conditions  must  be  framed,  but  running  through  it  all  there  are  these 
certain  fundamental  considerations  which  no  county  or  State  can  go 
amiss  by  observing.  I  will  therefore  start  out  by  telling  you  what  I 
understand  road  economics  to  be  and  then  I  will  lay  down  the  propo- 
sitions which  I  consider  basic. 

ROAD  ECONOMICS 
BY  J.  E.  PENNYBACKER 

Chief  of  Road  Economics,  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads 

Road  economics  may  be  defined  as  that  branch  of  economic  science 
which  treats  of  the  cost  and  use  of  a  road  as  a  public  utility.  Cost  and 
public  utility,  in  a  comprehensive  interpretation,  are  the  determining 
factors  with  reference  to  the  amount  of  money  to  be  expended,  the 
method  of  its  procurement,  the  liquidation  of  ,any  indebtedness  in- 
curred in  connection  therewith,  the  location  of  the  improvement,  the 
character  of  the  work,  economy  in  the  management  of  the  project,  and 
the  utilization  of  the  completed  road  for  the  economic  benefit  of  the 
public. 

The  subject  is  logically  comprised  in  two  divisions,  the  first  of  which 
deals  with  those  larger  questions  of  legislation,  finance,  organiza- 
tion, road  classification  or  selection,  the  utilization  of  collateral 
agencies,  and  the  management  of  the  road  as  a  completed  project. 


ROAD   ECONOMICS  59 

The  second  division  of  the  subject  although  more  limited  in  scope 
than  the  first  division  is  important  from  the  standpoint  of  economy 
and  efficiency,  as  it  relates  to  the  various  activities  in  connection 
with  the  actual  work  of  construction.  Examples  under  this  division 
would  be  the  lowering  of  cost  by  the  intelligent  use  of  labor-saving 
machinery;  the  keeping  of  adequate  and  efficient  cost  records  so  as 
to  detect  extravagance,  incompetence  or  dishonesty;  the  systematic 
purchase  of  materials,  and  the  use  of  such  other  measures  as  would 
serve  to  produce  a  satisfactory  road  at  the  lowest  practicable 
outlay. 

Legislation,  to  be  effective,  must  be  economically  sound,  and  it  is 
necessary  to  the  intelligent  framing  of  road  laws  that  the  economic 
considerations  applicable  to  the  subject  should  be  known  and  accepted 
by  the  legislators.  A  system  of  financing  road  improvement  is  largely 
the  outcome  of  legislation,  but  is  often  modified  by  the  exercise  of 
administrative  discretion.  Organization,  like  finance,  is  to  a  great 
extent  prescribed  by  statute,  but  here  again  the  personal  equation 
enters  largely  in  the  determination  of  efficiency  or  inefficiency.  The 
utilization  of  collateral  facilities  of  the  State,  such  as  convict  labor 
and  the  aid  of  State  institutions  for  investigative  and  educational 
work  is  largely  determined  by  law  but  here  again  administrative  dis- 
cretion and  the  personal  equation  play  an  important  part.  The 
classification  and  selection  of  roads  for  improvement,  although  rest- 
ing upon  legislative  enactment,  are  much  more  largely  an  adminis- 
trative question  than  those  to  which  I  have  already  referred,  and  the 
same  holds  true  with  reference  to  the  use  of  the  road  after  completion 
so  as  to  best  serve  its  purpose  as  a  public  utility. 

It  is  thus  evident  that  these  basic  factors  should  be  correlated  and 
that  the  undertaking  as  a  whole  should  conform  to  those  economic 
considerations  which  may  be  regarded  as  fundamentally  sound.  I 
have,  therefore,  formulated  ten  fundamental  propositions  which  I 
hold  to  be  incontrovertible  and  so  self-evident  as  to  be  axiomatic. 
I  shall,  therefore,  first  submit  these  ten  axiomatic  propositions,  and 
then  endeavor  to  explain  to  you  their  practical  application. 

1.  That  all  who  share  in  the  benefits  of  road  improvement  should 
share  proportionately  in  the  burdens. 

2.  That  the  degree  of  improvement  should  be  proportionate  to  the 
traffic  importance  of  the  road  improved. 

3.  That  the  rate  of  payment  or  the  rate  of  accumulation  of  the 
sinking  fund  on  any  public  debt  contracted  for  road  improvement 
should  approximately  equal  the  deterioration  of  the  improvement. 

4.  That  road  building  and  maintenance  comprise  work  requiring 
special  qualifications  on  the  part  of  those  who  direct  it. 

5.  That  responsibilities  should  be  definite  as  to  persons. 

6.  That  continuous  employment  is  more  conducive  to  efficient 
service  than  intermittent  and  temporary  employment. 

7.  That  the  specialists  who  direct  road  work  should  be  appointed 


60  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

instead  of  elected;  and  that  they  should  hold  office  during  efficiency 
instead  of  for  a  fixed  term. 

8.  That  no  road  is  wholly  pennanent  and  that  it  requires  contin- 
uous upkeep,  for  which  financial  and  supervisory  provisions  must 
be  made. 

9.  That  cash  is  a  much  more  satisfactory  form  of  tax  than  is  labor. 

10.  That  all  agencies  at  the  disposal  of  the  State,  capable  of  use 
in  works  of  public  improvement,  should  be  so  used,  rather  than  in 
such  commercial  production  as  would  conflict  with  private  enterprises. 

The  practical  application  of  these  ten  axiomatic  propositions  does 
not  involve  intricate  or  impracticable  procedure.  Under  the  first 
proposition,  that  burdens  and  benefits  should  be  shared  proportion- 
ately, I  would  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  country  road  is  no 
longer  a  mere  local  utility.  The  product  of  the  farm  is  absolutely 
essential  to  the  existence  of  the  city  population,  while,  conversely, 
the  product  of  the  city  factories  finds  its  way  to  the  most  remote 
country  districts.  There  is  an  inter-dependence  which  should  carry 
with  it  a  cooperative  sharing  of  the  burdens  incident  to  improving 
the  facilities  of  transportation  between  country  and  city.  Legisla- 
tion should,  therefore,  be  framed  so  as  to  provide  for  city  taxation 
in  aid  of  country  road  improvement.  Automobile  owners  should 
individually  pay  a  material  portion  of  the  cost  of  our  public  roads, 
and  they  are  already  cheerfully  doing  so  in  many  of  the  States. 
Last  year  the  state  revenues  derived  from  automobiles  amounted  to 
about  eight  million  dollars  applicable  to  roads,  out  of  a  total  from  all 
sources,  State  and  local,  of  about  two  hundred  and  five  million  dol- 
lars. The  exact  method  of  apportioning  the  road  taxes  is  a  detail 
which  can  readily  be  worked  out  by  each  individual  State. 

The  second  proposition,  which  calls  for  the  improvement  of  roads 
in  proportion  to  their  traffic  importance,  strikes  at  the  very  root  of 
our  present  method  of  apportioning  road  improvement.  Too  often 
have  we  seen  examples  of  costly  improvements  distributed  according 
to  the  dictates  of  a  few  influential  citizens  or  according  to  some  arbi- 
trary arrangement  of  political  units  or  for  sentimental  reasons,  or 
through  a  cheerful,  haphazard  indifference.  It  is  now  generally 
believed  that  four-fifths  of  the  traffic  of  this  country  is  carried  on 
one-fifth  of  the  road  mileage.  It  should  be  manifest  that  the  most 
heavily  traveled  roads  should  first  receive  attention  and  should  be 
improved  in  the  most  substantial  manner.  It  is  entirely  feasible  to 
make  an  expert  study  of  a  county  road  system  and  indicate  graphically 
the  traffic  areas  for  each  important  road,  much  as  you  would  show 
drainage  areas  for  waterways.  The  yield  and  the  probable  traffic 
in  ton  miles  for  these  traffic  areas  can  be  readily  determined  so  as 
to  establish  with  reasonable  exactness  the  amount  of  outlay  which 
the  traffic  would  justify.  The  relative  cost  of  such  a  determination 
would  be  almost  negligible  if  incurred  as  a  preliminary  to  a  large 
outlay  for  actual  construction. 


ROAD   ECONOMICS  61 

The  third  proposition,  that  debts  should  be  liquidated  in  propor- 
tion to  the  deterioration  of  the  road,  is  intended  to  prevent  the  incur- 
ring of  a  debt  which  will  outlive  the  utility  which  it  was  designed 
to  create.  There  are  two  extremes  in  the  controversy  which  rages 
over  this  question  of  public  debt.  There  is  the  one  faction  which 
either  opposes  debt  in  any  degree,  or  contends  for  an  indebtedness 
of  such  short  term  as  to  make  it  almost  a  cash  transaction,  and  asserts 
that  the  road  is  entirely  destroyed  long  before  the  debt  becomes  due. 
The  other  extreme  faction  contends  for  long-term  indebtedness,  on 
the  theory  that  as  posterity  will  reap  the  benefits  it  should  bear  the 
burdens,  and  that  a  road  well  maintained  never  wears  out.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  location,  if  intelligently  made,  should  be  permanent; 
likewise  all  reduction  of  grades.  The  drainage  features,  if  honestly 
and  efficiently  constructed,  should  be  reasonably  permanent.  The 
road,  except  under  extraordinary  conditions,  should,  therefore,  be 
considered  reasonably  permanent  as  to  these  features.  As  a  general 
rule,  the  foundation  of  a  road  should  not  require  renewal  if  the  road 
is  subjected  to  adequate  and  continuous  maintenance.  Avoiding  any 
detailed  consideration  of  the  exact  proportion  of  the  total  cost  of  a 
road  represented  by  these  features,  I  should  say  that  in  general  the 
permanent  features  would  average  at  least  50  per  cent  of  the  total 
cost.  So  that,  if  the  other  50  per  cent  must  be  figured  as  perishable 
and  subject  to  renewal,  the  debt  should  not  cover  a  period  longer 
than  twice  the  length  of  this  perishable  portion.  For  example,  if 
a  macadam  road  is  constructed  at  a  cost  of  $6,000  per  mile  and  has 
an  estimated  life  of  ten  years,  the  bonds  could  run  twenty  years, 
because,  at  the  end  of  ten  years  the  depreciation  is  $3,000  and  the 
actual  value  is  $3000.  Another  expenditure  of  $3000  is  made  and  at 
the  end  of  the  twenty  years  when  the  bonds  become  due,  there  has 
been  a  total  outlay  of  $9000,  against  which  should  be  credited  the 
permanent  value  of  the  road  at  $3000,  making  the  net  outlay  $6000, 
or  the  face  amount  of  the  bonds.  This  is  merely  an  example  and  a 
generalization.  It  would  be  desirable  to  ascertain  the  permanent 
and  perishable  portions  in  each  undertaking. 

The  fourth  proposition,  which  calls  for  the  employment  of  specialists 
in  road  work,  is  so  nearly  self-evident  in  its  application  as  to  require 
very  little  explanation.  I  should  say,  however,  that  if  the  laws  of 
the  State  would  require  that  all  persons  selected  to  have  immediate 
direction  of  road  or  bridge  construction  and  maintenance  must  possess 
practical  knowledge  and  experience,  and  if  this  fitness  should  be  tested 
by  some  sort  of  competitive  examination  to  be  prescribed  by  a  State 
highway  department,  acting  either  directly  or  through  a  civil  service 
commission,  the  net  result  would  undoubtedly  be  the  saving  of  many 
millions  of  dollars  of  road  revenue  and  a  wonderfully  increased  effi- 
ciency in  our  road  system. 

The  fifth  proposition,  that  responsibilities  should  be  definite  as 
to  persons,  is  aimed  at  the  elimination  of  our  present  complex  and 


62  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

cumbersome  system  of  road  management.  If  all  of  this  antiquated 
organization  could  be  swept  aside  and  in  its  stead  one  or  a  few  officials 
endowed  with  authority  and  charged  with  responsibility  in  each 
county,  the  beneficial  effects  could  not  fail  to  be  most  marked.  If 
the  people,  individually  or  in  a  representative  capacity,  could  immedi- 
ately place  their  finger,  so  to  speak,  upon  the  man  responsible  for  the 
discharge  of  public  duties  we  should  have  no  more  political  juggling 
and  the  passing  of  responsibilities  and  duties  onward  in  an  endless 
chain. 

The  sixth  proposition,  that  continuous  employment  is  more  condu- 
cive to  efficiency  than  temporary  employment,  finds  its  an  ithesis 
in  our  present  annual  or  semi-annual  junket  which  we  call  "working 
the  roads."  It  is  so  self-evident  that  a  minor  defect  in  a  road  can 
be  repaired  at  its  inception  with  little  effort,  and  that  if  allowed  to 
go  on  it  may  require  the  entire  reconstruction  of  the  road  surface,  that 
it  seems  scarcely  necessary  to  urge  the  soundness  of  this  proposition. 
If  a  small  force  of  laborers  with  necessary  tools  and  teams  were  em- 
ployed throughout  the  year  on  the  roads  it  would  not  cost  any  more 
money  than  to  call  out  a  small-sized  army  of  road  hands  twice  a  year, 
and  would  not  only  result  in  quick  repairs  where  needed  but  would 
also  insure  that  the  most  work  would  be  done  at  the  places  where  it 
was  most  needed.  The  force  would  be  small,  mobile,  trained,  inter- 
ested, subject  to  effective  discipline  and  altogether  infinitely  more 
efficient  than  the  unwieldly  forces  now  employed. 

The  seventh  proposition,  which  calls  for  appointment  rather  than 
election  and  for  the  holding  of  office  during  efficiency  instead  of  for 
fixed  terms,  is  designed  to  attract  to  the  work  men  who  look  upon 
road-building  as  a  life  profession  or  occupation.  A  good  engineer 
may  be  a  very  poor  politician  and  a  good  politician  may  be  a  very 
poor  engineer,  but  in  a  contest  in  which  votes  are  essential  the  good 
politician  will  usually  defeat  the  good  engineer,  although  the  position 
requires  engineering  ability  rather  than  political  ability.  Do  not 
spoil  a  good  highway  engineer  or  superintendent  by  making  him  cater 
to  the  popular  fancy.  If  he  is  the  right  man  in  the  right  place,  it 
is  absurd  to  limit  him  to  a  fixed  term,  for  his  position  is  not  a  reward. 
The  county  is  purchasing  his  services  and  is  supposed  to  get  value 
received,  and  it  should  continue  to  purchase  so  long  as  he  delivers  the 
goods. 

The  eighth  proposition,  that  no  road  is  wholly  permanent  and  that 
it  requires  continuous  upkeep,  is  intended  to  impress  upon  legisla- 
tors and  administrative  officials  the  necessity  for  making  adequate 
financial  provision  to  care  for  roads,  no  matter  how  costly  or  effi- 
cient their  construction.  A  house  is  not  permanent  without  repair, 
a  railroad  track  is  not  permanent  without  repair,  then  why  should 
public  funds  in  a  large  amount  be  expended  in  road  construction 
which,  without  adequate  maintenance,  may  deteriorate  to  the  extent 
of  50  per  cent  in  a  few  years.  It  would  seem  almost  a  reflection  upon 
your  intelligence  that  I  should  urge  upon  you  these  conclusions  which 


ROAD   ECONOMICS  63 

are  so  generally  understood  and  accepted,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that 
their  acceptance  is  very  largely  in  theory  and  not  in  actual  practice. 

The  ninth  proposition,  that  cash  is  a  much  more  satisfactory  form 
of  tax  than  labor,  is  put  forward  as  a  protest  against  the  continued 
cherishing  that  old  heirloom  known  as  "statute  labor."  If  A  owes  B 
$10  and  B  has  the  option  of  collecting  that  $10  in  cash  or  taking  the 
amount  out  in  labor  which  A  shall  select  and  which  is  totally  unfa- 
miliar with  the  character  of  work  which  B  requires  and  which  would  be 
semi-independent  of  any  control  by  B,  we  should  consider  it  very 
unsound  business  judgment  if  B  were  to  accept  the  payment  in  labor 
instead  of  cash.  If  you  provide  an  efficient  highway  engineer  or 
county  superintendent  with  a  modest  amount  of  cash  and  let  him 
select  competent,  efficient  laborers,  he  can  quadruple  the  effective 
results  obtained  by  the  same  number  of  laborers  under  the  old  statute 
system.  I  know  that  there  are  sections  of  country  where  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  collect  a  cash  tax.  A  certain  amount  of  discretion  might 
in  such  cases  be  entrusted  to  the  county  authorities  to  accept  pay- 
ment in  labor. 

The  tenth  proposition,  that  state  agencies  which  may  be  used  in 
works  of  public  improvement  should  be  so  used  instead  of  in  com- 
mercial undertakings,  is  directed  partially  toward  the  convict  labor 
question,  and  is  based  upon  the  assumption  that  offenders  against 
society  owe  a  debt  to  society  which  should  be  paid  in  such  form  as 
will  most  benefit  society,  and  the  further  assumption  that  honest  labor 
should  not  be  discriminated  against  through  the  sale  or  disposal  of 
products  created  by  criminal  labor.  The  practical  application  of 
this  proposition  would  mean  the  employment  of  convicts  in  road- 
building,  the  preparation  of  road  materials,  or  in  other  works  of  public 
improvement  so  far  as  practicable.  This  proposition  is  intended 
also  to  emphasize  the  necessity  for  correlation  of  the  States'  various 
agencies  in  the  interest  of  road  improvement.  For  example,  a  State 
geologist  should  be  helpful  in  the  selection  and  location  of  road  mate- 
rials, the  laboratories  of  state  universities  should  be  useful  in  the 
testing  of  materials,  the  university  staff  should  be  helpful  in  the 
giving  of  theoretical  instruction  and  in  many  cases  in  practical  exten- 
sion work,  state  bureaus  of  statistics  and  agriculture  should  be 
helpful  in  accumulating  essential  data  for  the  road  improvement  work 
in  the  State,  and  state  civil  service  commissions  should  be  of  very 
great  use  in  the  inauguration  and  conduct  of  the  merit  system  in  the 
filling  of  positions  requiring  technical  or  practical  qualifications  and 
experience. 

The  subject  of  road  economics  is  entirely  too  far  reaching  to  be 
adequately  treated  in  one  paper,  and  I  consider  it  more  advisable 
to  present  to  you  these  fundamental  considerations  than  to  attempt 
a  hurried  and  general  treatment  of  the  whole  subject.  You  can 
readily  see  that  under  the  first  division  of  the  subject  as  I  have  out- 
lined it,  there  yet  remains  a  great  field  for  analysis  and  discussion 


64  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

in  the  detailed  application  of  systems  of  finance  and  taxation  and  in 
the  organization  and  working  policies  of  highway  departments  for 
state  and  local  work.  These,  I  trust,  may  be  dealt  with  in  due  time 
by  others,  although  I  may  say  that  it  is  my  purpose  to  pursue  the 
subject  further  as  one  of  the  projects  of  my  division  in  the  United 
States  Office  of  Public  Roads. 

The  second  division  of  the  subject  to  which  I  referred  briefly  in 
the  opening  paragraphs  of  my  paper  and  which  relates  to  the  efficient 
and  economical  management  of  the  actual  work  of  construction  is 
important  enough  for  a  separate  paper.  I  have  pointed  out  a  few 
examples  to  show  you  what  this  division  of  the  subject  comprises, 
but  it  is  manifestly  impossible  for  me,  in  the  space  allotted,  to  take 
up  the  second  division  even  in  a  general  way.  The  time  is  fast  com- 
ing, however,  when  only  those  contractors  and  those  officials  and 
engineers  in  charge  of  force  account  work  who  devote  attention  to 
the  economics  of  actual  construction  can  obtain  material  success. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  There  will  be  a  meeting  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  American  Road  Congress,  at  3  p.m.  Wednesday, 
tomorrow,  in  room  326  Georgian  Terrace  Hotel.  The  purpose  of 
this  meeting  is  to  give  hearings  to  delegates  from  cities  desiring  next 
year's  Congress,  and  the  committee  requests  that  all  those  who  are 
interested  in  this  meeting  will  please  be  present.  Next  will  be  a 
paper  entitled  Educational  Field  for  Highway  Departments,  by 
Dr.  Joseph  Hyde  Pratt,  State  Geologist  of  North  Carolina. 

EDUCATIONAL  FIELD  FOR  HIGHWAY  DEPARTMENT 

BY  JOSEPH  HYDE  PRATT 
State  Geologist  and  Highway  Engineer 

There  is  undoubtedly  a  wide  field  of  work  for  all  highway  depart- 
ments in  an  educational  line,  regardless  of  the  length  of  time  that 
the  highway  department  may  have  been  in  existence  or  the  actual 
amount  of  work  that  it  has  accomplished.  I  do  not  believe  that 
any  State  highway  department  has  at  the  present  time  absolute 
control  of  the  location,  construction  and  maintenance  of  all  high- 
ways within  the  borders  of  its  State,  but,  on  the  contrary,  there  are, 
besides  the  State  highways,  county  and  township  highways.  Over 
these  latter  systems,  the  State  highway  department  would  probably 
have,  in  most  cases,  no  actual  control  but  would  simply  act  in  an 
advisory  capacity.  In  many  States  individualism  and  sectionalism, 
as  opposed  to  what  might  be  termed  a  State-wide  community  spirit, 
are  at  the  present  time  a  positive  detriment  to  the  general  advance- 
ment of  the  State.  This  is  particularly  true  in  connection  with  the 
public  road  movement  of  many  of  our  States.  It  is  exceedingly 
difficult  to  get  the  members  of  our  general  assemblies  to  consider 


EDUCATIONAL  FIELD   FOR  HIGHWAY   DEPARTMENT  65 

the  road  problem  as  really  a  State-wide  one,  and  although  in  many 
States  there  have  been  organized  very  efficient  State  highway  depart- 
ments, they  have  been  limited  in  their  power  and  limited  in  the  roads 
that  they  can  control. 

For  these  reasons  the  work  of  a  highway  department  is  sometimes 
very  greatly  handicapped,  and  its  efficiency  very  materially  reduced. 
These  conditions  can  only  be  remedied  by  bringing  our  people  into 
a  fuller  realization  that  public  road  construction  is  a  business  prop- 
osition and  that  the  best  results  can  only  be  obtained  when  their 
location,  construction  and  maintenance  are  under  the  supervision 
of  a  competent  head.  To  accomplish  this  it  is  necessary  that  the 
people  be  informed  of  existing  conditions,  the  need  for  changing  these 
conditions,  how  it  can  be  accomplished  and  the  benefits  that  will 
result  to  the  State. 

The  educational  work  that  can  and  should  be  carried  on  by  high- 
way departments  readily  divides  itself  into  three  groups: 

I.  Educational  work  as  it  relates  to  the  employees  of  the  highway 
department. 

II.  As  it  relates  to  county  and  township  road  officials. 

III.  As  it  relates  to  the  people  of  the  State. 

I.  I  believe  there  is  very  great  need  in  many  highway  departments 
for  the  engineers  connected  with  them  to  be  in  closer  touch  with 
each  other  and  the  head  of  the  department.  It  seems  to  me  that  at 
least  once  a  year  there  should  be  a  general  meeting  of  all  the  State 
engineers  and  superintendents  to  be  held  at  some  suitable  and 
convenient  point  in  the  State,  where  they  would  have  the  opportunity 
of  bringing  before  the  meeting  problems  that  have  come  up  in  con- 
nection with  their  individual  work  and  upon  which  they  desire  in- 
formation and  assistance.  General  instructions  should  be  given  at 
such  meetings  by  the  State  highway  commissioner  or  engineer  as 
to  the  general  policy  of  the  department  and  the  character  of  the  work 
that  they  wish  to  accomplish.  I  believe  that  by  so  doing,  the  effici- 
ency of  the  work  of  the  department  will  be  increased  and  the  engi- 
neers and  superintendents  themselves  will  take  a  more  lively  and  a 
keener  interest  in  seeing  that  the  work  accomplished  is  of  the  very 
highest  order  and  that  the  part  of  the  organization  under  their 
administration  is  the  most  efficient. 

For  such  a  conference  there  is  no  reason  why  all  the  engineers 
connected  with  the  department  should  not  get  together,  because 
they  can  be  ordered  to  attend  by  the  commissioner,  and  such  attend- 
ance should  be  considered  as  part  of  their  official  duties,  and  all 
expenses  incurred  by  the  engineers  should  be  borne  by  the  highway 
department.  It  is  not  a  bad  idea  to  have  in  attendance  at  such  a 
conference  some  engineer  of  national  reputation  to  address  the 
members. 

The  State  highway  department  will  find  that  it  is  necessary  to 
train  and  educate  young  men  in  order  to  develop  a  corps  of  engineers 


66  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

of  sufficient  magnitude  to  carry  on  the  work  that  is  required  of  the 
department.  A  student  just  out  from  college,  although  having 
received  the  best  training  in  the  highway  engineering  department, 
is  not  a  competent  highway  engineer,  but  is  capable  of  becoming  one. 
He  can  work  well  under  more  experienced  men,  but  is  not  in  a  position 
to  take  charge  of  road  work  at  the  beginning  of  his  career,  and  he 
cannot  develop  into  a  competent  highway  engineer  without  working 
under  and  coming  in  contact  with  more  experienced  men.  The 
meetings  referred  to  above  are  of  very  great  importance  and  benefit 
to  this  type  of  man,  and  are  of  very  material  assistance  in  training 
him  for  the  work  that  will  be  required  of  him. 

II.  The  educational  field  of  the  highway  department,  in  con- 
nection with  county  and  township  road  officials,  will  have  to  be 
cooperative.  As  the  State  highway  department  has  absolute  con- 
trol only  over  State  roads,  and  as  the  county  and  township  road 
commissions  have  control  over  the  balance  of  the  roads,  there  is 
very  great  need  in  many  instances  for  a  highway  department  to  carry 
on  educational  work  in  the  counties  and  townships. 

In  the  first  place,  the  highway  department  must  be  able  to  show 
that  they  have  something  to  give  to  the  county  that  is  better  than 
the  county  has  in  connection  with  its  road  work.  First  of  all,  they 
must  bring  the  county  and  road  commissioners  to  a  realization 
that  it  is  just  as  necessary  that  they  have  a  competent  engineer  in 
charge  of  their  county  road  work  as  it  is  for  the  State  in  State  work, 
and  if  the  State  roads  have  been  built  in  a  creditable  manner,  there 
is  not  much  difficulty  in  demonstrating  this  point  to  the  county 
officials.  It  is  harder,  however,  to  convince  the  county  and  township 
officials  that  it  is  necessary  to  have  men  trained  in  road  construction 
to  act  as  superintendents  of  their  roads.  It  is  in  the  appointment  of 
superintendents  and  foremen  that  politics  has  played  too  great  a 
part  in  road  work,  and  to  the  detriment  of  the  resulting  road.  These 
men  should  be  absolutely  under  the  control  of  the  highway  engineer, 
and,  as  stated  above,  should  be  men  who  are  familiar  with  and  trained 
in  road  work. 

These  men  need  to  keep  up  with  the  advancements  made  in  road 
construction  and  maintenance,  and  in  order  to  keep  them  abreast 
of  the  times,  I  believe  that  road  institutes  should  be  held  in  the  coun- 
ties at  certain  intervals,  at  which  time  various  subjects  relating  to 
road  location,  construction  and  maintenance  should  be  taken  up  and 
discussed.  The  county  superintendent  of  roads  or  county  road 
engineer,  if  there  should  be  one,  should  hold  these  meetings  once  a 
month  or  once  in  two  months,  when  he  will  go  over  with  his  foremen 
and  supervisors  different  phases  of  the  road  work  and  give  them  an 
opportunity  to  bring  up  any  questions  or  problems  that  have  come  up 
during  the  previous  month  in  regard  to  their  work.  The  State  high- 
way department  should  have  general  supervision  of  these  foremen's 
institutes. 


EDUCATIONAL   FIELD   FOR   HIGHWAY   DEPARTMENT  67 

It  will  be  found  that  such  institutes  will  react  very  favorably  on 
the  foremen,  and  will  cause  them  to  take  a  much  greater  interest  in 
their  work  and  make  them  realize  that  they  are  a  part  of  an  organi- 
zation which  is  building  up  their  county  or  district.  One  particular 
feature  that  is  constantly  needing  development,  and  regarding  which 
supervisors  and  foremen  need  constant  instruction,  is  in  connection 
with  the  maintenance  of  their  roads,  and  at  these  institutes  instruction 
and  directions  can  be  given  as  to  how  to  repair  temporarily  serious 
breaks  on  bridges,  culverts  or  the  surface  of  the  road,  so  that  the  road 
is  made  passable  until  the  superintendent  can  be  notified  and  a  force 
of  road  men  detailed  to  make  the  permanent  repairs. 

Those  connected  with  the  construction  of  public  roads  are  like 
any  other  set  of  men,  in  that  if  they  can  be  made  to  have  a  personal 
interest  in  their  work,  they  accomplish  more  and  with  better  results. 
I  believe  this  personal  interest  of  the  road  men  is  of  as  great  or  greater 
value  in  connection  with  building  roads  as  in  any  other  kind  of  work, 
inasmuch  as  the  question  of  the  disposal  of  dirt  and  rock  in  grading 
is  so  dependent  on  the  road  men  themselves  that  they  can  very  often 
waste  a  lot  of  dirt  and  also  a  great  deal  of  time  unless  someone  is 
standing  over  them  constantly  directing  each  individual  man's  work. 

The  highway  department  should  supply  books  of  instruction  for 
the  superintendent,  foremen  and  supervisors,  and  if  used  in  con- 
nection with  the  institutes  they  will  very  materially  increase  the 
value  of  the  institute  and  the  efficiency  of  the  men.  I  have  found 
that  the  information  which  it  is  desired  to  convey  to  the  road  engi- 
neers, superintendents  and  foremen  is  perhaps  better  supplied  by 
short  pamphlets  on  the  different  subjects  than  by  trying  to  bring 
it  all  under  one  book.  Thus  the  highway  division  of  which  I  am 
director  has  published  a  series  of  Good  Roads  Circulars  for  the  use 
of  the  engineers,  superintendents  and  foremen  of  North  Carolina 
on  the  following  subjects: 

Dirt  Roads  and  Their  Maintenance. 

Suggestions  to  Road  Officials  Concerning  the  Construction  and 
Drainage  of  Public  Roads. 

Construction  of  the  Sand-Clay  Road. 

Status  and  Duties  of  the  Road  Engineer. 

Economics  of  Convict  Labor  in  Road  Construction. 

Organization  of  Road  Forces. 

The  Use  of  the  Abney  Hand  Level. 

Construction  of  the  Split  Log  Drag. 

Culverts  and  Small  Bridges  for  County  Roads. 

At  least  once  a  year  State  highway  department  should  call  an 
open  meeting  in  each  county,  to  be  held  at  the  office  of  the  county 
or  road  commissioners,  for  the  purpose  of  affording  instruction  relative 
to  matters  pertaining  to  road  and  bridge  construction  and  mainte- 
nance, and  one  of  the  State  highway  engineers  should  be  detailed  to 
conduct  the  meeting.  Upon  receipt  of  such  notice  from  the  State 


68  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

highway  department,  the  county  commissioners  shall  call  such  meet- 
ing on  the  date  set  by  the  State  highway  department  and  shall  be 
present  themselves  and  notify  the  county  engineer,  the  road  officials 
of  each  township  and  the  county  road  superintendent  or  district 
road  superintendents  to  be  present  at  such  meetings  in  person.  Each 
of  the  road  officials  thus  notified  to  attend  shall  be  paid  the  regular 
per  diem  allowance  and  expenses  in  the  usual  manner  for  the  actual 
time  in  attendance  at  such  meeting.  If  the  above  is  incorporated  as 
part  of  the  official  duties  of  the  State  highway  department,  it  becomes 
obligatory  upon  them  to  call  these  meetings  and  also  makes  it  obli- 
gatory upon  the  county  officials  to  attend. 

Once  a  year  there  should  be  held  a  good  roads  institute,  either  in  the 
office  of  the  State  highway  department  or,  preferably,  at  the  State 
university  or  other  State  institution,  where  a  course  in  highway 
engineering  is  given.  At  such  an  institute,  which  should  be  held 
for  at  least  a  week,  all  county  and  township  engineers  and  superin- 
tendents should  be  obliged  to  attend  as  part  of  their  official  duties. 
The  program  for  the  institute  should  be  worked  out  by  the  State 
highway  department  in  cooperation  with  the  State  educational 
institution,  if  the  institute  is  held  at  the  latter  place.  It  will  be  found 
that  as  these  institutes  are  carried  on  from  year  to  year,  they  soon 
become  clearing  houses  for  all  road  problems  of  the  State  in  which 
they  are  held. 

Road  officials  should  be  encouraged  to  subscribe  to  one  or  more 
road  magazines.  I  believe  it  will  be  found  very  efficacious  for  the 
counties  to  subscribe  for  these  magazines  and  have  them  sent  to 
their  road  officials. 

III.  In  some  States  the  educational  work  that  a  highway  depart- 
ment can  carry  on  in  connection  with  informing  the  people  of  the 
State  as  to  the  road  situation,  is  the  most  important  phase  of  edu- 
cational work  to  be  done.  As  we  all  know,  the  status  and  life  of  a 
State  highway  department  are  dependent  upon  the  people,  and 
such  a  department  can  only  live  and  develop  as  it  is  able  to  show 
to  the  people  that  it  is  efficient  and  of  economic  value  to  the 
State. 

Where  we  have  the  three  sets  of  road  officials — State,  county  and 
township — in  charge  of  different  portions  of  a  State's  system  of 
roads,  there  is  more  or  less  conflict  between  the  county  and  township 
officials  and  the  State  officials,  and  this  is  apt  to  engender  a  feeling 
of  antagonism  against  the  State  department.  This  will  always  be 
the  case  until  our  people,  as  a  whole,  realize  that  the  welfare  of  the 
State  must  come  before  that  of  the  county;  the  county  before  that  of 
the  township;  the  township  before  that  of  the  community,  and  the 
community  before  that  of  the  individual  family.  At  the  present 
time,  in  many  States  we  are  apt  to  consider  things  in  reverse  order  to 
what  I  have  just  mentioned.  We  cannot  afford  to  develop  a  county 
at  the  expense  of  the  State. 


EDUCATIONAL   FIELD    FOR   HIGHWAY   DEPARTMENT  69 

I  believe  that  a  State  highway  department  should  show  to  the 
people  of  a  State  the  work  it  is  doing,  what  it  has  accomplished  and 
what  it  expects  to  accomplish.  This  can  be  done  very  effiectively 
by  illustrated  lectures  to  be  given  at  the  county  seats,  and  by  the 
publication  of  reports,  giving  a  description  of  the  work  done  during 
the  previous  year.  These  should  be  illustrated,  and  in  this  connection 
it  will  be  found  that  cooperative  work  with  counties  can  be  very 
advantageously  carried  on  by  illustrating  in  the  reports  the  best 
work  that  has  been  done  in  several  of  the  counties,  giving  in  con- 
nection with  the  illustrations  cost  of  the  construction  work.  It 
will  be  an  incentive  for  county  officials  to  try  to  see  that  they  get  the 
best  results  at  the  least  cost. 

In  many  States,  counties  and  townships  have  been  authorized  by 
the  legislature  to  issue  bonds  for  road  construction.  In  some  States 
the  State  highwy  department  has  the  supervision  of  the  location 
of  the  roads  which  shall  be  built  after  the  bond  issue.  In  other 
States  the  whole  control  of  the  expenditure  of  the  bond  issues  is  left 
to  the  local  authorities.  In  this  case  the  State  highway  department 
could  only  act  in  an  advisory  capacity.  They  should,  however, 
try  in  every  way  to  give  assistance  to  the  local  road  officials,  not 
only  in  the  location  of  the  road,  but  in  its  method  of  construction. 
This  will  be  accomplished  largely  by  educational  methods.  This 
can  be  brought  about  by  consultation  of  engineers  of  the  State  high- 
way department  with  the  local  road  officials.  In  giving  advice 
regarding  the  location,  they  should  explain  in  detail  their  reasons 
for  the  location  made,  and  show  how,  in  the  end,  it  makes  a  cheaper 
and  better  road.  They  should  assist  in  the  determination  of  suitable 
surfacing  material  and  advise  the  local  officials  as  to  the  most  suit- 
able and  economical  material  available  for  their  use. 

Instruction  by  means  of  publications  and  conferences  should  be 
given  local  road  officials  in  regard  to  bridge  and  culvert  work.  Speci- 
fication blanks  can  be  prepared  for  distribution  amongst  the  counties 
on  request. 

In  constructing  a  system  of  improved  roads  in  any  State,  there 
will  probably  not  be  over  50  to  75  per  cent  of  the  roads  that  will 
have  hard  surfaces,  and  the  balance  will  come  under  the  head  of 
dirt  roads.  In  some  States  60  per  cent  of  the  roads  will  be  dirt 
roads.  For  this  reason  it  is  a  good  policy  for  a  State  highway  depart- 
ment to  give  serious  consideration  to  the  care  and  upkeep  of  the 
dirt  road,  and  they  should  call  the  attention  of  local  road  officials 
to  this  and  give  them  instruction  as  to  the  maintenance  of  such  roads. 
Circulars  can  be  prepared  and  distributed  to  advantage  amongst 
the  people  of  a  State,  describing  the  system  of  improved  roads  and 
calling  attention  to  the  dirt  roads  leading  to  them,  and  how,  by  a 
little  thought  and  care,  these  dirt  roads  may  be  kept  in  hard,  good 
condition  the  greater  portion  of  the  year.  I  do  not  believe  any  of 
our  State  highway  departments  are  giving  sufficient  thought  and 


70  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

consideration  to  the  dirt  road,  and  I  am  confident  that  a  great  deal 
of  good  can  be  accomplished  by  these  departments  giving  more  heed 
to  this  kind  of  road  and  instructing  road  officials  as  to  their  con- 
struction and  maintenance. 

It  is  just  as  necessary  that  men  skilled  in  road  work  have  super- 
vision of  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  the  dirt  road  as  the 
dirt  road.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  putting  it  too  strongly  to  say  that 
one-tenth  to  one-fifth  of  the  time  and  labor  expended  in  all  our  States 
in  public  road  work  is  absolutely  wasted,  and  this  is  practically 
true  of  the  amount  expended  in  connection  with  the  dirt  road.  The 
State  highway  department  should  consider  it  one  of  their  duties  to 
give  such  instruction  as  may  be  necessary  to  enable  the  people  to 
save  this  enormous  amount  of  money  that  is  now  being  wasted  each 
year. 

With  the  advent  of  the  automobile  traffic  conditions  on  the  public 
roads  have  been  very  materially  changed,  and  not  only  is  it  necessary 
for  the  State  highway  department  to  make  a  thorough  study  of  these 
new  traffic  conditions  and  the  effect  of  these  new  vehicles  on  the  pub- 
lic road,  but  it  is  also  necessary  for  the  department  to  give  instruction 
and  advice  to  the  users  of  these  vehicles,  as  to  the  effect  of  such 
traffic  on  the  roads  and  why  it  is  necessry  to  legislate  in  regard  to 
their  use.  The  passage  of  laws  regulating  traffic  will  not  be  sufficient 
to  control  it  for  a  great  many  years  unless  the  users  of  the  road  are 
educated  as  to  the  need  of  such  traffic  regulations.  Therefore 
circulars  should  be  prepared  and  distributed,  discussing  the  speed 
laws,  method  of  passing  vehicles,  the  rights  that  the  users  of  vehicles 
have  on  the  public  roads,  and  the  license  fees  or  tax  required  of  all 
users  of  the  roads.  I  believe  that  as  we  are  able  to  inform  our  people 
in  regard  to  the  public  road,  that  it  belongs  to  all  the  people  and  not 
to  any  one  class  of  users,  and  that  the  laws  and  regulations  regarding 
the  use  of  the  public  roads  are  passed  in  order  to  make  the  road  of 
greatest  service  to  the  greatest  number  of  people,  that  such  regu- 
lations can  soon  be  enforced  with  but  little  difficulty. 

The  new  traffic  conditions  have  increased  the  dangers  of  a  traveler 
on  the  public  road,  and  I  think  the  highway  departments  should  begin 
to  take  up  a  plan  of  educational  work  that  has  been  inaugurated, 
by  the  railroads,  that  is,  "Safety  first."  Pamphlets  should  be  sup- 
plied to  users  of  the  road,  cautioning  them  in  using  the  road  to  give 
first  consideration  to  the  safety  of  other  users  of  the  road,  and  there- 
fore be  careful  in  passing  other  vehicles  and  in  rounding  sharp  turns. 
If  all  would  cooperate  and  have  the  public's  interest  at  heart,  the 
accidents  that  occur  on  our  public  roads  could  be  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum. Each  year  there  are  an  enormous  number  of  accidents  at 
railroad  crossings,  some  of  which  are  due  to  carelessness  of  the 
driver,  others  to  the  bad  condition  of  the  crossing,  and  some  due  to 
negligence  of  the  railroad.  Here  again  is  an  opportunity  for  the 
State  highway  departments  to  do  very  efficient  educational  work. 


DISCUSSION  71 

Have  warning  notices  posted  at  railroad  crossings.  Have  cards  for 
distribution,  cautioning  all  users  of  the  road  to  take  extra  precautions 
in  crossing  railroad  tracks.  The  greatest  good,  however,  can  be 
accomplished  by  working  out  a  standard  plan  of  crossing  for  a  rail- 
road, when  an  overhead  or  underground  crossing  is  not  possible. 
Do  not  approach  a  railroad  crossing  on  a  grade  of  over  4J  per  cent, 
and  if  possible,  for  15  feet  each  side  of  the  rails  themselves  have 
the  road  level.  Then  keep  the  road-bed  smooth  and  hard  and  the 
space  between  the  tracks  flush  with  the  rail. 

In  order  to  carry  out  this,  it  will  be  necessary  to  obtain  the  co- 
operation of  the  local  road  officials  and  the  railroads.  But  as  it  is 
right  in  line  with  the  "safety  first"  movement  of  the  railroad,  little 
difficulty  should  be  encountered  in  obtaining  their  cooperation. 

In  many  States  the  governors  are  issuing  proclamations  for  civic 
days,  and  usually  one  of  these  days  in  known  as  Good  Roads  Day. 
Here  the  State  highway  departments  have  a  splendid  opportunity 
of  getting  in  direct  contact  with  those  people  that  have  the  welfare 
of  the  state  at  heart.  The  departments  can  assist  the  communities 
in  arranging  programs  for  good  roads  days  and  furnishing  lectures  as 
far  as  possible. 

One  other  phase  of  educational  work  that  is,  perhaps,  as  important 
as  any  thus  far  discussed,  is  that  of  constructing  a  sample  of  model 
road  in  those  sections  of  the  State  where  there  are  no  good  roads  and 
the  people  are  not  aroused  to  their  need  of  them  and  the  beneficial 
results  that  can  be  derived  from  them.  The  construction  of  a  quarter 
to  a  half  a  mile,  or  even  one  or  two  hundred  yards  of  good  road  in 
such  a  community  will  often  be  the  means  of  arousing  the  community 
to  a  realization  of  what  they  need,  with  the  result  that  they  soon 
work  out  a  plan  by  which  they  can  obtain  a  system  of  good  roads. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  Dr.  Pratt's  paper  will  be 
opened  by  our  friend  from  Oklahoma,  Col.  Sidney  Suggs,  State 
Highway  Commissioner. 

MR.  SUGGS:  Mr.  President  and  Delegates:  In  opening  this  discus- 
sion, I  fully  realize  its  great  importance  and  far  reaching  effect. 
It  is  not  my  desire  to  indulge  in  theories,  but  will,  as  briefly  as 
possible,  draw  a  practical  application  of  the  subject  to  the  condi- 
tions which  have  had  to  be  met  in  my  State  where  I  am  best  ac- 
quainted with  conditions.  This  subject  peculiarly  applies  to  Okla- 
homa for  the  reason  that  my  department  has  been  made  almost 
exclusively  an  educational  department.  There  has  never  been  as 
much  as  one  dollar  appropriated  for  the  use  of  the  department  not- 
withstanding the  creation  of  the  department  was  provided  for  in  the 
constitution  in  a  clause  which  reads,  "The  legislature  is  hereby 
directed  to  create  a  department  of  highways." 

I  was  president  of  the  Indian  Territory  Good  Roads  Association 


72  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

while  W.  R.  Goit  was  president  of  the  Oklahoma  Good  Roads  Asso- 
ciation. After  Statehood,  the  two  associations  were  consolidated, 
we  began  activities  with  the  formation  of  the  new  State,  a  legis- 
lative committee  was  appointed  to  meet  with  the  constitutional 
committee  on  highways.  The  constitutional  provision  requiring 
the  creation  of  a  department  of  highways  was  the  result  of  the  work 
done  by  the  legislative  committee.  The  first  and  second  legislatures 
gave  little  or  no  heed  to  this  constitutional  provision,  the  com- 
mittee, however,  was  persistent,  and  by  determined  and  intelligent 
effort  succeeded  in  getting  the  third  legislature  to  vitalize  this  pro- 
vision of  the  constitution. 

The  vote  was  close,  in  fact,  State  Senator  Pat  Gouilding  who  is 
now  serving  on  the  Capitol  Building  Commission,  changed  his  vote 
in  order  to  vitalize  this  provision  of  the  constitution.  The  State 
department  of  highways  was  created,  the  bill  provided  for  the 
appointment  of  a  commissioner  of  highways  by  the  governor. 
The  law  conferred  powers  upon  the  department  and  defined  its 
multiplicity  of  duties,  but  it  failed  to  appropriate  as  much  as  one 
dollar  for  its  use.  As  a  means  of  support  a  State  license  fee  of  $1 
was  taxed  against  every  automobile  in  the  State,  but  there  was  no 
penalty  attached  to  failure  to  pay,  and  the  collection  of  this  tax 
has  been  expensive  and  very  humiliating  to  the  department. 

Notwithstanding  this  handicap,  the  department  has  gone  for- 
ward with  the  duties  prescribed  by  the  legislature.  It  has  col- 
lected much  valuable  data  and  has  laid  out  and  made  a  map  of 
over  2,400  miles  of  State  roads,  which  have  been  submitted  to  the 
legislature,  and  which  have  been  approved  by  the  president  and 
secretary  of  the  State  Good  Roads  Association,  and  have  been  sent 
to  the  joint  committee  of  congress. 

The  department,  by  diligent  and  systematic  inquiiy  learned  that 
3,300  township  trustees  were  spending  from  road  levies  and  from 
bond  issues  from  three  and  a  half  to  four  millions  of  dollars  annually, 
without  the  assistance  or  advice  of  an  engineer.  This  enormous 
waste  may  be  illustrated  by  comparing  it  with  the  story  of  the  old 
lady  who  carried  water  from  the  spring  to  the  chicken  lot  in  a  pan 
full  of  holes — the  water  all  leaked  out  before  she  got  to  the  chicken 
trough.  Large  sums  of  money  and  much  energy  have  been  wasted, 
and  we  are  still  in  the  mud. 

The  removal  of  the  3,300  township  trustees  proved  to  be  a  diffi- 
cult task,  inasmuch  as  a  few  of  these  township  trustees  were  backed 
by  what  we  term  in  Oklahoma,  the  wrinkled  tin  culvert,  tin  bridge 
and  toy  tool  grafters  who  claimed  that  the  highway  department 
was  interfering  with  home  industry.  The  fight  for  their  elimina- 
tion has,  I  am  proud  to  say,  been  fairly  successful.  Township 
officials  in  most  of  the  townships  have  retired  to  private  life  and 
the  rest  of  them  are  making  arrangements  to  retire  as  soon  as  the 
taxpayers  of  their  respective  counties  take  a  vote  upon  their  elimi- 


DISCUSSION  73 

nation  as  the  law  provides.     So  much  for  the  early  road  history 
of  Oklahoma,  and  this  brings  us  up  to  the  present. 

I  fully  agree  with  Dr.  Pratt  when  he  says  there  is  a  wide  field 
of  useful  work  for  all  highway  departments  along  educational  lines. 
In  this  connection  I  am  pleased  to  report  that  in  Oklahoma  we 
have  taken  this  proposition  to  the  rural  and  high  school  pupils, 
both  boys  and  girls,  and  since  the  12th  of  last  month  we  have  carried 
the  message  to  3,000  pupils,  and  have  organized  Good  Road  and 
Civic  Clubs  in  four  counties.  On  the  16th  and  17th  of  October  the 
high  school  pupils  of  Seminole  county  built  the  first  mile  of  educa- 
tional road  in  the  State.  So  much  interest  was  manifested  by  the 
pupils  on  this  occasion  in  the  construction  of  the  road  that  a  sched- 
uled football  game  was  abandoned  in  order  that  they  might  do  the 
work.  The  construction  work  was  done  by  the  student  body, 
including  the  paying  of  the  expenses  of  the  engineer,  the  driving 
of  the  grade  stakes,  and  the  carrying  of  the  chain  and  leveling  rod. 
The  width  of  this  road  is  20  feet  from  curb  to  curb,  leaving  a  park- 
way on  either  side.  The  high  school  girls  who  have  charge  of  the 
civic  department  of  the  work,  assisted  the  boys  in  setting  out  nut 
and  fruit  trees  along  this  educational  mile  of  road.  In  Stevens 
county  there  have  already  been  organized  1,500  pupils  and  plans 
have  been  made  to  build  a  mile  of  educational  road  in  each  of  the 
three  county  commissioners'  districts.  The  county  school  super- 
intendent, Mr.  A.  L.  Morton  is  taking  a  lively  interest  in  this  work 
and  declares  that  the  pupils  of  Stevens  county,  8,623  in  number, 
will  build  one  mile  of  educational  road  in  each  of  the  seventy-five 
school  districts  in  the  county.  All  work  is  to  be  done  under  the 
direction  of  a  competent  engineer,  who  holds  a  commission  from 
the  department  of  highways,  and  at  the  expense  of  the  organiza- 
tion. This  engineer  is  instructed  to  make  plans,  profiles  and  specifi- 
cations, giving  first  the  location,  width  of  road,  the  drainage,  the 
size  and  location  of  culverts  and  bridges,  according  to  the  topog- 
raphy of  the  abutting  lands,  the  plans  state  how  much  clearing  is 
to  be  done,  the  number  of  yards  of  earth  or  rock  to  be  moved, 
together  with  the  estimated  cost  of  each  mile;  tools  and  material 
are  to  be  furnished  by  the  commissioners.  When  preparations  are 
completed,  when  the  material  is  on  the  ground  for  the  culverts  and 
small  bridges,  the  delegates  regularly  elected,  dressed  in  their  work- 
ing clothes,  from  each  school  in  the  county,  will  come  and  do  the 
work  themselves  under  the  direction  of  the  engineer  commissioned 
by  the  State  Highway  Department.  Plans  will  be  made  for  the 
constant  dragging  of  the  road.  At  the  proper  season  the  girls  will 
finish  the  work  by  setting  out  trees  along  both  sides  of  the  high- 
way. Some  of  our  nurserymen  have  already  agreed  to  furnish 
trees  free  of  charge  in  localities  where  they  cannot  be  gathered 
from  the  forest.  Our  State  superintendent  of  schools  has  caught 
the  inspiration  and  will  at  once  embrace  the  study  of  scientific  road 
building  in  all  the  schools  of  the  State.  In  my  opinion  this  is  a 


74  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

most  important  subject,  it  is  one,  my  friends,  that  means  more  to 
all  the  people  than  any  other  that  is  before  the  public  for  unbiased, 
conscientious  and  sincere  discussion,  and  is  well  worthy  of  the  con- 
sideration of  the  most  progressive  and  brainiest  thinkers  of  the  age. 

Mr.  President  and  delegates  of  this  convention.  I  trust  that  in 
your  wisdom  you  will  take  up  the  Unit  System  of  Road  Owning, 
Improving  and  Maintaining,  having  for  its  slogan  Safety,  Economy 
and  Permanence,  and  to  establish  State  roads  which  are  to  be  built 
and  maintained  by  the  State  with  its  own  resources.  Let  those 
resources  come  from  prison  labor,  automobile  tax,  pipe  line  tax, 
telephone  tax,  or  from  any  other  source  of  revenue.  The  State 
can  then,  under  the  Department  of  Highways,  proceed  to  lay  out 
State  roads  along  the  lines  of  least  resistance,  avoid  springy  places, 
movable  sand  beds  and  impassable  grades.  These  roads  will  natu- 
rally pass  through  counties,  and  townships,  relieving  the  tax  payers 
of  the  counties  and  townships  through  which  they  pass  of  the  bur- 
den of  building  and  maintaining  these  roads  forever,  from  the  fact 
that  they  at  once  become  the  property  of  the  State  and  are  one  of 
its  most  valuable  assets.  This  system  would  demand  the  organiza- 
tion of  State  road  districts  numbered  in  the  order  of  their  organization. 

The  suggestion  has  been  made  to  do  away  with  7500  road  over- 
seers who  under  our  present  condition  (not  worthy  to  be  called  a 
system)  are  allowed  $80  per  annum  each,  or  $600,000  each  year 
and  to  substitute  for  the  present  system  of  warning  out  all  able 
bodied  men  and  boys  to  work  the  road  four  days  in  the  year  or 
pay  $5  in  cash,  the  plan  of  collecting  from  each  man  who  is  sub- 
ject to  road  duty  one-half  of  this  amount,  $2.50  and  place  these 
sums  in  the  hands  of  the  county  treasurer  with  other  road  funds, 
to  be  divided  among  the  county  and  township  road  commissioners 
by  some  fixed  rule.  A  county  road  commissioner  and  a  county 
engineer  should  be  appointed  by  the  commissioners  on  efficiency 
alone,  requiring  them  to  execute  a  suitable  bond  for  the  faithful 
performance  of  their  duties,  and  a  proper  accounting  for  every  dollar 
spent  on  the  county  roads.  All  county  roads  should  be  designated 
and  marked  county  lateral  roads  connecting  with  other  counties 
and  built  to  the  State  roads.  Township  lateral  roads  are  to  be 
built,  owned  and  maintained  by  township  to  connect  with  county 
roads,  all  State,  county  and  township  roads  must  harmonize.  This 
system,  in  my  opinion,  will  solve  the  road  problem  in  each  State, 
and  at  the  same  time  be  a  great  incentive  to  the  educational  con- 
struction and  maintenance  of  all  the  roads  within  the  State. 

I  suggest  that  you  appoint  a  committee  composed  of  highway 
commissioners  and  engineers  to  work  out  a  unit  plan  along  the 
lines  above  mentioned  and  to  make  report  to  this  congress.  The 
result  of  this  committee's  work  to  be  submitted  to  the  different 
State  legislatures. 

In  Oklahoma  there  are  50,000  miles  of  dirt  roads  that  will  be 
good  90  per  cent  of  the  time  if  they  are  properly  drained,  graded 


DISCUSSION  75 

and  crowned,  then  kept  up  with  light  wooden  drags.  The  rural 
and  high  school  pupils  are  also  taught  the  art  of  building  sand-clay 
and  clay-sand  roads,  realizing  that  a  good  foundation  must  be  laid 
for  a  hard  surface  or  metal  road,  we  are  at  least  laying  this  foundation. 
We  have  already  taken  up  the  safety  crossing  for  railroads,  the 
department  has  made  standard  plans  that  have  been  carefully  gone 
over  and  endorsed  by  the  corporation  commission  and  accepted 
by  a  number  of  the  railways  of  the  State. 

In  Oklahoma  we  are  discouraging  grade  or  surface  crossings,  and 
asking  wherever  it  is  possible,  overhead  or  under-crossings  be  adopted. 
Safety  First  is  the  motto.  I  also  agree  heartily  with  Dr.  Pratt  in 
his  recommendation  that  all  State  and  county  engineers,  together 
with  road  commissioners  should  meet  at  least  once  a  year  for  the 
purpose  of  comparing  notes  and  working  out  problems  that  present 
themselves  in  connection  with  their  individual  work.  This  organi- 
zation should,  in  my  opinion,  extend  to  the  States  so  that  all  road 
work  could  be  harmonized.  Some  may  disagree  with  me  when  I 
assert  that  no  standard  plans  can  be  established  for  the  building 
or  maintaining  of  earth  roads.  This,  I  contend,  is  absolutely  im- 
possible from  the  fact  that  we  have  so  many  different  kinds  of  soil 
to  contend  with  through  which  the  roads  pass,  so  we,  in  Oklahoma, 
have  decided  to  make  the  best  we  can  out  of  what  we  have,  and 
we  believe  that  a  well  drained,  well  graded  and  properly  crowned 
road,  kept  up  by  the  frequent  use  of  the  wooden  drag,  is  the  best 
road  for  the  hoof  or  the  wheel,  at  least,  it  is  much  better  than  a 
poorly  built  and  poorly  drained  hard  surface  road,  and  is  much 
easier  and  cheaper  to  maintain. 

With  your  permission  I  want  to  go  on  record  as  saying  that  it 
requires  more  brains,  more  efficient  engineering  and  more  patience 
to  build  a  good  dirt  road  than  it  does  to  build  almost  any  kind  of 
a  hard  surface  road.  I  mean  the  building  of  a  road  that  will  some 
time  in  the  future  be  the  substantial  and  everlasting  foundation  of 
a  hard  surface  road.  I  tell  my  people  in  every  community  that 
I  visit,  that  some  day  the  government  will  organize  and  begin  the 
building,  owning  and  maintaining  of  a  system  of  highways,  and  we 
must  be  able  to  turn  over  to  them  a  good  foundation  for  their  road, 
and  urge  every  community  to  take  great  pains  with  their  engineer- 
ing and  construction  of  every  mile  they  build,  no  matter  whether 
it  be  a  State,  county  or  township  road.  Then,  if  it  is  ever  used 
for  a  hard  surface  road,  they  will  be  consoled  by  the  fact  that  they 
will  have  at  least  the  best  road  that  can  possibly  be  built  put  of 
the  material  at  hand.  One  can  hardly  find  a  road  5  miles  in 
length,  without  coming  across  100  and  possibly  200  feet  of  road 
that  is  always  good,  no  matter  what  the  rainfall  is  or  the  traffic 
along  this  particular  road.  Why  is  this?  I  have  often  put  this 
question  to  road  overseers  and  road  commissioners,  and  then  had 
to  answer  that  it  was  nature-mixed  and  nature-drained,  now  let  us 
intelligently  try  and  imitate  nature's  work. 


76  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Now,  as  to  the  automobile  proposition,  I  believe  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  automobile  manufacturers'  associations  and  all  auto- 
mobile owners  to  take  up  automobile  legislation.  They  should  be 
interested  more  than  any  other  class  in  the  building  of  good  roads, 
especially  as  to  the  conservation  and  preserving  of  the  roads  over 
which  they  travel  and  the  duties  of  the  drivers  as  to  the  passing  of 
other  vehicles,  turning  sharp  corners,  in  fact,  everything  pertaining 
to  the  life  of  the  automobile  and  its  traffic,  and  those  interested  in 
road  building  would  prove  to  be  great  allies  in  assisting  in  getting 
such  legislation  as  will  be  effective.  This  is  a  matter  which  con- 
cerns not  only  the  driver  of  a  60-horse-power  car,  but  down  to  the 
poor  fellow  who  is  walking  with  a  stick  along  the  public  highways 
and  is  liable  to  be  run  down  even  by  the  most  careful  driver. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Next  will  be  a  paper  entitled  "The  Extent  to 
Which  Engineering  Schools  Should  Devote  Attention  to  Highway 
Engineering  Instruction,"  by  Prof.  E.  J.  McCaustland,  Dean  of 
the  School  of  Engineering,  University  of  Missouri,  Columbia,  Mo. 

THE  EXTENT  TO  WHICH  ENGINEERING  SCHOOLS 

SHOULD  DEVOTE  ATTENTION  TO  HIGHWAY 

ENGINEERING  INSTRUCTION 

BY  E.  J.  MCCAUSTLAND 

Dean,  School  of  Engineering,  University  of  Missouri,  Columbia,  Mo. 

The  extent  to  which  engineering  schools  should  devote  atten- 
tion to  any  particular  phase  of  instruction  should  depend  in  a  great 
measure  upon  the  recognized  importance  of  that  phase  of  engineer- 
ing when  considered  in  connection  with  the  economic  and  social 
life  of  the  people  of  the  State  and  nation. 

This  does  not  mean  an  importance  measured  solely  by  the  amount 
of  public  interest  at  any  particular  time,  for  such  interest  is  often 
aroused  in  connection  with  matters  which  are  of  only  minor  impor- 
tance. It  does  not  mean  an  importance  measured  by  the  oppor- 
tunities for  men  to  secure  remunerative  employment,  although  such 
reason  should  not  be  wholly  ignored.  Nor  does  it  mean  an  impor- 
tance measured  by  the  amount  of  public  moneys  expended,  for  it 
is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  money  is  at  times  lavishly 
poured  out  for  very  inconsequential,  trivial  or  temporary  purposes. 
What  it  does  mean,  however,  is  an  importance  having  its  roots  in 
those  essential  matters  which  function  so  largely  in  extending  and 
enlarging  the  field  of  human  progress,  development  and  ultimate 
happiness.  Such  matters  are,  the  extension  of  education,  nurture 
and  development  of  religious  and  social  life,  the  promotion  of  ease 
and  comfort  of  living,  and  in  a  word,  everything  which  helps  to 
advance  civilization. 

Much  has  been  written  and  spoken  on  the  relation  of  good  and 
bad  roads  to  illiteracy  and  on  the  restrictions  in  the  way  of  religious 


HIGHWAY   ENGINEERING   INSTRUCTION  77 

growth  and  social  development  in  communities  brought  about  by 
impassable  country  roads.  These  relations  and  restrictions  are 
so  clearly  and  so  generally  understood  that  it  is  only  necessary  to 
mention  them  in  this  connection.  No  one  will  deny  their  truth 
and  their  overshadowing  importance. 

Gaged  then  by  this  final  standard,  highway  engineering  should 
have  recognition  in  any  scheme  devoted  to  the  training  of  civil 
engineers. 

The  question  of  the  amount  and  character  of  such  special  recog- 
nition depends,  of  course,  upon  the  fundamental  plan  of  organiza- 
tion of  the  civil  engineering  curriculum  under  consideration. 

The  foundation  work  in  the  mathematical  and  physical  sciences 
as  commonly  included  in  civil  engineering  courses  is  admirably 
adapted  to  furnish  the  necessary  and  sufficient  basis  for  an  excel- 
lent training  in  highway  engineering.  This  fundamental  science 
training  involves,  among  other  things,  specific  preparation  in  the 
fields  of  surveying,  chemistry,  geology,  and  economics.  For  the 
highway  engineer  there  is  need  of  special  concentration  on  all  of 
these  subjects  in  order  to  enable  him  to  make  the  application  of 
their  underlying  principles  to  the  practical  problems  he  will  meet 
in  his  professional  experience.  This  "special  concentration"  may 
be  embodied  within  the  limits  of  a  very  few  credit  hours,  and  every 
course  in  civil  engineering  should  make  provision  for  it. 

In  courses  of  elementary  surveying  and  in  railroad  curves,  land 
surveying  and  railroad  location  afford  the  practical  problems  and 
furnish  the  ultimate  purpose  for  the  course,  so  far  as  such  purpose 
is  purely  practical.  But  railway  location  is  highly  specialized,  and 
the  attention  of  the  student  during  his  study  should  be  called  by 
way  of  contrast  to  problems  of  highway  location.  Similarity  in 
the  problem  should  be  made  clear,  and  contrasts  emphasized  for 
further  study.  Train  resistance,  compensation  of  curves,  and  cross- 
sections  of  roadbed  for  railroads  are  very  different  problems  from 
kinds  of  traffic,  ruling  grades,  sight  distances  and  maximum  curva- 
ture on  highways.  Many  highway  locations  have  been  spoiled  by 
railroad  engineers  who  could  not  adapt  their  knowledge  to  the 
demands  of  their  problem.  It  is  for  the  schools  to  train  their  men 
to  "sense"  their  problems  before  they  attempt  a  solution.  This 
can  be  done  only  by  "special  concentration"  as  noted  above. 

In  chemistry,  the  under  graduate  student  in  highway  engineering 
should  have  a  very  specialized  course  in  organic  chemistry,  ele- 
mentary in  its  nature,  but  concise  in  its  application  with  reference 
to  the  principal  series  of  hydrocarbons.  He  should  know  how  to 
interpret  properly,  if  not  himself  perform,  all  the  standard  tests 
on  bituminous  materials  and  he  should  be  able  to  judge  fairly  of 
the  proper  field  for  the  use  of  road  oils  both  for  binding  material 
and  as  dust  palliatives. 

Bituminous  materials  are  growing  in  favor  and  in  extent  of  use 
every  year  for  roads  and  pavements  and  scores  of  practicing  high- 


78  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

way  engineers  are  entirely  ignorant  of  the  characteristics  of  such 
materials.  They  purchase  at  random,  manipulate  by  trial,  and 
wonder  why  their  roads  fall  to  pieces. 

All  men  being  trained  as  civil  engineers  should  have  a  general 
course  in  geology  and  for  highway  engineers  this  should  be  followed 
by  a  special  course  dealing  with  the  origin,  nature  and  physical  char- 
acteristics of  soils.  Since  by  far  the  greater  proportion  of  the  roads 
of  the  country  are  now,  and  for  a  long  period  to  come  will  be  con- 
structed of  earth  it  is  clear  that  the  study  of  soils  must  be  of  prime 
importance.  In  most  road  building  the  soil  is  to  be  compacted 
to  furnish  a  foundation,  and  in  all  road  foundations  drainage  must 
be  accomplished.  A  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  soil  therefore 
must  precede  any  satisfactory  design  or  construction.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  allot  much  time  in  the  curriculum  to  this  subject  since 
a  fair  knowledge  of  chemistry,  physics  and  general  geology  will 
enable  the  student  to  "read  it  up"  with  ease,  but  its  importance 
should  be  emphasized  in  the  mind  of  the  embryo  highway  engineer. 

A  general  course  in  economics  is  the  necessary  part  of  an  engi- 
neers training  and  the  highway  engineer  should  be  made  familiar 
with  the  subject  of  trade  and  transportation  as  a  whole,  and  with 
highway  transportation  as  a  special  field.  He  should  also  become 
familiar  with  methods  of  financing  highway  construction  such  as 
bonding,  general  and  special  taxation  and  the  like.  He  should  have 
some  knowledge  of  the  laws  governing  the  inauguration  of  public 
work,  the  advertising  for  bids  and  the  letting  of  contracts,  the 
guaranteeing  of  quality  and  the  essence  of  contracts. 

It  is  of  interest  and  value  to  the  highway  engineer,  but  probably 
not  essential,  that  he  should  be  familiar  with  the  historical  develop- 
ment of  the  subject  of  highway  construction.  If  he  is  to  carry  weight 
as  an  advisor  in  public  matters,  the  possession  of  historical  per- 
spective could  not  fail  to  give  emphasis  and  support  to  his  expressed 
opinions. 

Finally  he  should  have  opportunity  to  make  special  study  of  road 
materials  in  the  laboratory.  Sands,  cements,  mortars,  stone  for 
road  metal,  bituminous  materials  and  all  other  substances  that 
go  into  the  construction  of  highways  should  become  more  or  less 
familiar  to  him  through  actual  manipulation. 

Now  all  these  various  lines  of  study  as  above  recited,  should 
not  require  any  great  amount  of  time  if  the  student  has  previously 
been  given  a  fundamental  training  in  the  subjects  mentioned.  Since 
practically  all  the  civil  engineers  in  the  schools  of  the  country  are 
trained  in  the  elements  of  surveying,  chemistry,  geology,  economics, 
history  and  materials  of  construction,  the  additional  training  needed, 
as  outlined  above,  can  no  doubt  be  included  within  a  total  of  two 
or  three  credit  hours  for  two  semesters  or  four  to  six  credit  hours 
in  all.  A  credit  hour  means  a  lecture,  recitation  or  laboratory 
period  per  week  for  the  half  year.  Actual  practice  in  the  schools 
varies  very  widely  throughout  the  country  as  shown  by  the  fol- 
lowing tabulation. 


PROCEEDINGS 


79 


Table  Showing  Time  Devoted  to  Highway  Engineering  Instruction  in  Various 
Universities  of  the  United  States 


NAME  OF  SCHOOL 

LENGTH  OF  COURSE 

TOTAL  CREDIT  HOURS  HIGHWAY 
ENGINEERING  INSTRUCTION 

Required 

Elective 

Columbia 

5  years 
4,  5  and  6  years 
4  years 
4  years 
5  years 
5  years 

4  years 
4  years 
5  years 

2 

1 
2 

3 

2 

2 
2 

16 

3 

2 

4 
4 

Cornell 

Illinois 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Missouri         .         ... 

University    of    Wash- 
ington   ...       

Wisconsin          

Yale              

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  will  now  listen  for  a  few  moments  to  Mr. 
Phil  Mitchell,  from  Illinois. 

MR.  MITCHELL:  I  came  down  here  in  connection  with  my  asso- 
ciate Mr.  Woodcock,  who  is  Secretary  of  the  Rock  Island  County 
Highway  Improvement  Association,  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
be  President,  to  learn  something  at  this  meeting.  We  make  no 
pretense  to  scientific  knowledge  of  roads.  We  know  that  in  our 
county  we  have  very  poor  roads  and, we  are  ambitious  to  improve 
them.  Rock  Island  County  is  comparatively  a  small  county  in 
area,  but  it  is  a  rich  and  fertile  county  with  a  population  of  about 
75,000.  I  merely  wish  to  state  what  we  have  attempted  to  accom- 
plish in  our  community  toward  getting  good  roads.  We  made  a 
vigorous  campaign,  we  visited  every  township  in  the  county  and 
argued  the  issue  of  $1,000,000  worth  of  bonds  for  the  construction 
of  131  miles  of  roads  which  had  been  selected  and  designated  by 
our  Board  of  Supervisors,  and  nobody  as  far  as  I  ever  heard,  objected 
to  the  roads  that  were  selected.  They  were  deemed  a  wise  selec- 
tion. Our  object  was  to  provide  ways  and  means  of  building  those 
roads.  When  I  was  elected  to  the  Presidency  of  this  Association, 
I  was  appalled  by  the  magnitude  of  the  proposition.  I  did  not  see 
how  anything  could  be  accomplished  and  thought  we  would  simply 
go  as  we  had  been  going  for  the  last  50  years,  electing  incompetent 
road  commissioners  or  supervisors,  one  of  whom  would  plow  a  ditch 
on  one  side  of  the  road  and  turn  over  a  little  soil  there  and  then 
the  next  commissioner  would  come  along  and  turn  it  back  again. 
That  is  about  the  way  we  had  been  going  along  in  the  past.  We 
made  an  earnest  effort  in  favor  of  these  bonds  of  a  million  dollars 
which  were  made  legal.  It  was  made  possible  to  legally  issue  them 
by  means  of  the  Tice  Law  which  our  good  Chairman  here,  who  is 
a  member  of  the  Illinois  State  Highway  Commission  and  Mr.  Bradt, 
who  is  also  here,  can  tell  you  more  about  than  I  can.  I  wish  to 
say  in  this  connection  that  both  these  gentlemen  and  the  other 


80  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

two  members  of  the  Illinois  Highway  Commission  gave  us  most 
efficient  assistance  in  our  campaign,  coming  to  our  meetings,  not 
arguing  particularly  for  any  special  bond  issue,  because  that  was 
out  of  their  province,  but  giving  us  information  as  to  the  kindkof 
roads  we  should  have  and  how  they  could  be  gotten.  I  am  very 
sorry  to  state  that  we  were  unable  to  succeed  in  our  campaign  and 
we  feel  as  though  we  were  stabbed  in  the  back  by  the  efforts  of  our 
Board  of  Supervisors.  We  have  35  members  of  the  Board  in  our 
county,  and  when  we  presented  this  proposition  for  bond  issue 
before  them,  after  it  had  been  thoroughly  discussed  and  canvassed 
and  published  throughout  by  the  papers  in  every  township  in  the 
county,  we  went  before  them  and  asked  for  this  million  dollar  bond 
issue  and  they  went  into  secret  session  and  then  beat  the  propo- 
sition. Now  the  only  question  we  wanted  was  for  the  Board  of 
Supervisors  to  agree  to  leave  this  proposition  to  the  people,  and  if 
it  had  been  beaten  at  the  polls,  of  course,  we  would  have  submitted 
with  good  grace.  But  we  did  not  submit  with  good  grace  to  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  withheld  from  the  ballot.  There  is  no 
sentence  the  great  Lincoln  ever  uttered  probably  that  has  been 
quoted  oftener  than  this,  "  Government  of  the  people,  for  the  people 
and  by  the  people."  That  was  all  we  asked  in  this  proposition, 
that  the  people  should  pass  sentence  on  whether  we  should  or  should 
not  issue  these  bonds,  and  we  were  deprived  of  the  privilege  of 
voting  on  that  proposition,  but  our  Association  is  still  very  much 
alive,  as  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  Mr.  Woodcock  and  myself  are 
both  here  to  seek  information  along  lines  leading  to  the  ultimate 
construction  of  131  miles  of  good  roads  in  Rock  Island  County. 
Now  the  cost  to  the  farmers  there  was  comparatively  little.  I 
have  a  farm  and  it  would  have  cost  me  $10.82  a  year  on  the  first 
year  for  these  bonds,  which  would  provide  for  the  issue  and  retire- 
ment of  $50,000  of  bonds  every  year  and  gradually  that  tax  would 
become  less;  probably  it  would  not  become  less  in  a  way  because  the 
building  of  131  miles  of  roads  in  our  county  would  be  such  an  object 
lesson  that  the  work  would  be  extended  and  we  would  get  more  roads, 
but  that  is  what  we  attempted  to  accomplish. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Is  there  any  further  discussion?  Remember  the 
annual  banquet  this  evening  at  the  Kimball  House.  You  can  secure 
your  tickets  at  the  office.  This  completes  the  program  for  the 
morning  session,  and  we  will  now  take  a  recess  until  2  p.m. 

November  10,  2  p.m. 
MR.  PAGE  IN  THE  CHAIR 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  in  the  movement  for  better  roads 
throughout  the  United  States,  we  have  experienced  a  great  many 
vicissitudes.  One  of  the  greatest  drawbacks,  in  my  judgment,  which 
has  confronted  our  work,  has  been  petty  politics  and  a  poor  selec- 
tion of  the  proper  man  to  take  the  responsible  positions.  We  all 


HOW   TO   TAKE   THE    ROADS   OUT   OF   POLITICS  81 

remember  a  few  years  ago,  when  politics  throughout  the  country 
changed,  there  were  six  States  in  the  Union  whose  change  of  the 
political  parties  brought  about  almost  a  complete  change,  in  even 
the  technical  positions  in  the  Highway  Departments  of  those  States. 
Men  that  had  had  years  of  experience  in  engineering  work  and  had 
learned  local  conditions  and  become  of  real  value  to  the  public  were 
thrown  out  of  office  simply  because  of  their  affiliations  with  a  cer- 
tain political  party.  Now  in  the  government  service  we  are  abso- 
lutely free  from  politics  as  far  as  our  road  work  is  concerned,  and 
I  think  that  Mr.  Wales,  who  represents  the  United  States  Civil 
Service  here,  will  tell  you  that  there  are  few  of  our  engineers  who 
would  take  the  positions  they  do,  at  the  salaries  the  government 
pays,  unless  they  were  assured  that  we  were  free  from  politics.  We 
have  this  afternoon  the  cooperation  of  the  United  States  Civil 
Service  Reform  League  which  has  done  so  much  to  apply  the  merit 
system  to  public  service  work.  There  is  no  branch  of  public  serv- 
ice work  where  we  need  the  cooperation  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform 
League  more  than  in  the  work  of  bettering  our  roads,  and  it  is  my 
great  pleasure  to  introduce  Mr.  Richard  Henry  Dana,  President  of 
the  National  Civil  Service  Reform  League,  who  will  preside  this 
afternoon. 

Mr.  Dana  takes  the  Chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  Mr.  President,  fellow  citizens  and  members  of  the 
Congress:  The  subject  of  my  address  this  afternoon  is  how  to  take 
the  roads  out  of  politics. 


HOW  TO  TAKE  THE  ROADS  OUT  OF  POLITICS 

BY  RICHARD  HENRY  DANA 
President,  National  Civil  Service  Reform  League 

The  chief  motive  that  impelled  civil  service  reformers  to  devote 
their  energies  to  the  adoption  of  the  competitive  merit  system  for 
government  appointments  was  to  diminish  the  power  of  the  political 
boss  by  taking  out  of  his  hands  the  unrestricted  patronage  of  ap- 
pointive office.  The  so-called  "spoils"  system  was  not  only  inju- 
rious to  the  efficiency  of  the  government  but  it  created  an  army  of 
political  workers,  thus  building  up  an  enormous  political  "machine," 
active  in  politics  all  the  year  round  and  often  opposing  the  interests 
and  wishes  of  the  people  at  large.  Before  such  an  army  of  trained, 
disciplined,  well-gen  eraled  party  workers,  paid  out  of  government 
funds,  the  ordinary  citizen  was  as  helpless  as  a  mob  in  the  face  of 
a  regular  army. 

What  about  the  size  of  this  army?  Altogether,  counting  the  fed- 
eral service  and  that  of  all  other  branches  of  government — city, 
county  and  State — within  the  United  States,  the  total  number  of 


82  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

persons  is  over  800,000  and  the  total  salary  something  like  $700,- 
000,000  a  year.  But  for  civil  service  reform  this  would  all  be  an 
enormous  political  standing  army,  and  this  stupendous  annual  sum 
of  money  would  be  all  used  to  influence  primaries,  caucuses,  con- 
ventions and  even  elections.  Hardly  more  than  one-third  of  this 
army  and  salary  is  controlled  by  civil  service  rules  and  laws.  The 
rest  is  in  politics. 

The  improvement  of  the  civil  service  was  at  least  in  the  earlier 
days  considered  more  as  a  by-product  than  as  the  main  purpose  of 
the  reform.  This  by-product  has  become  more  and  more  important 
as  we  have  advanced.  It  has  been  proved  officially  again  and  again 
that  the  government  work  is  far  better  done  by  fewer  people  when 
under  the  competitive  merit  system  than  before;  for  example,  in 
the  railway  mail  service,  where  careful  records  are  kept,  since  it 
has  been  put  under  the  civil  service  system  more  work  is  done  per 
capita  at  more  than  three  times  the  accuracy  of  the  best  record  ever 
made  before,  and  five  times  some  of  the  others.  It  has  also  been 
officially  computed  that  the  saving  in  the  federal  service  alone  is 
about  $20,000,000  a  year. 

During  the  first  fifteen  years  of  the  merit  system  it  was  applied 
mainly  to  subordinate  positions,  such  as  clerkships,  policemen,  fire- 
men, bookkeepers  and  the  like,  omitting  the  laborers  at  one  end  and 
the  higher  officials  at  the  other.  We  have  been  very  slow  in  extend- 
ing the  system  upward.  We  have  extended  it  sideways  so  that 
now  we  have  civil  service  laws  in  9  States  and  about  250  munici- 
palities; downward,  unskilled  laborers  in  the  federal  service  and 
some  cities  are  selected  on  a  basis  of  age  and  relative  physical  con- 
dition so  that  the  laborers  are  taken  out  of  politics  and  the  public 
gets  young,  active  and  able  bodied  men.  As  to  its  extension  up- 
ward, we  have  made  considerable  progress  as  I  shall  explain  more 
fully  further  on,  but  for  the  present  all  postmasters  with  salaries 
over  $1000  a  year,  all  collectors  of  internal  revenue  and  their  deputies, 
all  collectors  of  the  customs  and  United  States  marshals,  for  example, 
are  outside  the  civil  service  rules,  and  the  same  principle  applies 
in  the  main  to  the  civil  service  of  those  cities  and  states  that  have 
civil  service  laws.  As  a  result,  while  we  secure  better  subordinates 
the  head  positions,  in  which  the  brains  ought  to  be,  are  usually 
filled  by  persons  without  proper  education,  training  or  experience. 
This  is  not  all.  The  more  capable  subordinates  finding  that  pro- 
motion to  these  higher  places  is  shut  off  from  them  soon  get  dis- 
couraged and  resign  from  the  public  service. 

Still  further,  while  the  boss  has  been  deprived  of  a  large  amount 
of  his  patronage,  he  still  keeps  the  best  paid  offices  and,  through 
his  power  over  the  heads  of  city  departments  and  other  high  officials, 
is  still  able  to  give  contracts,  jobs,  and  the  furnishing  of  supplies 
to  political  favorites. 

It  is  now  one  of  the  objects  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  League 
to  arouse  public  opinion  so  as  to  compel  Congress  to  allow  the  higher 


HOW   TO  TAKE   THE   ROADS   OUT   OF   POLITICS  83 

postmasters,  the  collectors,  and  the  like,  to  be  put  in  the  classified 
civil  service,  so  that  such  places  may  be  filled  by  promotion  and  in 
general  to  extend  the  law  upward  and  thus  to  take  contracts  out  of 
politics. 

I  shall  now  come  to  the  application  of  the  general  principles  of 
the  reform  to  the  experts  in  road  construction. 

What  is  the  condition  of  road  construction  as  we  see  it  within 
the  United  States?  Is  there  not  a  great  proportion  of  the  work  in 
the  control  of  incompetent  persons?  Even  where  good  road  experts 
are  employed  is  there  not  constant  interference  by  their  superiors 
to  give  contracts  as  political  favors,  to  enforce  too  rigidly  or  not 
enforce  at  all  the  specifications  for  political  reasons,  and  to  do  super- 
ficial work  about  election  time  to  deceive  the  people  into  thinking 
that  a  good  job  has  been  done  at  small  cost? 

Let  me  state  some  of  the  advantages  that  come  from  the  employ- 
ment of  experts  in  road  construction.  It  will  save  waste  from  poor 
plans,  poor  methods,  use  of  the  wrong  materials,  improper  or  in- 
sufficient sub-drainage,  or  surface  drainage,  insufficient  foundation, 
waste  in  the  supervision  of  labor,  loss  from  insufficient  specifications 
and  from  failure  to  enforce  good  ones  properly,  the  lack  of  proper 
super-elevation  at  curves,  causing  great  wear  both  on  the  road-bed 
and  the  tires;  and  the  employment  of  incompetent  laborers  employed 
to  give  influential  voters,  or  friends  of  active  politicians  a  job  at 
the  expense  of  the  public  at  high  pay;  and  the  inability  to  get  a 
day's  work  for  a  day's  pay  from  those  otherwise  competent  men 
who  know  that  they  hold  their  job  not  for  what  they  do  in  road 
building,  but  through  the  political  influence  of  the  party  boss  behind 
the  throne  of  the  road  authorities. 

The  experts,  especially  the  chief  experts,  hold  their  office  as  a  rule, 
do  they  not,  at  the  pleasure  of  political  superiors  or  of  superiors 
who  themselves,  though  not  active  politicians,  may  be  removed  for 
party  reasons  or  are  themselves  elected  officials  who  look  for  a  re- 
election which  may  depend  more  upon  satisfying  a  political  boss 
or  packing  a  primary  than  upon  securing  good  roads  for  the  public, 
and  is  it  not  also  too  often  true  that  the  position  of  the  expert  is 
needed  to  carry  out  some  party  plan  or  complete  a  factional  slate? 
At  all  events,  the  employment  is  so  apt  to  be  temporary  and  the 
changes  are  so  often  made  even  when  good  experts  are  employed, 
that  continuity  of  policy  is  not  carried  out.  Fear  of  removal  and 
the  desire  to  help  those  who  have  given  the  appointment  tends  to 
bring  the  expert  into  politics.  No  permanent  career  can  be  offered 
to  younger  men  who  enter  from  the  lower  grades  of  expert  work; 
no  hope  of  promotion  to  the  upper,  and  as  a  rule  it  is  hard  to  get 
the  men  of  the  best  ability  to  leave  well-established  work  with 
private  persons  or  corporations,  for  the  uncertain  and  sometimes 
distasteful  work  of  public  employment.  It  sounds  more  funny  than 
fiction  when  we  read  the  truth  from  this  year's  report  of  James  W. 
Osborne,  Special  Commissioner  to  investigate  the  New  York  State 


84  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Highway  Department,  that  the  inspectors  to  pass  on  contract  work 
were  some  of  them  barbers,  tailors,  prize  fighters,  bartenders  and 
bakers,  and,  as  might  be  supposed,  that  their  inspection  "was  totally 
inadequate." 

But  even  supposing  that  the  experts  from  top  to  bottom  are 
appointed  absolutely  free  from  political  favoritism  of  any  sort  and 
are  men  of  good  ability,  their  powers  are  limited.  To  be  sure,  some 
road  commission  for  the  time  being,  here  and  there,  may  be  found 
that  will  not  interfere  with  their  experts,  but  as  we  have  seen  again 
and  again,  the  experts  are  subject  to  the  direction  of  the  non-expert, 
political  or  semi-political  boards,  or  elective  officials,  and  have  to 
submit  to  the  superior  authority  which  can  put  a  joker  into  a  con- 
tract; modify  the  specification;  order  poor  work  to  be  accepted,  or 
good  work  to  be  refused  on  the  payment  or  non-payment  of  political 
contributions,  or  the  possession  or  non-possession  of  political  influence. 

As  an  illustration  we  have  the  case  of  the  New  York  State  Road 
Construction,  and  nothing  was  more  evident  in  the  investigation 
than  that  in  many  cases  the  experts  were  entirely  opposed  to  the 
action  of  their  superior  officers  which  they  had  no  power  to  prevent, 
and  it  was  contrary  to  official  discipline  to  expose  to  the  public  the 
various  methods  that  were  used  for  giving  contracts  to  influential 
politicians,  or  for  securing  political  contributions  at  the  threat  of 
holding  up  pay  for  work  done. 

But  someone  will  say,  if  we  leave  road  building  wholly  in  the 
hands  of  experts  with  independent  tenure  of  office,  we  are  not  hav- 
ing local  self-government;  we  are  interfering  with  the  representatives 
of  the  people  and  choking  off  the  expression  of  public  policies.  We 
must  admit  that  if  we  should  make  our  experts  complete  despots 
that  there  would  be  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  these  objections.  Can 
we  not,  however,  find  some  line  of  demarcation  between  the  two 
extremes?  I  think  we  can.  The  representatives  of  the  people,  the 
policy  determining  executive  or  board  or  legislative  body  should 
decide  upon  the  general  public  policies  as  to  the  amount  of  appro- 
priations, just  where  good  roads  are  to  be  built,  as  for  example 
between  which  towns  and  cities,  or  what  general  principles  of  choice 
are  to  prevail,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  powers  of  the  experts 
should  be  supreme  in  the  operative  sphere  as  distinct  from  the  policy 
determining.  The  operative  sphere  should  include  the  full  control 
of  the  preparing  and  awarding  contracts  and  the  enforcement  of 
specifications;  the  control  of  labor;  and  the  purchase  of  supplies, 
and  everything  else  that  is  necessary  for  securing  the  best  results 
at  least  cost  to  the  community.  The  community  should  have  a 
right  to  say  how  much  they  will  be  taxed  and  what  it  is  they  want 
done,  but  beyond  that  the  community  will  get  the  best  results,  will 
they  not,  if  it  will  leave  to  experts,  selected  without  regard  to  politics 
and  free  from  the  danger  of  political  removal  or  interference  in  any 
way,  the  carrying  out  of  the  details  of  the  plans  necessary  to  accom- 
plish the  purposes  the  public  have  in  mind.  The  experts  too  should 


HOW   TO   TAKE   THE    ROADS    OUT   OF    POLITICS  85 

be  allowed  freedom  to  advise  and  even  educate  public  opinion  as 
to  public  policies  within  their  specialties. 

We  then  have  to  consider  the  three  chief  points:  first,  the  selection 
of  experts  which  will  secure  from  top  to  bottom  experts  of  ability, 
experience,  and  character;  second,  tenure  of  office  during  capacity 
and  good  behavior  and  third,  ample  powers  within  the  operative 
sphere.  Now  for  the  selection  of  the  experts  in  any  large  public 
service  devoted  to  road  building.  There  should  be  a  system  of 
promotion  from  among  the  assistant  engineers  and  other  experts 
that  would  secure  the  highest  positions  when  vacancies  arise  to  those 
who  have  shown  the  best  ability  and  achievements,  and  entrance 
to  these  lower  positions  should  be  through  civil  service  examinations. 
Where  there  is  not  found  among  the  subordinates  anyone  suitable 
for  promotion  or  where  the  service  is  new,  then  it  is  necessary  to 
go  outside.  And  in  such  cases  there  ought  to  be  freedom  to  select 
experts  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  an  ample  inquiry  into 
the  sufficiency  of  education,  training,  special  ability,  and  the  posses- 
sion of  organizing  and  executive  faculty  among  the  candidates.  Now 
how  can  this  be  done?  The  adoption  of  the  Civil  Service  System 
would  secure  promotion  but  no  open  competitive  examination  com- 
posed of  written  questions  and  answers  of  the  "  scholastic"  kind  would 
ever  be  suitable  for  the  appointment  of  the  chief  experts  in  any 
such  undertaking  as  modern  road  building  on  a  large  scale,  but  when 
I  have  said  this  it  does  not  mean  that  the  experts  may  not  be  still 
selected  through  civil  service  methods  for  the  civil  service  methods 
are  not  confined,  as  too  many  persons  take  for  granted,  to  the  written 
scholastic  examination  conducted  in  the  same  room  and  at  the  same 
time,  such  as  are  used  for  the  selection  of  clerks,  bookkeepers,  and 
the  like.  Every  method  known  to  business  for  the  ascertaining  of 
the  relative  ability  of  various  candidates  that  is  capable  of  being 
systematized,  that  is,  every  method  excepting  that  of  pure  favoritism, 
can  be  and  is  employed  by  civil  service  commissions.  Bench  tests 
are  used  for  selecting  mechanics,  physical  competition  for  policemen 
and  firemen ;  saddling,  mounting,  riding  horses,  and  firing  from  horse- 
back have  formed  part  of  the  civil  service  examination  for  United 
States  rangers.  For  the  last  fifteen  years  men  of  high  organizing 
and  executive  ability,  power  to  handle  subordinates  and  get  on  well 
with  men,  combined  with  appropriate  scientific  knowledge,  have 
been  secured  for  high  governmental  positions  by  what  is  called  the 
"  unassembled  investigation  of  careers"  conducted  by  civil  service 
commissions.  Though  this  has  been  in  operation  for  fifteen  years, 
as  I  have  just  said,  its  existence  is  still  unknown  to  many  experts, 
statesmen,  and  I  may  say  to  the  great  majority  of  our  citizens,  and 
it  is  largely  for  explaining  this  method  of  selection  and  showing  its 
applicability  for  the  choice  of  experts  in  road  building  that  this 
paper  is  written.  Let  me  give  an  illustration. 

The  office  of  librarian  of  the  enormous  library  system  of  the  city 
of  Chicago  became  vacant.     It  was  found  that  that  position  was 


86  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

classified  under  the  civil  service  rules.  The  first  idea  was  that  an 
exception  must  be  made  and  the  appointment  authorized  at  the 
discretion  of  the  Mayor  for  the  reason,  as  stated,  that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  fill  the  place  satisfactorily  by  any  "scholastic"  exami- 
nation. The  civil  service  commission  and  the  civil  service  reformers 
of  Chicago  were  well  aware  of  this  "unassembled  investigation  of 
careers"  and  how  successful  it  had  proved  and  they  undertook  to 
make  the  selection  under  the  civil  service  rules.  First  of  all  adver- 
tisements were  sent  out  over  the  country  and  especially  to  all  the 
journals  devoted  to  library  work,  and  letters  were  sent  to  library 
experts  to  suggest  candidates.  It  was  explained  that  the  examina- 
tion would  not  consist  of  the  ordinary  sets  of  questions  and  answers 
but  that  each  candidate  should  reply  from  his  own  home  or  office 
to  a  detailed  inquiry  as  to  his  education,  training,  and  achieve- 
ments in  life.  Then  three  eminent  librarians  were  chosen  to  aid 
the  civil  service  commission  in  this  investigation.  The  three  chosen 
were  Mr.  Herbert  Putnam  of  the  Congressional  Library,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.,  the  head  of  the  Crerar  Library  in  Brooklyn,  New  York, 
and  the  librarian  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  These  men  aided 
the  civil  service  commission  and  their  chief  examiner  in  drawing  up 
the  questions  on  the  experience  sheets  sent  to  the  various  candi- 
dates. The  candidates  were  also  asked  to  send  in  any  book,  pam- 
phlet, or  paper  prepared  by  them  on  library  administration  or  kindred 
subjects  and  to  give  the  names  of  persons  for  whom  they  had  worked, 
who  would  know  of  their  successful  administration.  Then,  after 
weeding  out  those  who  from  their  own  statements  were  manifestly 
unfitted,  there  were  sent  to  these  former  employers  searching  ques- 
tions which  were  answered  in  detail  showing  any  facts  tending  to 
prove  the  possession  by  the  candidate  in  question  of  executive  and 
organizing  ability,  any  unusually  successful  work  accomplished,  the 
possession  of  such  temper  and  manners  as  would  enable  the  candi- 
date to  get  on  with  other  people,  and  the  ability  to  handle  subordi- 
nates to  advantage.  Each  candidate  was  also  asked  to  prepare  a 
thesis  on  the  management  of  the  Chicago  library  system,  ami  to 
aid  him  in  understanding  the  situation  he  was  furnished  with  the 
latest  official  reports  of  Chicago  relating  to  the  library  and  the 
municipal  budget  and  resources.  These  theses  were  prepared  at  the 
homes  or  offices  of  the  candidates  and  sent  to  the  civil  service  com- 
mission. As  a  result  of  all  this  investigation  and  the  examination 
of  these  records  by  this  jury  of  three  great  experts,  Mr.  Laegler  was 
put  first.  As  the  civil  service  records,  thus  prepared,  showed,  he 
had  been  librarian  at  the  Wisconsin  University;  had  there  instituted 
some  methods  of  library  administration  of  such  value  that  they 
were  being  copied  by  other  libraries  all  over  the  country;  had,  when 
in  another  capacity,  practically  organized  the  splendid  university 
extension  work  and  public  aid  given  by  the  University  of  Wisconsin ; 
had  gone  before  committees  of  the  Legislature  and  explained  his 
methods  and  secured  appropriations;  and  had  been  able  to  train 


HOW    TO    TAKE    THE    ROADS    OUT    OF    POLITICS  87 

his  subordinates  so  as  to  get  the  best  possible  results.  Indeed,  as 
Mr.  Putnam  said  to  me,  there  was  no  better  man  that  could  be 
found  in  the  country  not  Iready  occupied  in  some  better  position. 
In  some  of  the  non-assembled  investigations,  the  candidates  are 
questioned  orally  by  this  expert  examining  board  and  further  graded 
on  personality. 

Now  let  me  call  your  attention  to  one  or  two  matters.  Through 
this  method  there  was  secured  what  every  appointing  officer  should 
secure,  that  is,  a  thorough  investigation  into  the  capacity  of  all  the 
candidates,  but  a  kind  of  investigation  carried  out  with  a  degree  of 
thoroughness  that  we  know  is  not  exercised  by  appointing  officers 
even  when  they  are  free  from  any  political  motive  and  desire  to 
secure  the  best  results,  not  even  by  most  business  men  or  corpora- 
tions. Indeed,  the  art  of  appointing  the  best  from  a  large  number 
of  persons  for  responsible  positions  is,  by  no  means,  as  simple  a  one 
as  many  people  suppose.  Again,  all  the  evidence  on  which  the  selec- 
tion is  made  is  a  matter  of  record,  so  that  at  any  time  the  grounds 
of  selection  may  be  reviewed;  an  effective  guaranty  against  favoritism, 
and  the  appointment  is  made  without  the  appointee's  being  under 
obligations  to  any  party,  party  faction,  or  political  boss;  and  finally 
when  once  appointed  in  this  way  the  tenure  of  office  is  practically 
secure  because  the  motive  otherwise  existing  of  removing  an  expert, 
namely,  to  give  the  appointment  to  a  favorite,  has  disappeared,  for 
the  appointment  of  a  successor  must  be  made  in  the  same  way  that 
the  original  selection  was  made,  or  else  by  promotion  from  a  limited 
number  of  persons  who  have  secured  their  positions  by  open  com- 
petition. Then  again,  when  the  position  is  thus  put  under  the  civil 
service  system  and  the  tenure  of  office  is  secure,  instead  of  keeping 
able  men  away,  it  is  found  by  experience  that  it  has  attracted  them. 
It  has  commonly  been  said  that  you  can  not  get  able  men  to  enter 
the  civil  service  examination,  but  in  the  words  of  the  United  States 
Civil  Service  Commission  commenting  on  the  results  of  such  civil 
service  investigations  in  its  twenty-ninth  report: 

Examinations  of  this  character  have  been  found  to  attract  men  of  the 
highest  type.  A  belief  in  many  quarters  that  no  distinguished  expert  or 
person  of  high  professional  or  scientific  attainments  will  compete  in  a  civil 
service  examination  is  a  fallacy. 

This  has  also  been  the  experience  of  municipal  and  State  civil 
service  commissions  that  have  tried  the  system. 

At  a  hearing  of  the  Legislature  in  Massachusetts  on  a  bill  to  allow 
heads  of  departments  to  be  selected  in  this  manner,  Professors 
Swaine  and  Sedge  wick  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology 
said  that  they  usually  advise  their  graduates  not  to  accept  public 
work,  because  it  is  so  mixed  with  politics,  but  should  these  positions 
be  put  under  the  civil  service  system  and  carried  out  in  the  way 
above  explained,  they,  on  the  contrary,  would  urge  all  their  gradu- 
ates to  enter  this  kind  of  public  service. 


88  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Another  objection  has  been  made  that  there  are  not  sufficient 
experts  in  the  country  to  fill  all  the  positions  in  the  road  construc- 
tion that  is  going  on.  However  that  may  be,  we  can  secure  all 
the  experts  there  are  who  are  willing  to  undertake  the  work,  and  if 
one  will  just  read  the  catalogs  of  the  leading  universities  of  the 
country,  he  will  see  that  more  and  more  time  is  given  to  the  educa- 
tion of  experts  in  all  kinds  of  municipal  and  State  undertakings, 
among  which  road  building  is  one  of  the  most  commonly  taught. 
The  supply  of  young  men  who  can  be  put  in  the  lower  grades  of 
expert  work  and  make  their  way  up,  through  promotion,  is  very 
great. 

Some  objection  is  raised,  on  what  is  really  a  priori  and  theoretical 
grounds,  that  experts  with  tenure  during  good  behavior  and  capacity, 
would  not  accept  new  policies.  In  practical  operation,  exactly  the 
opposite  is  found  to  be  the  case.  Not  only  do  such  experts  take 
kindly  to  new  policies,  but  they  are  foremost  in  suggesting  and 
urging  them.  The  expert  is  far  more  well  informed  as  to  new  devices 
adopted  in  any  part  of  the  civilized  world  and  to  weigh  the  merits 
of  them,  than  the  non-expert. 

I  remember,  not  long  ago,  delivering  an  address  before  a  club  of 
business  and  professional  men  as  to  the  application  of  the  merit 
system  to  the  selection  of  high-grade  experts.  I  saw  one  prominent 
man  before  me  with  his  face  set  in  stern  disapproval  from  the  be- 
ginning. After  the  address,  he  made  the  remark  that  "it  is  absurd 
for  anyone  to  suggest  selecting  men  for  such  positions  by  a  scholastic 
examination  of  questions  and  answers,"  and  wondered  that  "a  man 
of  my  position  should  advocate  it."  The  truth  was  this  gentleman 
had  shut  his  mind  up  into  idea-tight  compartments,  proof  against 
the  percolation  of  a  new  thought.  It  is  this  state  of  mind  which 
prevents  many  people  from  examining  into  the  civil  service  method 
which  I  have  just  now  laid  before  you. 

But  after  all  the  best  proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating.  If 
this  were  all  a  matter  of  theory  which  had  never  been  tried  before, 
or  perhaps  only  in  one  or  two  instances,  I  should  blame  no  man 
for  considering  it  highly  theoretical,  just  as  old  sea  captains  and  river 
steam-boat  navigators  thought  it  was  impracticable  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  in  a  vessel  propelled  by  steam.  Should  any  such 
captain  continue  so  to  thick  after  the  ocean  had  been  crossed  many 
times  every  year  for  fifteen  years  in  succession  with  success  and 
improved  speed  and  economy,  ought  not  that  captain  to  be  con- 
sidered antiquated  indeed?  So  it  is  with  anyone  who  doubts  the 
applicability  of  the  civil  service  system  to  the  selection  of  engineers 
unless,  indeed,  he  is  absolutely  ignorant  of  how  often  we  have  crossed 
the  ocean  of  spoils  politics  in  safety  by  the  advanced  methods  of 
the  merit  system. 

The  first  position  to  which  it  was  applied,  about  fifteen  years 
ago,  was  that  of  the  supervising  architect  of  the  United  States,  a 
position  of  the  very  greatest  importance  and  high  salary.  Then  it 


HOW    TO   TAKE    THE    ROADS    OUT   OF    POLITICS  89 

was  successively  applied  to  the  selection  of  the  heads  of  many  of 
the  Bureaus,  especially  those  of  the  Agricultural  Department,  for 
which  positions  men  of  high  scientific  education  in  their  specialties 
and  executive  and  organizing  ability  were  required,  and  the  success 
with  which  these  departments  have  been  established  and  carried 
out  is  the  best  proof  of  the  applicability  of  the  system.  Among 
other  positions  I  may  mention  that  of  the  head  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  on  Road  Building  and  Road  Materials. 

In  the  city  of  Los  Angeles  the  enormous  water  supply  that  was 
to  cost  many  millions  was  put  into  the  hands  of  engineers  selected 
in  the  ordinary  way.  The  work  was  going  to  pieces,  little  was 
accomplished  and  an  enormous  amount  of  money  had  been  wasted. 
Then  the  board  in  charge  was  re-organized  and  all  the  engineers 
from  top  to  bottom  were  selected  by  the  civil  service  system,  and 
after  that  the  work  was  accomplished  rapidly,  economically,  without 
taint  or  fraud,  and  with  the  most  complete  success. 

Even  assistants  to  the  attorney-general  at  Washington  and  assist- 
ant solicitors  and  attorneys  in  States  have  been,  selected  in  this  same 
way;  also  the  chief  engineer  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  engineer  in  charge 
of  bridges,  city  auditor,  the  chief  street  engineer,  the  building  in- 
spector in  chief,  and  numerous  other  officials  with  salaries  from 
$5000  to  $8000  a  year,  and  lately  in  Philadelphia  the  chief  engineer 
and  his  assistants  for  the  new  subway  development  and  other  experts 
with  salaries  even  as  high  as  $10,000  a  year,  the  heads  of  depart- 
ments, with  one  or  two  exceptions  in  Colorado,  the  secretaries  and 
chief  examiners  of  civil  service  commissions  in  several  States  have 
also  been  chosen  by  this  same  process. 

The  division  engineers  in  the  State  of  New  York  who  are  required 
to  have  charge  of  the  construction,  re-construction,  maintenance, 
and  repair  of  State  and  county  highways  are  now  under  the  civil 
service  system  with  the  full  approval  of  Commissioner  Carlisle. 

In  Kansas  City  the  chief  engineer,  the  assistant  chief  engineer, 
the  superintendent  of  streets,  and  some  other  positions  have  been 
appointed  through  competition,  and  in  New  York  City  the  chief 
engineer  of  the  board  of  estimate  and  appointment  is  under  the 
competitive  merit  system. 

Indeed,  these  are  only  some  of  the  many  examples  which  I  could 
give  you.  In  addition  to  that,  I  may  quote  Lieutenant  James  Reed, 
assistant  director  of  the  department  of  public  works  of  Philadelphia, 
in  a  paper  read  at  the  last  meeting  of  our  National  Civil  Service 
Reform  League.  He  not  only  commended  this  method  of  selection 
as  having  worked  with  perfect  success,  but  he  also  showed  and 
proved  that  by  this  method  of  the  selection  and  retention  of  experts, 
the  municipal  contracts  had  been  taken  out  of  politics  in  Phila- 
delphia— that  city  long  known  as  being  under  the  domination  of 
political  contractors. 

Some  objection  has  been  made  to  the  merit  system  because  of  an 
alleged  difficulty  in  removing  a  classified  employee.  We  claim  that 


90  AMERICAN    ROAD    CONGRESS 

it  is  generally  easier  to  remove  for  good  cause  under  the  merit, 
than  under  the  spoils  system.  Under  the  spoils  regime,  an  employee 
put  in  by  political  influence  often  could  not  be  removed  by  his 
official  superior  even  for  drunkenness  and  insubordination.  The 
superior  who  tried  to  remove  him  would  usually  find  him  re-instated, 
or  his  own  official  head  in  danger  of  coming  off.  It  was  easy  enough 
to  remove  after  a  change  of  party  or  party  faction — too  easy  for 
both  good  and  bad  were  turned  out.  It  is  only  in  the  New  York 
City  police  force  that  removals  for  cause  are  difficult.  There, 
against  the  opposition  of  the  National  League  and  the  New  York 
Civil  Service  Reform  Association,  an  appeal  to  the  courts  with  a 
complete  revision  was  allowed,  but  elsewhere  the  usual  rule  requires 
only  a  statement  of  the  reasons  for  removal  in  reasonable  detail 
to  be  given  the  employee,  with  a  chance  to  answer  in  writing,  just 
to  avoid  removal  under  a  mistake  as  to  the  facts,  but  the  appointing 
officer  has  the  final  power. 

Fixing  of  the  powers  of  these  experts  is  a  matter  of  legislation 
and  not  of  civil  service  reform,  but  at  the  same  time,  the  selection 
and  retention  by  the  civil  service  method  will  give  them  such  inde- 
pendence of  position,  such  freedom  from  any  question  as  to  how  the 
next  election  is  going,  and  such  absence  of  control  by  politicians 
that  any  powers  granted  to  them  by  law  can  be  exercised  with  an 
amount  of  independence  which  would  be  impossible  without  the 
tenure  that  the  civil  service  system  gives  them. 

It  is  true  that  some  of  the  experts  in  German  cities,  in  the  city 
of  Paris,  and  in  the  cities  of  Great  Britain  are  not  strictly  under 
civil  service  rules,  but  they  are  under  restricted  methods  of  selec- 
tion, partly  from  custom  and  partly  by  statute  law  very  closely 
allied  to  the  system  that  I  have  just  explained,  based  on  competition 
and  the  possession  of  education  and  experience  that  produces  prac- 
tically the  same  results  by  methods  which  are  first  cousins  to  the 
civil  service  system,  and  I  need  hardly  say  how  vastly  better  and 
more  efficient  is  municipal  administration  in  those  municipalities  in 
which  all  the  operative  work  is  in  the  control  of  these  prominent, 
highly  trained,  and  efficient  experts. 

In  the  national  government  of  Great  Britain  all  the  experts  of 
that  board  that  has  control  of  municipalities  called  the  "  Local  Gov- 
ernment Board,"  and  the  permanent  heads  of  all  the  great  national 
departments,  such  as  the  treasury,  postoffice,  foreign  affairs,  and 
the  like  are  strictly  under  the  competitive  civil  service  rules. 

It  is  important  that  the  civil  service  commissions  should  them- 
selves be  free  from  political  considerations.  Besides  having  their 
chief  examiners,  secretaries,  and  other  subordinates  under  civil 
service  rules,  the  plan  of  having  the  civil  service  commissioners 
appointed  for  long  tenure,  say  six  years,  with  overlapping  terms  is 
recommended  and  in  some  cases  already  adopted. 

Lastly,  may  not  the  plan  of  having  all  the  governmental  work 
in  the  control  of  high-grade  experts,  free  from  politics,  be  the  final 


SOUND    ADMINISTRATION    OF    PUBLIC    SERVICE  91 

solution  for  securing  efficiency  and  economy  in  public  undertakings? 
May  it  not  be  the  anti-toxin  for  public  waste  and  corruption?  May 
not  the  great  success  of  the  United  States  army  engineers  in  the 
harbor  and  river  work  and  in  the  Panama  Canal  be  because  these 
army  engineers  are  so  free  from  political  pressure  and  have  so 
secure  a  tenure  of  office,  rather  than  because  they  are  superior  as 
individuals  to  the  civil  engineers  of  our  country? 

If  there  be  any  truth  in  these  ideas,  is  this  not  a  cause  well  worth 
promoting  with  all  our  influence,  patriotism,  and  enthusiasm,  not 
only  in  road  building  bu£  in  all  other  governmental  enterprises? 

SUMMARY 

For  fifteen  years  civil  and  sanitary  engineers,  architects,  physicians, 
superintendents  of  streets,  chief  librarians,  heads  of  bureaus,  etc., 
men  of  scientific  or  special  training  and  executive  and  organizing 
ability  and  high  professional  standing  have  been  obtained  through 
the  civil  service  examinations.  This  is  possible  because  those  "ex- 
aminations" consist,  not  of  the  scholastic  questions  and  answers 
used  for  clerks,  but  of  inquiry  addressed  to  the  candidates  and  to 
those  who  have  employed  them  as  to  what  education,  training  and 
experience  they  have  had,  their  achievements  in  life  and  manifes- 
tations of  executive  and  organizing  ability  and  power  to  get  on  with 
and  handle  men.  This  inquiry  is  conducted  by  the  aid  of  appro- 
priate specialists  of  high  reputation.  To  the  inquiry  is  added  a 
thesis  on  the  conduct  of  the  work  to  be  done  and  sometimes  an 
oral  interview  to  ascertain  personality.  Such  up-to-date  methods 
form  the  clue  for  " taking  the  roads  out  of  politics/* 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  The  next  paper  will  be  on  "  The  Sound  Adminis- 
tration of  Public  Service,"  by  the  Chief  Examiner  of  the  United 
States  Civil  Service  Commission,  whose  actions  we,  as  a  league, 
have  watched  and  have  never  once  found  fault  with  him,  but  he 
has  secured  our  admiration  as  a  man  who  is  constantly  pressing 
forward  new  ideas  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  system.  I  take 
pleasure  in  introducing  Mr.  George  R.  Wales. 


SOUND  ADMINISTRATION  OF  PUBLIC  SERVICE 

BY  GEORGE  R.  WALES 
Chief  Examiner,  U.  S.  Civil  Service  Commission 

Any  mention  of  the  subject  of  road  building  brings  to  my  mind 
recollections  of  boyhood  days  on  a  farm  in  Vermont.  There  we 
had  in  operation  a  system  of  road  building  which  was  an  excellent 
example  of  the  way  not  to  do  it.  It  was  supposed  to  be  a  system 
of  road  construction,  but  it  was  actually  a  system  of  road  destruc- 
tion. I  am  told  that  this  system,  with  slight  modifications  accord- 


92  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

ing  to  locality,  is  still  is  vogue  in  many  parts  of  the  country.  Doubt- 
less you  are  familiar  with  it.  A  road  tax  was  levied  against  each 
farmer,  and  he  had  the  privilege  of  paying  the  tax  in  cash  or  of  work- 
ing it  out  on  the  roads.  Cash  being  scarce,  and  time  plentiful,  the 
farmers  unanimously  decided  to  work  out,  rather  than  pay  up.  So 
a  day  was  set  aside  for  a  road  building  bee.  But  it  was  a  day  of 
celebration  and  jollification  instead  of  a  day  of  hard  labor  for  the 
public  good.  It  was  a  holiday  set  aside  to  celebrate  the  highways, 
like  Thanksgiving  and  Christmas  and  the  Fourth  of  July,  it  was  a 
day  of  joy  and  good  fellowship.  Everybody  had  a  glorious  time 
and  the  road  taxes  were  charged  off  the  books. 

But  there  were  a  few  zealous,  well-meaning  souls,  who  were  con- 
scientious in  their  performance  of  their  public  duty  and  who  felt 
that  the  other  taxpayers  were  only  cheating  themselves  by  failing 
to  give  an  honest  day's  work.  These  faithful  ones  brought  forth 
their  teams  and,  with  plow  and  harrow  and  scraper,  diligently  fixed 
the  roads.  Oh  yes,  they  fixed  them.  They  fixed  them  so  that  the 
mud  in  wet  weather  and  the  ruts  in  dry  weather  were  deeper  and 
more  plentiful  then  before. 

No  argument  is  needed  to  convince  the  members  of  this  Congress 
that  road  construction  should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  trained  and 
competent  men.  There  was  a  period  in  the  history  of  our  country 
when  it  was  necessary  that  the  settlers  and  farmers  should  build 
their  own  roads  on  which  to  haul  their  produce  to  market.  In 
those  days  farmers  and  their  wives  were  obliged  to  do  many  things 
which  they  can  now  have  done  for  them  in  an  infinitely  better  and 
more  economical  way. 

There  is  another  system  of  road  construction  which  is,  to  say  the 
least,  equally  as  inefficient  and  much  more  extravagant  than  the 
one  whereby  the  farmers  build  the  roads  for  themselves.  I  refer 
to  a  system  whereby  road  construction  is  made  the  prey  of  political 
favoritism,  either  local,  county  or  State.  We  cannot  have  good  roads, 
constructed  and  maintained  economically,  if  their  construction  and 
maintenance  are  to  be  influenced  by  political  expediency.  The  work 
must  be  divorced  absolutely  from  political  considerations  and  put 
upon  a  business-like  basis  of  efficiency. 

I  am  told  that  with  the  exception  of  two  or  three  States  the  work 
of  road  construction  and  maintenance  in  this  country  is  being 
parceled  out,  not  to  those  who  have  the  ability  to  perform  it  properly, 
but  to  those  who  have  the  ability  to  control  a  few  votes.  One  of 
our  leading  periodicals  recently  characterized  this  system  as  a  species 
of  graft.  Perhaps  a  more  precise  term  would  be  highway  robbery— 
the  system  robs  the  people  of  their  highways  and  their  money  at 
the  same  time. 

A  plan  has  been  proposed  by  members  of  this  body  whereby  each 
State  may  take  its  road  building  operations  out  of  politics  and  place 
them  under  a  proper  system  of  administration — an  administration 
which  will  insure  to  the  people  one  hundred  cents'  worth  of  road- 


SOUND   ADMINISTRATION   OF   PUBLIC   SERVICE  93 

way  for  every  dollar  expended  in  taxation;  an  administration  which 
will  place  the  building  of  the  roads  in  the  hands  of  technically  trained 
experts  who  have  made  this  science  their  life  work;  an  administra- 
tion which  will  enable  the  people  to  realize  all  those  great  benefits 
in  education,  prosperity,  and  improved  country  life  that  will  result 
from  an  adequate  system  of  modern  highways.  Briefly,  the  plan  is 
for  each  State  to  place  general  supervision  of  its  roads  in  a  non- 
partisan  board,  that  is,  a  bi-partisan  board  and  hence  non-partisan 
in  its  action,  under  whom  there  shall  be  a  State  highway  engineer 
with  assistants  and  a  highway  engineer  in  each  county,  or  a  group 
of  counties  when  a  single  county  cannot  afford  to  have  an  engineer, 
all  of  these  engineers,  from  the  State  highway  engineer  down  to  the 
county  engineer,  to  be  appointed  from  those  graded  highest  in  a 
competitive  examination  testing  the  qualifications  of  all  applicants 
for  the  places,  and  all  of  them  to  hold  office  during  good  behavior 
and  efficient  work. 

A  little  over  thirty  years  ago  the  national  government  established 
a  system  of  competitive  examinations  for  filling  appointive  offices. 
Before  that  time  appointments  were  based  almost  entirely  upon 
political  considerations,  ability  to  do  the  work  being  a  secondary 
consideration.  Upon  a  change  of  the  party  in  power  it  was  the 
practice  to  turn  out  those  in  office,  whether  or  not  they  had  in  their 
period  of  tenure  learned  to  do  the  work,  and  to  put  in  their  places 
a  new  lot  of  incompetents.  The  people  tired  of  this  farce  and 
demanded  that  competition  for  appointment  should  be  upon  the 
basis  of  ability  to  do  the  work,  instead  of  the  ability  to  get  votes. 
I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  claiming  that  every  individual 
appointed  under  the  patronage  system  was  incompetent.  There 
were  just  enough  exceptions  to  prove  the  rule.  Spurred  by  a  mighty 
insistence  from  the  people,  Congress  enacted  a  law,  calling  it  "An 
Act  to  improve  the  civil  service  of  the  United  States."  It  provided 
that  appointments  should  be  made  according  to  grade  from  among 
those  graded  highest  as  the  result  of  open  competitive  examinations, 
and  that  the  examinations  should  be  practical  in  their  character, 
designed  to  t  st  the  capacity  and  fitness  of  applicants  to  perform 
the  duties  of  the  positions  to  which  they  sought  to  be  appointed. 

At  first  the  competitive  examination  system  was  applied  only  to 
a  comparatively  few  positions,  mostly  of  a  clerical  character,  num- 
bering less  than  14,000.  But  the  law  gave  the  President  power  to 
extend  its  operations  to  other  positions,  and  from  time  to  time  the 
Presidents  have  extended  it,  so  that  now  it  covers  almost  all  the 
positions  in  the  executive  branch  of  the  government  to  which 
appointments  are  made  without  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate.  The  extensions  have  not  been  confined,  however,  to  presi- 
dential action,  for  growth  in  the  government  business  and  extension 
of  its  operations  and  investigations  to  new  fields  have  gradually 
increased  the  number  of  persons  who  hold  office  under  the  com- 
petitive system  in  the  service  of  the  United  States.  At  the  present 


94  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

time  approximately  300,000  positions  are  classified  under  the  national 
civil  service  law. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  growth  in  a  period  of  about  thirty-two 
years  is  alone  sufficient  proof  of  the  efficiency  and  absolute  success 
of  the  system.  We  have,  however,  the  direct  testimony  of  men 
who  have  been  in  position  to  know  the  facts — those  responsible  for 
getting  out  the  work — that  efficiency  has  taken  the  place  of  ineffi- 
ciency, and  economy  has  taken  the  place  of  extravagance,  wherever 
this  system  has  been  applied;  that  the  volume  and  accuracy  of  the 
work  done  by  each  employee  have  increased  amazingly.  We  know 
from  the  records  showing  the  number  of  pieces  of  mail  handled  by 
each  employee  of  the  railway  mail  service  that  in  that  one  branch 
of  the  government's  work  the  competitive  system  is  saving  to  the 
taxpayers  several  millions  of  dollars  annually  and  at  the  same  time 
handling  the  mail  with  a  marvelous  increase  of  accuracy.  To  be 
more  exact,  the  figures  show  that  each  employee  is  doing  20  per 
cent  more  work  than  under  the  old  system  and  doing  it  with  one- 
third  the  number  of  errors.  Again,  and  as  further  proof  of  the 
success  of  the  competitive  examination  system,  it  is  found  that  in 
those  parts  of  the  service  where  efficiency  ratings  have  been  made, 
there  is  an  almost  exact  ratio  between  such  ratings  and  the  ratings 
received  by  the  employees  in  the  examinations  through  which  they 
were  appointed. 

It  is  not  my  claim  that  the  operation  of  the  civil  service  law  is, 
by  any  means,  absolutely  perfect.  The  law  was  humanly  devised 
and  is  humanly  executed.  I  do  not  believe  the  civil  service  system 
has  a  little  millenium  of  it  own  which  it  has  reached  or  will  soon 
reach;  but  the  law  will  compare  most  favorably  with  any  other 
federal  statutes  in  its  shortcomings,  which  are  rapidly  lessening  with 
the  increase  of  public  confidence  in  the  sincerity  and  efficiency  of 
its  administration.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  some  of  the  friends 
of  the  civil  service  law  have  had  a  mistaken  attitude  toward  its 
operation  and  administration  in  respect  to  violations  of  the  law. 
Utter  amazement  and  discouragement  is  evinced  by  some  person 
at  a  single  violation  of  the  civil  service  law,  when  frequent  violations 
of  other  statutes  are  regarded  with  complete  equanimity  and  indul- 
gence and  are  taken  as  a  matter  of  course. 

Some  years  ago  a  clergyman,  who  happened  to  be  also  a  very 
impractical  man,  came  into  the  office  of  one  of  our  commissioners 
showing  great  excitement  and  perturbation  and  exclaimed,  "Mr. 
Commissioner,  I  find  that  your  civil  service  law  is  actually  being 
violated;  you  are  actually  not  preventing  violations  of  it." 

The  Commissioner  glanced  at  the  clergyman's  card  and  replied, 
"I  see  by  your  card  that  you  are  a  clergyman.  Let  me  ask  you  a 
question.  How  are  you  getting  along  these  days  in  enforcing  the 
law  of  Moses;  any  violations?" 

But  I  wish  especially  to  call  your  attention  to  the  development 
of  the  competitive  examination  method  of  appointment  to  profes- 


SOUND    ADMINISTRATION    OF   PUBLIC    SERVICE  95 

sional  and  technical  positions,  positions  of  responsibility  paying  up 
to  practically  $5,000  a  year — in  other  words,  that  class  of  positions 
comparable  to  the  kind  required  for  efficient  highway  administra- 
tion. It  was  not  until  1896  that  any  considerable  number  of  such 
positions  were  brought  under  the  system,  and  even  at  that  time  the 
number  was  small  as  compared  with  the  number  and  variety  of  such 
positions  now  included  within  the  operation  of  the  law.  It  has  been 
claimed  that  the  success  of  the  competitive  system  as  applied  to 
professional,  scientific,  and  technical  positions  has  made  possible  the 
great  extensions  which  the  government  has  made  in  recent  years 
in  scientific  experimentation  and  investigations  for  the  public  wel- 
fare. However  that  may  be,  the  increased  activities  of  the  govern- 
ment in  these  lines  have  necessitated  the  application  of  correct 
principles  of  competitive  examinations  for  such  positions  in  order 
to  insure  the  success  of  this  system  of  appointment  The  Civil 
Service  Commission  has  simply  been  careful  to  apply  common  sense 
business  principles  to  its  methods  of  examination  If  a  position  of 
a  technical  character  requires  a  man  with  technical  training  without 
much,  if  any,  additional  experience,  the  examination  has  been  opened 
to  those  who  have  had  the  required  technical  training,  and  they 
have  been  given  written  tests  in  the  subjects  with  which  they  should 
be  familiar  in  order  properly  to  perform  their  duties  If  the  posi- 
tion requires  a  man  who,  in  addition  to  a  technical  education,  has 
achieved  distinction  and  has  become  eminent  in  the  line  of  his 
profession  and  who  perhaps  has  specialized  in  some  branch  of  his 
profession — one  competent  to  devise,  lay  out  and  manage  the  work — 
then  the  examination  has  been  so  constructed  as  to  bring  men  of 
that  character  to  the  head  of  the  eligible  list.  An  examination 
consisting  of  questions  and  answers  on  technical  subjects  would  not 
be  likely  to  determine  the  relative  fitness  of  applicants  for  such  a 
position;  moreover,  men  qualified  for  such  a  position  could  not  be 
expected  to  enter  into  an  examination  of  that  kind  Therefore,  for 
these  high  grade  positions  where  men  of  experience  and  attainments 
are  needed,  an  examination  is  given  which  does  not  require  the 
competitors  to  assemble  at  any  place  or  to  answer  technical  ques- 
tions. They  are  called  upon  to  furnish,  under  oath,  a  detailed 
statement  of  their  education  and  experience,  including  all  the  work 
they  have  done  since  graduation.  They  may  also  be  asked  to  submit 
an  original  thesis  or  published  works,  and  they  are  required  to  give 
the  names  of  persons  able  and  competent  to  testify  as  to  their  experi- 
ence and  personal  fitness.  Confidential  inquiry  is  made  by  the  Com- 
mission from  various  sources  as  well  as  of  all  persons  referred  to  by 
the  applicant.  Gratifyingly  accurate  and  discriminating  testimony 
is  obtained  by  this  means  of  confidential  communication.  Such 
testimony  approximates,  if  not  equals,  the  testimony  adduced  upon 
cross-examination  in  judicial  proceedings.  The  Commission  has  on 
its  force  of  examiners  men  skilled  in  the  weighing  of  evidence  of 
this  kind.  It  has  a  corps  of  expert  examiners  who  are  eminent  and 


96  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGREbfc 

leading  authorities  in  their  respective  lines,  whose  services  may  be 
called  in  when  needed.  With  such  means  it  is  not  difficult  to  place 
upon  the  history  of  the  career  and  accomplishments  of  each  appli- 
cant a  percentage  rating  which  is  an  accurate  measure  of  his  relative 
fitness  to  perform  the  work  to  be  done. 

A  demonstration  of  the  ability  of  the  competitive  system  to  obtain 
high  class  men  for  technical  positions  has  been  made  within  the  past 
year,  in  connection  with  the  employment  of  men  to  appraise  the 
value  of  the  ~roperty  of  common  carriers  in  the  United  States.  For 
this  work  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  required  men  with 
qualifications  ranging  all  the  way  from  rodman  and  chainman  to 
the  senior  positions  in  civil,  mechanical,  structural,  electrical  and 
architectural  engineering,  as  well  as  motive  power  men  and  expert 
accountants.  There  have  been  approximately  15,000  applicants  for 
these  positions,  and  the  task  of  sifting  the  wheat  from  the  chaff 
and  of  grading  the  wheat  after  the  sifting  was  one  of  considerable 
magnitude;  but  it  was  done,  and  it  was  done  so  well  that  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  expressed  its  gratification  to  find  that 
it  could  secure  a  force  so  well  equipped  to  perform  the  gigantic  task 
of  obtaining  an  accurate  appraisal  of  the  value  of  common  carrier 
property.  A  system  which  can  successfully  secure  a  competent 
force  of  high  grade  engineers  for  this  valuation  work  could  surely 
provide  the  proper  kind  of  men  to  have  charge  of  the  construction 
and  maintenance  of  public  highways. 

A  large  number  of  other  instances  could  be  cited,  demonstrating 
the  absolute  success  of  the  competitive  examination  system  when 
applied  to  highly  expert  and  technical  positions.  Among  such 
positions  are,  assistant  director  of  the  Office  of  Public  Roads,  senior 
highway  engineer,  assistant  in  road  economics,  petroleum  engineer, 
chemical  engineer,  mineral  technologist,  chief  metallurgist  in  the 
Bureau  of  Mines,  associate  physicist  in  the  Bureau  of  Standards, 
professor  of  chemistry  and  professor  of  pharmacology  in  the  Public 
Health  Service,  assistant  chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  in  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  chief  irrigation  engineer  for  the  Indian 
Service,  experts  in  the  Children's  Bureau,  and  many  others,  all 
ranging  in  compensation  up  to  $4,800. 

The  competitive  system  has  grown  in  States  and  cities  as  well 
as  in  the  national  government.  It  has  grown  in  the  extent  of  its 
operations  and  in  popular  favor  as  well,  and  it  is  constantly  gaining 
friends  as  the  people  come  more  and  more  to  understand  its  prin- 
ciples and  to  apprecite  its  benefits.  It  has  now  become  so  strongly 
entrenched  behind  public  sentiment  that  partisan  administrative 
officers  are  afraid  to  admit  that  any  changes  they  may  make  are 
influenced  by  political  considerations,  and  are  careful  to  claim  at 
least  that  all  such  changes  are  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the 
efficiency  of  their  officers.  Wherever  the  adoption  of  the  competi- 
tive system  has  been  submitted  to  a  referendum  vote,  it  has  come 
out  victorious. 


PROCEEDINGS  97 

The  States  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts  were  among  the 
earliest  to  adopt  the  system  for  appointment  to  State  and  county 
offices.  New  Jersey  has,  within  recent  years,  put  it  into  operation 
in  much  the  same  comprehensive  way  that  it  has  been  established 
in  Massachusetts  and  New  York.  These  three  States,  I  am  told, 
are  leaders  in  highway  administration  and  they  can  be  taken  as 
examples  of  what  the  competitive  examination  system  will  do  for 
the  good  roads  movement. 

This  great  organization  of  representative  men  from  all  parts  of 
our  country  can  do  much  toward  increasing  the  popular  under- 
standing of  what  the  competitive  system  is  and  what  it  accom- 
plishes. That  there  is  a  need  for  a  still  wider  popular  knowledge 
of  it  is  shown  by  the  need  for  its  application  to  the  good  roads  move- 
ment in  the  States  where  it  has  not  been  applied. 

In  its  beginning  the  competitive  examination  system  was  largely, 
if  not  entirely,  a  system  of  entry  to  public  employment,  coupled  a 
little  later  with  tenure  during  good  service  and  good  behavior. 
Latterly  it  is  broadening  definitely  into  a  system  of  administration. 
A  civil  service  commission  today  might  more  properly  be  designated 
a  department  of  administration.  Only  through  the  administration 
of  a  civil  service  commission  is  it  possible  to  have  the  most  efficient 
and  economical  management  of  all  the  various  departments  and 
branches  of  the  public  service.  It  is  essential,  however,  that  the 
conception  of  public  positions  as  patronage  be  displaced  by  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  public  business  at  all  times  is  the  business  of 
all  the  people.  Public  positions  should  be  held  in  trust  for  all  the 
people.  With  this  purpose  the  competitive  examination  system  is 
particularly  in  harmony,  for  it  opens  the  door  of  the  public  service 
to  the  competent  and  worthy  and  closes  it  effectually  in  the  faces 
of  the  unfit  and  the  unworthy.  This  system  is  needed  wherever 
public  business  is  to  be  done. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  I  noticed  in  the  discussion  this 
morning  something  was  said  about  the  power  of  removal,  and  a 
good  many  people  who,  sometimes  from  political  motives  and 
sometimes  from  ignorance,  have  tried  to  make  out  that  it  is  im- 
possible or  hard  to  remove  a  man  from  the  civil  service  that  is 
classified  under  its  rules.  Let  me  state  that  experience  has  shown 
that  it  is  easy  to  remove  a  man  for  good  cause  under  civil  service 
rules.  Those  of  us  who  have  watched  the  civil  service  for  years  back 
have  seen  many  instances  of  persons  who  have  been  dismissed  by 
the  official  in  charge  for  drunkenness  and  insubordination,  for  ex- 
ample, and  had  that  person  put  back  again  by  some  political  superior, 
so  that  the  man  directly  in  charge  of  him  no  longer  had  any  con- 
trol over  his  actions.  Under  the  civil  service  system,  all  that  is 
required  in  the  national  service  and  as  far  as  the  national  league 
has  ever  approved  of,  has  been  that  the  party  to  be  removed  be 
furnished  with  the  reasons  in  writing,  sufficiently  explicit  for  him  ot 


98  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

understand  them,  and  be  given  an  opportunity  to  reply  in  writing, 
with  the  appointing  officer  in  the  end  making  the  final  decision, 
merely  to  prevent  the  head  officer  making  the  removal  from  acting 
under  some  misstatement  or  misinformation.  We  will  now  pass 
to  the  next  paper,  "The  Applicability  of  the  Merit  System  to  the 
Engineering  Service,"  and  may  I  state  that  the  reader  of  this  paper 
is  now  the  Chief  Examiner  of  Philadelphia  and  was  appointed  as  the 
result  of  this  very  kind  of  competitive  examination.  He  had  been 
the  Chief  Examiner  of  Kansas  City  and  his  record  showed  such 
splendid  work  that  he  stood  at  the  head  of  the  eligible  list,  and  ex- 
emplifies today  an  expert  receiving  his  position  by  strict  compe- 
tition. He  is  one  of  the  best  chief  examiners  that  we  have  in  any 
of  our  municipalities — Mr.  Arthur  M.  Swanson. 


THE  ADAPTABILITY  OF  THE  MERIT  SYSTEM  TO  THE 
ENGINEERING  SERVICE 

BY  ARTHUR  M.  SWANSON 
Chief  Examiner  of  the  Philadelphia  Civil  Service  Commission 

It  would,  no  doubt,  be  interesting  to  you  men  who  are  practical 
road  builders  to  know  how  we  choose  our  laborers  and  skilled  laborers 
for  work  on  streets  by  the  merit  system.  Take  common  laborers : 
We  receive  applications  at  any  time,  then  when  there  is  a  need  for 
more  laborers  on  the  street  we  notify  perhaps  a  thousand  men  who 
have  applied  to  appear  in  groups  before  the  physicians  who  are  on 
the  staff  of  the  civil  service  commission.  They  are  given  a  sort  of 
inspection  by  these  physicians  simply  to  see  that  they  are  able- 
bodied  men,  their  lifting  strength  is  tested,  and  their  eyes,  ears, 
heart  and  lungs  are  given  a  fairly  close  inspection.  The  physicians 
then  group  the  men  in  four  classes.  The  first  class  is  marked  90,  the 
second  class  80,  the  third  class  70,  the  fourth  class,  which  would  be 
the  ineligibles,  are  marked  60.  The  appointing  officers  then  are 
required  to  appoint  these  laborers  in  the  exact  order  of  their  standing 
on  the  eligible  list.  Suppose  we  need  pavers,  for  example,  the 
applicants  are  taken  to  one  of  the  yards  of  the  Highway  Bureau, 
usually  to  the  yard  where  the  bureau  would  like  to  have  some  paving 
done,  and  the  applicant  is  supplied  with  the  necessary  materials 
and  tools  and  a  helper  is  required  to  pave  for,  perhaps,  an  hour  or 
an  hour  and  a  half,  and  we  have  present  a  practical  paving  foreman 
from  some  private  corporation  to  assist  in  passing  judgment  on  the 
men. 

However,  I  wish  to  confine  my  remarks  principally  to  examina- 
tions for  engineering  positions  of  a  somewhat  higher  character  and 
I  shall  take  up  and  discuss  two  or  three  such  positions. 

Chief  Engineer,  City  Transit.  This  position  pays  $6,000.  The 
incumbent  has  charge  of  all  engineering  work  pertaining  to  the 


ADAPTABILITY   OF   THE  MERIT   SYSTEM  99 

construction  of  the  great  subways  and  elevated  lines  now  being 
undertaken  by  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  Our  idea  is  that  a  written 
examination  upon  technical  problems  is  unsuited  to  an  engineerirg 
test  of  this  grade.  We  believe  in  adopting  as  nearly  as  possible 
under  the  laws  the  method  of  selection  which  the  head  of  a  corpora- 
tion would  probably  use.  Of  course,  public  positions  cannot  be  filled 
in  altogether  the  same  manner  as  private  positions  may  be  for  the 
reason  that  every  citizen  has  a  right  to  compete  for  the  public  posi- 
tion if  he  desires  to  do  so.  We  first  selected  an  examining  board 
composed  of  the  assistant  chief  engineer  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road, an  engineering  professor  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  a  private  consulting  engineer.  An  announcement  was  then 
issued  stating  the  character  of  the  position,  the  type  of  man  wanted, 
and  the  conditions  of  the  test.  These  conditions  were  that  the 
applicant  should  first  submit  a  complete  statement  of  training  and 
experience,  together  with  copies  of  any  papers  or  books  he  had 
published.  This  statement  of  training  and  experience  involved  age, 
education,  previous  employments,  work  designed,  supervised  or 
constructed,  membership  in  engineering  societies,  papers  or  lectures 
published  and  other  pertinent  information  and  professional  or  busi- 
ness references.  All  who  received  a  rating  of  70  per  cent  or  more 
on  that  subject  were  admitted  to  the  remainder  of  the  test,  which 
was  an  oral  discussion  of  appropriate  engineering  topics  with  the 
examining  board,  after  which  a  second  mark  was  given.  These 
two  marks  were  averaged  for  the  final  standing  of  the  competitor, 
60  per  cent  being  allowed  for  training  and  experience  and  40  per 
cent  for  the  oral  test.  An  engineer  of  excellent  standing,  who  had 
previously  designed  some  of  Philadelphia's  noted  public  works, 
among  them  the  famous  Walnut  Lane  Bridge,  was  the  successful 
competitor  in  this  test  and  was  appointed.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  successful  professional  men,  including  engineers,  hesitate  to 
submit  to  a  civil  service  examination  as  that  term  is  popularly 
understood.  The  word  "  examination"  conjures  up  visions  of  cram- 
ming volumes,  and  puzzling  queries  upon  text  book  theories.  But 
the  modern  merit  system  is  none  of  this.  The  effort  nowadays  is 
to  devise  a  type  of  test  that  is  adapted  to  the  job  to  be  filled  and 
one  that  will  attract  successful  engineers  by  the  sheer  fairness  of  the 
plan  as  well  as  repel  the  unsuccessful  by  the  hopelessness  of  its 
miscarriage  through  their  success.  We  feel  that  the  test  above 
described  did  measure  up  to  the  job  and  it  produced  a  successful 
engineer. 

District  Surveyor.  This  position  pays  $4000.  The  incumbent  is 
in  charge  of  all  city  planning  within  his  district,  including  streets, 
sewers,  parks,  and  all  similar  things.  He  is  not  necessarily  an 
executive,  but  rather  a  technical  man.  Again  we  started  by  select- 
ing a  board  of  special  examiners  similar  to  the  one  described  above. 
They  divided  the  examination  into  three  parts,  namely,  experience 
30  per  cent,  thesis  40  per  cent,  oral  interview  30  per  cent.  Only 


100  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

those  who  attained  70  per  cent  on  each  of  the  subjects  of  experience 
and  thesis  were  admitted  to  the  oral  test.  Applicants  were  not 
assembled  at  any  time.  The  experience  questions  and  the  subject 
for  the  thesis  were  widely  distributed  among  engineers  and  appli- 
cants were  given  about  thirty  days  in  which  to  prepare  and  file  their 
work.  This  means  that  the  candidate  had  at  his  disposal  all  his 
usual  references  and  other  equipment  and  made  the  test  a  matter 
of  actual  engineering  practice. 

The  subject  for  thesis  is  worthy  of  mention.  It  consisted  of  a 
contour  map  of  a  proposed  addition  to  a  city,  with  the  following 
instructions : 

Prepare  a  development  plan  on  tracing  cloth,  of  the  126  acre  tract  "Rock- 
land,"  on  which  shall  be  shown  the  best  arrangement  of  streets,  as  determined 
by  a  consideration  of  all  the  conditions  given  in  these  directions  and  other- 
wise expressed  on  the  topographical  print. 

Place  upon  the  plan :  (a)  The  street  widths,  (b)  The  two  main  dimensions 
of  blocks  as  determined  by  scale,  (c)  Elevations  of  the  intersections  of  center 
lines  of  all  streets,  and  all  points  on  center  lines  where  there  are  important 
breaks  in  the  grade,  (d)  Indicate  the  gradients,  (e)  The  names  of  all  streets, 
(f)  Show  lot  divisions  in  each  block  indicating  the  principal  dimensions,  (g) 
Number  the  blocks,  (h)  Indicate  the  water  distribution  system  with  kind 
and  size  of  pipes,  (i)  Consider  sewerage  and  storm  drainage,  (j)  Show  the 
drainage  system  or  systems  on  the  plan,  give  the  sewer  sizes  and  gradients 
and  construction,  (k)  Indicate  the  paving  or  wearing  surface  for  each  street. 

Prepare  a  Report  and  Recommendations:  (a)  Showing  and  explaining  the 
reasons  for  the  proposed  development,  (b)  The  explanations  to  coyer  the 
street  and  lot  systems,  (c)  The  sewer  and  water  systems,  explaining  in  some 
detail  as  to  the  sizes,  gradients,  street  widths  and  locations,  (d)  Explain 
the  maximum  and  minimum  gradients  of  streets  and  sewers,  (e)  Explain  the 
sewer  depths,  (f)  Explain  the  selection  and  construction  of  the  pavements 
recommended,  (g)  Explain  the  special  features  in  the  design  that  particu- 
larly add  to  its  value. 

Conditions  That  May  Influence  the  Development:  Location — farming  and  graz- 
ing district;  about  one  and  a  half  miles  from  a  busy  town  of  75,000  population. 
The  next  nearest  town  is  the  county  seat.  Nearest  railroad  station  two  miles 
on  double  track  road.  A  few  suburban  streets  are  proposed  for  the  area  on 
the  south  side  of  the  railroad  opposite  the  easterly  end  of  "Rockland."  Two 
or  three  small  houses  are  near  the  iron  works,  and  about  400  feet  south  of  the 
railroad.  Iron  works  are  about  200  feet  south  of  the  railroad,  employing  200 
hands.  Consider  rainfall  only  on  the  area  of  the  tract,  at  the  rate  of  6 
inches  per  hour  for  the  first  twenty  minutes  of  cloudburst.  Small  springs  on 
tract  of  no  account  for  water  supply.  Nearest  water  is  a  mountain  stream 
about  1500  feet  south  of  the  railroad,  flowing  about  200  cubic  feet  per  minute, 
of  a  slightly  turbid  water.  All  the  region  about  the  tract  is  of  a  clayey  soil. 
The  area  to  the  south  of  "Rockland"  is  mostly  flat  with  a  slight  slope  to  the 
river;  nearly  open  ground. 

Computations  to  be  Performed  as  a  Part  of  Thesis  Work:  Block  "Norfolk"- 
Compute  and  indicate  the  dimensions  of  all  the  lot  outlines  to  the  nearest 
one  hundredth  of  a  foot,  and  all  other  dimensions  needed  to  complete  the 
calculations  of  the  subdivision.  Indicate  all  the  courses  and  distances  so 
that  the  block  and  lots  can  be  correctly  laid  out  in  the  field.  Present  the 
individual  calculations  for  all  the  work  in  neat  schedule  form,  so  that  the 
examining  board  can  inspect  readily.  Place  the  results  of  the  computations 
upon  the  print  in  black  India  ink. 

I  might  add  that  affidavits  were,  of  course,  required  as  to  the 
originality  of  the  plan  and  its  execution.  Eighteen  engineers  com- 


ADAPTABILITY    OF   THE    -MERIT   SYSTEM  101 

peted,  of  whom  four  were  finally  passed.  It  may  be  interesting  to 
state  also  that  the  oral  interview  consisted  largely  of  further  expla- 
nation of  the  plans  by  the  competitor  and  also  a  series  of  questions 
upon  the  ethics  of  engineering.  I  think  we  are  often  unmindful  of 
the  necessity  that  the  ethical  side  of  the  situation  be  stressed  by  an 
examining  board  in  the  case  of  an  important  public  position.  The 
director  of  public  works  added  his  apparent  approval  to  the  test 
by  appointing  the  first  man  on  the  eligible  list.  This  illustrates 
what  may  be  considered  another  successful  adaptation  of  the  merit 
system  to  the  job  to  be  filled. 

Draftsmen.  Tests  for  the  engineering  service  acquired  a  ques- 
tionable standing  in  the  minds  of  many  by  their  very  insufficiency 
in  former  years.  The  records  of  our  office  show  that  not  many 
years  ago  draftsmen,  for  example,  were  tested  by  such  questions  as 
"Name  the  tools  a  draftsmen  uses,"  "Define  Plane  Trigonometry," 
and  similar  queries.  But  there  has  been  a  development.  Our 
method  today  is  as  follows:  We  give  two  days  to  the  test.  The 
first  day  is  devoted  to  computations  upon  a  chosen  set  of  facts  or 
data  of  an  intensely  practical  kind.  At  the  close  of  the  day's  work 
the  applicant  is  required  to  place  his  results  on  a  separate  sheet. 
He  is  furnished  with  all  the  necessary  hand  books  and  tables  and 
permitted  to  use  slide  rules  for  checking  purposes.  So  far  as  possi- 
ble no  man  in  the  engineering  service,  be  he  chainman,  rodman, 
draftsman  or  engineer,  should  be  given  a  test  without  access  to  all 
the  usual  equipment  of  his  profession.  If  an  examiner  can't  test 
a  man  without  searching  him  and  imprisoning  him  through  the 
ordeal,  he  isn't  equal  to  his  job.  The  next  day  the  applicant  is 
required  to  bring  his  instruments.  His  tabulation  of  results  is  re- 
turned to  him.  We  provide  drawing  tables,  boards  and  papers  and 
he  is  instructed  to  prepare  a  finished  drawing  from  his  results.  Surely 
this  will  not  be  classed  as  a  theoretical  "examination."  It  is  simply 
two  days  of  the  life  of  the  ordinary  draftsman  taken  as  a  standard 
for  measuring  his  capabilities  and  this  is  not  a  bad  conception  of 
civil  service  tests  today. 

Age  and  Education.  We  hear  much  criticism  leveled  at  the  merit 
system  to  the  effect  that  nobody  but  a  college  professor  or  a  young 
man  fresh  from  school  can  pass  the  tests  that  are  given.  The  facts 
do  not  support  the  claim.  We  have  taken  a  given  year  and  tabu- 
lated the  facts  including  all  engineering  tests  from  chainman  to 
chief  engineer.  Of  those  passing,  28  per  cent  had  a  college  educa- 
tion, 34  per  cent  had  a  high  school  education  while  38  per  cent  had 
only  common  school  training.  At  the  same  time,  of  those  failing 
20  per  cent  had  college  education,  23  per  cent  had  high  school  train- 
ing, and  57  per  cent  had  only  common  school  education.  In  fact, 
the  man  who  made  the  highest  average  and  was  appointed  to  the 
highest  engineering  position  for  which  I  have  ever  supervised  a  test, 
had  been  denied  even  a  high  school  training.  In  the  test  for  district 
surveyor  described  above,  the  average  age  of  those  passing  was  40 


102  AMERICAN  BOAD  CONGRESS 

and  of  those  failing  42.  All  of  the  four  men  who  passed  that  test 
had  a  college  training,  while  of  the  fourteen  who  failed  nine  had 
college  education.  A  close  study  of  these  and  other  statistics  will 
show  that  as  a  rule  there  are  very  seldom  any  unnatural  results  in 
this  regard.  Thus  the  merit  system  establishes  its  intense  practi- 
cability in  that  it  does  not  operate  to  the  detriment  of  the  mature 
and  practical  man  and  the  undue  advantage  of  the  young  and  the 
theoretical. 

The  Merit  System  a  Necessity.  Three  years  ago  the  highway  bureau 
of  Philadelphia  expending  and  supervising  millions  of  dollars  of 
public  work  annually  had  hardly  a  single  actual  engineer  in  its 
employ.  Even  the  highway  inspectors  were  very  seldom  men  of  even 
the  slightest  engineering  experience  or  training.  Civil  engineering 
training  and  experience  is  now  made  an  absolute  requirement  for 
this  position  by  the  civil  service  commission.  Today  the  bureau 
has  20  engineers.  It  has  also  160  engineering  inspectors  and  high- 
way inspectors,  of  whom  about  140  are  civil  engineers  by  both 
education  and  experience,  those  lacking  such  training  being  hold- 
overs. And  every  one  of  them  from  the  chief  at  $6000  a  year  down 
the  line  is  a  product  of  the  merit  system  of  civil  service.  To  thus 
transform  a  bureau  requires  that  the  department  of  public  works 
take  the  initiative  by  creating  a  change  in  the  type  of  service  wanted, 
but  the  merit  system  has  delivered  the  goods  and  thus  played  an 
important  part  in  creating  a  field  in  Philadelphia  for  highway  engi- 
neers, and,  when  necessary,  we  have  gone  outside  the  city  to  find 
the  right  men.  Let  me  say  that  the  question  of  residence  should 
never  be  permitted  to  prevent  a  city  from  securing  the  highest 
degree  of  service.  What  you  need  is  to  build  up  a  body  of  trained 
road  builders  in  this  country  and  you  can't  do  it  so  long  as  local 
residence  is  a  requirement  for  public  service.  I  do  not  know  of 
any  way  by  which  a  technical  service  can  so  satisfactorily  be  created 
and  maintained  in  public  service  other  than  through  the  merit 
system  intelligently  applied  to  each  job  to  be  filled. 

New  Developments.  As  a  further  proof  of  our  own  conviction  that 
the  merit  system  is  practical,  let  me  state  that  we  publish  every  one 
of  the  questions  after  the  examination  is  completed.  This  is  done 
for  a  threefold  reason:  It  is  a  scheme  of  education,  it  is  convincing 
proof  of  fairness,  and  it  compels  the  examiners  to  keep  abreast  of 
the  great  progress  being  made  in  the  varied  branches  of  engineering 
and  on  the  alert  for  new  questions  and  new  tests.  Perhaps  the  thing 
that  would  do  more  to  convince  this  Congress  of  the  adaptability 
of  the  merit  system  than  all  the  addresses  that  we  can  deliver  would 
be  to  read  these  questions  in  full.  If  there  is  any  interested  person 
who  will  write  me,  I  will  send  him  a  copy  of  every  question  asked 
during  1912  or  1913.  Not  only  that,  but  we  keep  every  applicant's 
examination  papers  open  for  public  inspection  with  the  marks  of 
the  examiners  thereon  at  any  time  after  the  results  are  published. 
The  examining  department  has  a  library  of  the  latest  and  best  prac- 


ADAPTABILITY    OF   THE   MERIT   SYSTEM  103 

tical  reference  works  on  engineering  that  can  be  had  and  subscribes 
for  and  reads  the  best  engineering  periodicals.  It  does  not  purchase 
books  of  stale  questions  with  cut  and  dried  answers.  The  engineer- 
ing examiners  are  university  graduates  with  considerable  practical 
experience.  I  mention  these  apparently  unrelated  items  merely  to 
show  that  modern  civil  service  administrators  are  alive  to  their 
duties  and  are  keeping  up  with  the  progress  of  the  engineering 
profession. 

The  developments  in  the  methods  of  the  merit  system  in  recent 
years  have  been  nothing  short  of  remarkable.  Especially  is  this 
true  when  we  consider  the  difficulties  under  which  the  system  has 
labored  and  advanced.  Let  me  suggest  that  the  necessity  of  arguing 
here  today  the  adaptability  of  the  merit  system  to  the  engineering 
service  does  not  arise  from  any  errors  in  the  principles  upon  which 
it  is  based,  but  rather  from  the  way  in  which  it  has  been  handled 
from  financial  and  administrative  standpoints.  Small  wonder  is  it 
that  its  adaptability  should  be  questioned  when  we  recall  that 
large  cities  pay  higher  salaries  for  court  criers  and  writ  servers  than 
for  engineering  examiners  who  must  prepare  the  tests  and  rate  the 
qualifications  of  engineers  for  the  public  service.  Fortunately,  there 
are  everywhere  eminent  engineers  who  recognize  the  value  of  the 
merit  method  of  selection,  and  who,  therefore,  give  their  time  and 
ability  free  of  charge  as  special  examiners.  And  when  we  add  to 
this  the  frequent  setbacks  it  has  received  under  unsympathetic 
administrations,  particularly  in  States  and  municipalities,  we  have 
an  idea  of  its  struggle  for  a  permanent  place  in  the  plan  of  govern- 
ment. That  it  has  survived  and  prospered  under  such  conditions 
is  the  strongest  proof  of  the  correctness  of  the  idea. 

Creating  a  New  Engineering  Department.  But  the  greatest  test 
of  the  adaptability  of  the  merit  system  does  not  come  in  the  filling 
of  individual  positions,  but  comes  rather  when  a  department  com- 
posed of  only  engineering  positions  is  suddenly  created  by  the  legis- 
lative body  and  the  responsibility  for  immediately  filling  those  posi- 
tions to  satisfy  an  insistent  public  demand  for  action  is  put  squarely 
up  to  the  merit  system.  This  has  occurred  recently  in  Philadelphia, 
and  never  did  the  merit  system  of  civil  service  show  itself  to  greater 
advantage. 

The  department  of  city  transit  was  created  a  little  more  than  a 
year  ago  by  the  act  of  the  Legislature.  It  was  created  to  supervise 
and  control  the  construction  and  operation  of  great  subways  and 
connecting  elevated  lines  to  be  municipally  built  and  owned.  A 
complete  staff  of  about  140  engineers,  draftsmen,  transitmen,  rod- 
men  and  chainmen  had  to  be  selected,  and  the  character  of  their 
work  was  such  that  no  existing  eligible  lists  could  be  used.  In  other 
words,  the  merit  system  was  called  upon  to  produce  a  new  engineer- 
ing department  for  a  new  line  of  municipal  activity  at  once.  Exami- 
nations were  immediately  announced,  the  duties  of  the  various  posi- 
tions stated,  and  the  desired  qualifications  fixed.  The  number  of 


104  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

applicants  was  large,  but  first  class  engineers  in  private  business 
willingly  gave  their  services  as  examiners,  and  to  make  a  long  story 
short,  there  was  never  a  time  since  the  creation  of  that  department 
when  the  civil  service  commission  was  not  able  to  fill  all  requisitions 
for  appointments.  Although  the  director  is  allowed  by  law  the 
selection  of  one  name  out  of  four,  it  is  a  testimonial  to  the  effective- 
ness of  the  merit  system  that  he  chose  his  men  almost  invariably  in 
the  exact  order  of  their  standing  on  the  eligible  list.  There  were 
thus  selected  and  appointed  in  that  department  within  a  short  space 
of  time  sixteen  engineers,  whose  annual  salaries  range  from  $1,500 
to  $6,000,  and  forty-two  draftsmen,  whose  annual  salaries  range 
from  $1,000  to  $2,700  besides  a  number  of  checkers,  rodmen,  chain- 
men  and  tracers.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  new  department,  created 
from  top  to  bottom  through  the  merit  system,  is  perhaps,  today 
the  best  equipped  and  best  organized  engineering  bureau  in  the  city 
of  Philadelphia.  We  may  spend  many  millions  for  subways  and 
elevated  lines  but  we  have  taken  the  precaution  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion for  the  supervision  of  that  expenditure  in  the  merit  system. 

The  Appointing  Officer's  View.  Perhaps  it  might  be  interesting 
to  illustrate  what  the  appointing  officers  think  about  the  efficiency 
of  the  merit  system  of  tests  as  indicated  by  their  appointments 
from  lists.  Take,  for  example,  highway  inspectors.  In  a  little  more 
than  the  past  year  114  eligibles  have  been  certified  to  the  bureau  of 
highways  as  highway  inspectors.  Under  the  law  the  chief  is  not 
required  to  appoint  more  than  four  out  of  each  seven.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  out  of  114  names  he  has  appointed  98,  although  the  law  would 
compel  him  to  appoint  only  56.  And  the  first  man  has  been  ap- 
pointed on  every  list  but  one.  In  appointing  35  draftsmen  the 
chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Surveys  has  passed  over  only  nine  names, 
when  he  could  have  passed  over  several  times  that  number  without 
violating  the  law.  In  a  little  more  than  a  year  nine  eligible  lists 
have  been  created  for  highway  engineers  at  various  salaries  from 
$1,500  to  $4,000  a  year.  In  eight  of  the  nine  cases  the  Bureau  of 
Highways  has  appointed  the  first  man  on  the  list.  Not  only  that, 
but  in  one  case,  for  example,  they  have  appointed  eight  out  of  the 
first  nine  on  a  list.  These  bureau  chiefs  were  thus  by  no  means 
taking  advantage  of  that  provisions  of  the  law  which  enables  them 
to  pass  over  three  names  out  of  every  seven,  and  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  they  are  not  making  their  appointments  practically 
straight  down  the  lists  in  order  to  glorify  the  civil  service  system. 
It  is  only  natural  and  proper  to  presume  that  their  purpose  is  to 
render  successful  administrations  of  their  bureaus  by  getting  work 
done  and  getting  it  done  right.  It  is  most  convincing  proof  that 
the  merit  system  properly  discriminates  between  the  competent  and 
the  incompetent  in  the  engineering  service. 

You  will  note  that  in  this  short  paper  I  have  necessarily  limited 
myself  to  a  discussion  of  original  entrance  to  the  service  and  have 
omitted  other  important  matters,  such  as  protection  in  tenure, 


DISCUSSION  105 

promotion  and  other  things.  The  merit  system  has  come  to  stay 
and  its  the  rock  upon  which  any  stable  and  efficient  engineering 
service  must  be  built  and  maintained. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    The  subject  is  now  open  for  general  discussion. 

ME.  PATTERSON  (of  the  Prison  Commission  of  Georgia) :  We  have 
had  under  consideration  for  some  time  in  our  department  the  se- 
lection of  road  engineers  to  assist  the  various  counties  in  Georgia 
in  their  road  work.  I  was  extremely  interested  in  hearing  this  dis- 
cussion, because  we  have  been  somewhat  at  a  loss  to  know,  when  we 
employed  those  men  how  and  where  to  get  them.  The  law  pro- 
vides that  these  men  employ  not  more  than  four  supervisors  who  shall 
visit  the  various  counties,  inspect  the  convicts  in  their  work  and  per- 
form such  other  duties  as  may  be  required  of  them  by  the  commis- 
sion; also  that  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  supervisors  to  inform  them- 
selves thoroughly  upon  the  subject  of  road  building,  etc.,  and  in  the 
economical  handling  of  convicts.  It  provides  that  the  salary  of 
those  men  shall  not  exceed  $1800  per  year  and  expenses.  Now 
how  can  we  get — what  kind  of  method  could  we  employ  to  get  these 
experts,  who  shall  be  civil  engineers,  if  possible,  but  who  shall  be 
experts  in  this  line  of  work — to  give  this  assistance  to  our  various 
counties  in  Georgia?  The  weakness  of  the  system  in  Georgia  is 
the  fact  that  the  State  does  not  provide  this  expert  assistance.  Our 
counties  are  working  their  roads  by  convicts  and  some  of  them  do 
not  feel  financially  able  to  secure  expert  engineers  to  put  in  charge 
of  this  work,  but  the  law  provides  that  the  Prison  Commission  shall 
employ  four  experts  who  shall  visit  the  various  counties,  spend  as 
much  time  in  them  as  possible  and  instruct  the  men  in  handling  their 
convicts,  building  their  bridges  and  doing  the  engineering  con- 
struction for  these  various  counties.  What  kind  of  method  can  we 
employ  to  get  competent  men? 

MR.  SWANSON:    Who  has  the  appointing  power? 

MR.  PATTERSON:  The  Prison  Commission.  I  am  a  member  of 
the  Prison  Commission. 

MR.  SWANSON:    And  the  work  is  temporary? 

MR.  PATTERSON:  No,  it  is  permanent  and  the  salary  is  $1800, 
and  expenses;  it  is  equivalent  to  a  salary  of  $3000,  if  a  man  pays  his 
own  expenses. 

MR.  SWANSON:  I  understand  they  are  employed  both  winter  and 
summer? 

MR.  PATTERSON:    Yes,  the  year  round. 


106  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

MR.  SWANSON:  Well,  I  think  if  you  could  do  it,  the  first  thing 
to  do  would  be  to  set  aside  any  idea  of  residence  within  any  particu- 
lar county  or  even  within  the  State.  Would  these  men  be  confined 
to  a  single  county? 

MR.  PATTERSON:  No.  There  are  just  four  of  them  and  we  have 
120  counties  working  convicts;  each  man  would  have  charge  of  the 
supervision  of  the  work  of  30  counties. 

MR.  SWANSON:  It  seems  to  me  if  your  Prison  Commission  would 
appoint  a  board  of  high  class  engineers  within  the  State,  say  three 
men  whose  fairness  of  mind  you  could  count  upon  and  whose  interest 
in  the  work  was  real  and  genuine,  and  then  proceed  very  much  the 
way  we  do  with  the  civil  service  examination,  that  is,  issue  a  notice 
which  might  be  put  in  various  papers  within  the  State,  and  if  you 
decide  to  set  aside  residence,  put  the  notice  in  such  papers  as  the 
Engineering  News,  Engineering  Record  and  Manufacturers  Record, 
outside  the  State — a  short  notice  describing  the  kind  of  position 
you  are  going  to  fill,  the  salary  and  the  method  by  which  it  will  be 
filled  and  giving  such  assurances  as  you  can  as  to  the  tenure  of 
office,  and  then  specify  when  and  where  the  men  should  send  their 
applications.  That  will  be  a  preliminary  step.  Now,  if  you  have 
not  had  much  experience  with  examining  people,  it  seems  to  me  that 
an  examination  consisting  of  a  consideration  of  their  training  and 
experience,  together  with  an  oral  interview  before  such  a  board  as  I 
mention,  would  be  the  proper  way  to  do  it,  because  in  those  super- 
visory positions  where  men  have  charge  of  other  men  as  these  men 
would  have,  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  it  is  very  largely  a  question 
of  what  a  man  has  done  and  what  his  personality  consists  of.  I 
want  to  urge  upon  you  the  importance  of  the  personality  of  a  man 
in  a  position  where  he  has  supervision,  and  the  only  way  to  get  that 
is  by  an  oral  examination  before  some  perfectly  fair  and  honest 
board  that  you  might  designate.  I  should  say  that  all  applicants 
might  be  requested  to  send  in  statements  of  their  training  and 
experience.  These  could  be  gone  over  by  this  board  and  such  of  them 
as  seem  to  be  worth  while  could  be  sent  for  to  be  interviewed  by  the 
board  on  a  certain  day  and  then  the  board  could  grade  and  rank  them 
on  a  list  that  you  can  appoint  from.  If  you  have  no  civil  service 
law,  then  in  your  original  announcement  you  ought  to  specify  a 
method  of  selection  and  that  you  are  going  to  take  them  exactly 
as  they  stand  on  the  list  or  are  going  to  take  one  out  of  three  so 
that  a  candidate  would  have  some  assurance  as  to  how  he  would  be 
treated  if  he  came  as  a  competitor. 

MR.  PATTERSON:  The  University  of  Georgia  and  the  Georgia 
School  of  Technology  both  have  departments  of  engineering;  would 
the  heads  of  those  departments  make  good  examiners? 


DISCUSSION  107 

MR.  SWANSON:  Yes,  sir.  I  would  try  to  draw  into  the  work, 
besides  those  men,  men  who  are  out  in  the  world  on  actual  con- 
struction; I  would  not  make  a  board  altogether  composed  of  college 
men. 

MR.  PATTERSON:    I  see.    That  is  just  the  information  I  wanted. 

MR.  A.  R.  JOHNSON  (of  Tennessee):  I  desire  to  ask  this  ques- 
tion; I  gather  from  the  statement  in  regard  to  the  painters  of  Phila- 
delphia, that  they  selected  those  men  who  showed  the  most  effi- 
ciency at  the  time  the  work  was  done.  Now  suppose  we  take  the  aver- 
age proposition  up  in  my  county  of  building  roads  for  the  first  time. 
We  want  engineers,  of  course,  and  we  want  contractors.  I  think 
you  have  answered  the  engineering  part  of  it  fully,  but  what,  if  any, 
examination  should  the  contractor  stand  and  what  efficiency  should 
he  show  before  he  is  employed  and  the  work  turned  over  to  him. 

MR.  SWANSON:  Well,  that  is  entirely  a  new  problem.  I  have 
never  had  any  experience  with  it,  but  I  should  say  it  seems  to  me 
that  you  could  get  that  from  the  reputation  of  the  contractor  in 
his  community,  through  first  class  business  references  which  he 
might  be  able  to  give  and  through  an  examination  into  the  jobs 
that  he  has  had  and  the  way  in  which  he  has  done  them.  I  think 
it  is  more  a  question  of  the  standing  of  the  contractor  in  his  own 
community  in  that  case.  I  understand  that  you  mean  the  man 
to  whom  you  are  going  to  let  your  contracts  and  who  is  going  to  do 
your  work? 

MR.  WALES:  Do  you  want  to  know  if  you  are  going  to  select 
that  contractor  from  a  number  of  people,  how  you  would  hold  him 
responsible? 

MR.  JOHNSON:  We  have  tried  to  hold  him  responsible  by  con- 
tract and  have  failed.  I  am  so  much  delighted  with  the  talk  this 
evening  on  the  merit  system  that  I  thought  I  might  take  some 
little  of  it  and  apply  it  in  getting  contractors  to  do  the  work  that  we 
propose  to  do  over  in  Tennessee.  I  want  a  man  to  do  it  that  is  cap- 
able and  will  go  along  and  do  it.  Now  as  to  his  capability,  I  wanted 
to  get  some  idea  as  to  how  I  would  know.  That  is  what  I  want 
to  carry  home  with  me. 

Mr.  WALES:    There  would  be  no  competitive  selection,  of  course. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  suppose  you  would  have  him  give  bond  for 
the  good  performance  of  his  work  and  would  have  competition. 
Would  not  your  engineer  draw  up  some  system  of  competition  for 
the  work  that  these  various  contractors  would  bid  upon? 


108  AMERICAN    ROAD    CONGRESS 

MR.  JOHNSON:  Yes,  that  is  true,  but  from  your  statement  I 
gathered  that  there's  thousands  of  dollars  wasted  on  these  con- 
tracts and  I  want  to  avoid  that  trouble. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Then  have  a  good  engineer  appointed  who 
will  inspect  the  work  properly  before  payment  is  made. 

MR.  LEECH  (of  Ohio) :  It  seems  to  me  that  the  worst  stumbling 
block  in  the  way  of  the  merit  system  is  the  question  of  local  resi- 
dence. It  is  very  little  trouble  for  a  city  the  size  of  Philadelphia 
to  find  within  its  boundaries  sufficient  well  trained  engineers  to  fill 
the  vacancies,  but  in  some  parts  of  our  country,  or  some  of  our 
smaller  villages,  there  is  not  within  them  possibly  a  well  trained 
engineer.  The  legislatures,  in  forming  a  great  many  of  our  laws, 
provide  that  the  villages  or  the  mayor  shall  appoint  a  civil  service 
commission  and  they  in  turn  hold  a  competitive  examination,  and 
quite  frequently,  within  that  very  village  there  is  not  more  than  one 
or  two,  at  most,  that  are  qualified  to  compete.  The  result  is  that 
we  get  the  same  men  who  have  been  doing  the  work  right  along. 
There  is  really  no  competition,  and  no  increased  efficiency.  It  seems 
to  me  that  it  would  be  well  if  we  could  get  away  from  this  local 
residence  phase  and  open  up  the  examination  to  the  capable  men, 
let  them  come  from  Maine  or  California  or  from  one  extreme  of  the 
country  to  another. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  That  is  the  course  we  advised  and  in  arguing 
the  question  before  some  authorities  who  wished  to  limit  the  ex- 
amination to  residents,  we  made  this  argument,  that  if  we  bring 
in  a  man  from  another  State  and  he  is  employed  all  the  year,  you 
have  another  resident  that  comes  in  and  occupies  new  property, 
spends  his  money  in  your  State  and  adds  to  its  wealth,  as  every 
good,  competent  man  does.  In  Massachusetts  it  is  left  to  the  civil 
service  commission.  They  have  full  freedom  to  go  outside,  and 
in  the  higher  positions  like  that  of  engineers,  they  frequently  go 
outside  the  city  and  even  outside  the  State.  I  understand  that 
the  same  is  true  of  Philadelphia. 

MR.  WHITNEY  (of  California):  I  am  interested  in  this  ques- 
tion of  going  outside  your  own  county  or  outside  your  own  State 
to  select  a  competent  engineer.  In  Sonoma  County,  Cal.,  about  a 
year  ago,  there  was  a  highway  commission  appointed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  looking  into  road  conditions  and  to  finally  map  out  a  road 
system  for  that  county.  I  happened  to  be  one  of  that  commis- 
sion, and  after  I  assumed  office,  the  question  with  myself  and  the 
other  commissioners  was,  where  to  find  a  competent  man  to  do  the 
work.  We  had  engineers  in  our  county,  or  surveyors  who  thought 
they  could  do  the  work  as  we  desired,  but  we  were  not  satisfied  that 
they  were  the  men;  consequently  we  commenced  to  look  around 


DISCUSSION  109 

We  could  not  resort  to  your  civil  service  examination;  we  had  no 
means  by  which  we  could  do  it,  so  we  investigated  the  standing 
of  different  engineers  in  the  State  of  California.  Finally  we  went 
to  San  Joaquin  County,  where  we  found  a  young  man  who  had  been 
sent  out  to  California  several  years  ago  by  the  Department  at 
Washington.  He  was  sent  out  to  make  a  report  on  soil  condi- 
tions of  San  Joaquin  County.  He  made  a  report  and  about  this 
time  the  county  had  concluded  that  they  wanted  a  better  road 
commission.  They  had  formed  their  Good  Roads  Club  and  com- 
menced their  campaign  and  finally  it  reached  the  point  where 
they  appointed  an  expert  engineer  to  do  that  preliminary  work 
for  them.  They  selected  this  young  man  who  was  sent  out  from 
Washington  and  he  made  the  preliminary  surveys,  gave  them  their 
estimate  and  finally  was  employed  and  received  a  discharge  from 
Washington.  He  was  employed  to  go  ahead  and  construct  the  roads 
in  San  Joaquin  County.  They  had  bonded  for  nearly  $2,000,000. 
He  came  there  and  had  charge  of  the  work  during  its  entire  con- 
struction and  we  investigated  the  result  of  his  work  both  by  ex- 
amining his  road  and  by  all  the  information  that  we  could  gain 
from  every  source  possible,  and  after  a  thorough  examination  and 
investigation  we  concluded  that  he  was  the  man  we  wanted  and 
employed  him.  There  was  a  condition  in  which  we  went  from  one 
county  to  another  in  the  State,  and  selected  a  man  for  his  fitness, 
and  I  think  we  were  fully  justified  by  the  results  accomplished. 

MR.  KING  (of  Memphis,  Tenn.):  This  is  a  matter,  gentlemen, 
that  is  going  to  adjust  itself  in  the  course  of  time.  In  the  South 
this  matter  of  the  employment  of  engineers  who  superintend  road 
construction  is  new  and  most  of  our  road  builders  have  thought 
that  the  position  was  a  sinecure,  an  easy  job;  but  we  are  getting 
away  from  that,  and  because  they  did  think  it  was  an  easy  job, 
they  expected  some  taxpayer  in  the  county  or  some  son  of  a  tax- 
payer to  receive  that  job;  but  with  us  in  Memphis,  Shelby  County, 
we  are  adopting  not  only  the  merit  system  but  we  are  insisting  that 
a  man  must  give  value  received  to  the  county  for  his  salary,  in  labor 
and  in  skill.  Now  there  is  not  a  business  man,  commercial  or 
agricultural,  who  adopt  that  plan  of  employing  men  who  live  only 
in  the  city  in  which  he  lives.  So  this  old  method  and  system  of 
employing  men  to  hold  official  positions  merely  because  they  hap- 
pen to  live  there  and  are  taxpayers — we  are  going  to  get  out  of  that 
and  our  young  men  are  going  to  prepare  themselves  for  it;  and  I 
see,  my  friends,  no  very  great  trouble  because  we  are  now  coming 
to  the  point  where  we  are  building  roads  scientifically,  and  we  are 
employing  skilled  men  who  are  going  to  give  all  their  time  to  the 
work. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  There  were  two  more  papers  scheduled  for  this 
afternoon  and  I  am  afraid  we  will  have  to  close  the  debate  if  the 


110  AMERICAN  BO  AD   CONGRESS 

gentlemen  who  are  to  read  those  papers  are  here.  The  first  paper 
is  "Engineering  Supervision  of  Road  Construction"  by  W.  S.  Keller, 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  Alabama. 

ENGINEERING  SUPERVISION  OF  ROAD  CONSTRUCTION 

BY  W.  S.   KELLER, 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  Alabama. 

This  question  confronts  every  commission  that  has  the  building 
of  good  roads,  and  it  would  appear  to  the  business  man  that  the 
wisdom  of  having  an  engineer  supervise  the  expenditure  of  large  sums 
of  money  on  highway  construction,  would  not  be  questioned  any  more 
than  a  railroad  company  would  question  the  wisdom  of  employing 
an  engineer  to  locate  and  supervise  the  construction  of  a  railroad. 

We  may,  therefore,  for  discussion  divide  this  subject  under  two 
general  heads: 

Is  engineering  supervision  of  road  construction  necessary? 

Why  is  an  engineer  better  fitted  to  supervise  road  construction 
than  a  practical  road  builder  who  is  not  an  engineer? 

The  average  county  commissioner  has  had  no  experience  whatever 
with  an  engineer.  He  has,  however,  carried  the  rear  end  of  a  chain 
for  the  county  surveyor,  and,  in  unison  with  his  colleague,  the  front 
chainman,  cried  "stick,  stuck."  He  has  a  very  exalted  opinion  of 
this  man  with  the  Jacob  staff  and  compass  who  is  able  to  follow  land 
lines  for  a  distance  of  three  or  four  miles  a  day.  Far  be  it  from  me  to 
belittle  the  county  surveyor.  I  would,  instead,  erect  a  monument  to 
him  as  a  martyr  who  receives  a  pittance  for  his  labor  and  a  "cussing" 
for  his  pains.  We  point  with  pride  to  the  fact  that  the  "Father  of 
his  Country"  was  a  land  surveyor,  but  we  seriously  doubt  if  he  was 
competent  to  locate,  and  properly  supervise  the  construction  of  roads 

Engineering  supervision  of  road  construction  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary and  this  statement  is  proven  every  day,  positively  and  nega- 
tively, in  this  state  of  Georgia.  A  layman  riding  over  the  roads  of 
Georgia  can  tell  at  a  glance  a  road  that  has  been  located  and  built 
under  the  direction  of  an  engineer.  When  he  rides  over  a  road  that 
has  been  constructed  along  the  old  trail,  located  by  the  Indians  and 
early  settlers,  without  any  regard  whatever  for  grades  and  very  little 
for  drainage;  he  sees  the  hand  marks  of  the  commissioner,  who  saves 
his  county  the  salary  of  an  engineer,  and  spends  it  thrice  over  in  use- 
less work  and  expensive  maintenance. 

Despite  the  fact  that  a  majority  of  commissioners  or  supervisors 
have  had  no  training  whatever  in  road  building,  they  will  concede  to 
no  one  that  they  are  not  as  well  qualified  to  direct  road  work  as  any 
engineer  they  can  employ.  They  will  often  admit  that  an  engineer 
should  locate  and  stake  off  a  road,  but  they  think  his  duty  ends 
there.  It  is  just  as  necessary  that  an  engineer  supervise  construction 
work  as  it  is  that  he  should  locate  the  road.  How  many  commis- 


SUPERVISION   OF  ROAD   CONSTRUCTION  111 

sioners  in  the  hearing  of  my  voice  can  tell  me  how  much  it  costs  to 
move  a  yard  of  earth  or  how  much  it  costs  to  install  pipe  of  various 
makes — how  much  per  cubic  yard  their  concrete  culverts  are  costing 
them?  You  may  say  we  know  how  much  per  mile  our  roads  are 
costing,  why  should  we  bother  to  know  the  unit  cost?  Why,  my 
friends,  does  a  merchant  keep  the  unit  cost  of  his  wares?  Because  he 
desires  to  buy  from  the  man  who  sells  the  cheapest.  So,  a  county 
should  know  if  its  roads  are  costing  more  than  they  should. 

The  commissioners  of  a  certain  county  in  Alabama  claimed  that 
they  were  building  roads  as  cheap  or  cheaper  than  any  contractor 
could  do  the  work.  They  had  an  engineer  estimate  the  cubic  yard- 
age of  earth  moved  for  a  certain  period  of  time  and  to  their  surprise 
it  was  costing  37J  cents  per  cubic  yard  when  the  average  contract 
price  in  Alabama  for  three  years  had  been  23  cents  per  cubic  yard. 
Authorities  should  know  whether  they  are  getting  value  received 
for  their  money,  and  an  official  who  overlooks  such  a  vital  question, 
is  not  true  to  the  trust  placed  in  him  by  the  people. 

Many  counties  are  imposed  on  in  the  purchase  of  material  and 
supplies  and  are  actually  paying  more  for  such  in  large  quantities 
than  individuals  have  to  pay  for  the  same  in  small  amounts.  This 
is  usually  attributed  to  either  carelessness,  politics,  or  a  false  idea 
some  of  the  commissioners  have  as  to  their  duty.  I  believe  the 
duty  of  commissioners,  in  so  far  as  road  building  is  concerned  (and 
it  can  equally  as  well  be  applied  to  other  public  matters)  is  to  pur- 
chase with  as  much  care  and  secure  just  as  low  prices  as  they  would 
if  buying  for  themselves  as  individuals,  regardless  of  whether  the 
goods  purchased  come  from  local  or  foreign  merchants;  of  course, 
giving  always  the  preference  to  local  merchants,  if  their  wares  are 
as  good  and  prices  as  low  as  those  of  outsiders.  It  is  not  the  duty 
of  road  authorities  to  conduct  county  affairs  so  as  to  make  money  for 
individuals  or  to  give  jobs  to  political  henchmen.  If  a  competent  man 
cannot  be  found  within  the  borders  of  a  county  fit  by  experience 
for  a  position  such  as  foreman,  it  is  right  and  proper  that  a  com- 
petent man  should  be  secured  from  elsewhere. 

The  remedy  for  these  ills  is,  unquestionably,  to  have  some  one 
in  charge  of  road  building  qualified  by  education  and  training  and 
free  from  political  influences,  who  can  be  held  responsible  for  results. 
Very  few  counties  have  commissioners  or  supervisors  who  devote  all 
of  their  time  and  attention  to  their  office,  and  it  is  self-evident  that 
an  engineer  trained  in  road  building  will  get  better  results  than  can 
any  set  of  men  who  give  only  a  few  days  in  the  year  to  their  public 
office. 

As  to  the  second  division  of  this  subject,  "Why  an  engineer  is  better 
fitted  to  supervise  the  construction  of  roads  than  a  practical  road 
builder  who  is  not  an  engineer."  First,  an  engineer  is  indispensable, 
even  though  you  have  a  splendid  layman  to  supervise  the  work.  A 
large  percentage  of  all  roads  to  be  constructed  require  relocation, 
profiles  made,  grades  established  and  if  the  work  is  to  be  contracted, 


112  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

the  road  must  be  cross-sectioned  and  the  yardage  of  excavation  and 
embankment  calculated  and  made  to  balance  as  near  as  possible. 
Such  work,  a  layman  cannot  do.  Who  is  better  fitted  to  supervise 
the  construction  of  any  job  than  the  man  who  plans  and  specifies 
the  work?  The  road  supervisor  is  usually  uneducated  and  it  is 
practically  impossible  for  him  to  correctly  account  for  the  expenditure 
of  large  sums  of  money  and  equally  as  impossible  for  him  to  keep 
cost  account  of  his  work. 

This  condition  is  usually  brought  about  by  a  disposition  on  the 
part  of  the  Board  of  Supervisors  or  Commissioners  to  economize. 
Unfortunately,  many  county  commissioners  can  see  only  the  engi- 
neer's salary  to  be  paid  twelve  times  a  year  and  the  inevitable  result 
that  there  will  be  quite  a  decrease  in  the  number  of  days  they  can 
legitimately  demand  pay  for  laying  off  and  superintending  the  build- 
ing or  repair  of  roads  in  their  respective  districts.  In  other  words, 
the  engineer  is  a  usurper,  taking  away  the  salary  of  those  guardians 
of  the  people's  right  who  are  so  anxious  to  save  money  for  the  people 
that  they  save  $200  per  month  engineer's  salary  and  spend  $500  per 
month  in  doing  it.  So  long  as  we  elect  officials  because  of  their 
popularity  rather  than  fitness,  and  pay  them  a  mere  pittance  for 
their  services,  we  may  expect  many  of  them  to  be  incompetent  and 
often  dishonest.  A  striking  case,  and  which  I  am  sorry  to  say  is 
typical  in  many  sections  of  our  country,  came  to  my  attention  in 
Alabama.  A  foreman  in  the  employ  of  a  certain  county  was  dis- 
charged by  the  commissioners  of  the  district  in  which  he  had  been 
working.  The  commissioner  gave  as  a  reason  for  discharge,  that  he 
himself  could  look  after  the  teams  and  hands  and  thereby  save  the 
county  several  dollars  a  month.  The  foreman  resented  his  being 
discharged  and  took  upon  himself  the  investigation  of  the  commis- 
sioner's record.  He  found  that  on  a  certain  day  this  commissioner 
drove  seven  miles  to  a  small  bridge  where  he  then  and  there  made  a 
contract  with  a  party  to  repair  the  bridge  at  a  cost  of  $1.50.  A  few 
days  later  he  went  back  to  this  bridge  to  inspect  the  work  he  had 
ordered  done.  The  record  of  the  Commissioners'  Court  showed 
that  cost  of  repairing  was  $1.50  and  cost  of  inspection  two  days  at 
$3  to  $6.  Did  this  commissioner  do  a  dishonest  act?  He  certainly 
was  entitled  to  pay  for  at  least  the  time  consumed  by  himself  yet  it 
is  manifestly  wrong  for  such  a  condition  to  exist  that  cost  of  super- 
vision is  four  times  that  of  construction  or  repair.  This  would  have 
been  a  very  small  matter  to  an  engineer  who,  while  having  the 
bridge  repaired,  would  attend  to  many  other  duties. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  convince  many  county  officials  that  an 
engineer  can  easily  save  his  salary  several  times  over  by  making  cer- 
tain changes  in  location  and  grade  and  by  economically  administering 
the  affairs  of  the  county.  As  a  general  rule  a  county  gets  more  in 
return  for  money  spent  for  engineering  services  than  for  any  other 
single  item  connected  with  road  construction.  A  good  engineer  is  a 
dividend  producer  for  a  county.  In  speaking  along  this  line  at  the 


SUPERVISION   OF   ROAD   CONSTRUCTION  113 

American  Road  Congress  held  in  Atlantic  City  in  1912,  Col.  W.  D. 
Sohier  said: 

You  will  find  if  you  look  at  any  private  corporation,  that  the  ordinary 
engineering  expenses  for  any  work  of  the  character  of  road  building,  any  con- 
structional work,  is  usually  about  10  per  cent,  and  that  it  is  good  money  well 
spent. 

Someone  has  said  that  an  engineer  is  a  man  who  can  do  as  much 
with  one  dollar  as  a  fool  can  with  two.  Evidently  he  did  not  have 
reference  to  the  fool  engineer. 

The  most  expensive  fool  is  the  fool  engineer.  He  is  to  a  very  great 
extent  responsible  for  the  prejudice  many  have  against  engineering 
supervision  of  road  construction.  There  is  absolutely  no  excuse  for 
a  county  employing  an  incompetent  man,  now  that  the  government, 
through  the  office  of  public  roads,  stands  ready  and  anxious  to  aid 
any  county  in  securing  a  good  engineer.  An  engineer  applying  for 
a  position  should  be  endorsed  by  those  for  whom  he  has  worked  and 
by  men  competent  to  pass  judgment  on  engineering  work.  It  is  an 
easy  matter  for  a  man  to  get  endorsements  from  friends  who  have 
perhaps  known  him  in  a  social  way,  but  such  are  only  beneficial  to 
prove  his  good  character.  An  engineer  with  only  a  good  character 
will  build  a  road  without  any  "character." 

A  highway  engineer  should  have  a  good  technical  education  and 
to  be  successful,  he  must  be  practical  and  he  must  be  a  diplomat. 
He  should  be  sober,  honest,  energetic  and  think  more  about  the  work 
he  is  trying  to  do  than  the  pay  check  he  will  receive  at  the  end  of  the 
month.  When  taking  charge  of  a  county's  road  affairs  he  should 
convince  the  commissioners  that  he  knows  more  than  they  do  about 
building  roads  and  then  proceed  to  prove  it  by  doing  good  work. 
Unless  an  engineer  can  absolutely  convince  his  Board  of  Commission- 
ers that  he  knows  his  business,  he  had  best  resign.  Trouble  is  often 
brought  about  by  the  engineer  failing  to  have  a  thorough  understand- 
ing as  to  his  duties.  This  can  easily  be  avoided  if,  when  an  engineer 
makes  a  contract  with  a  county,  he  clearly  sets  forth  in  this  contract 
what  his  duties  are.  If  he  is  to  be  held  responsible,  and  he  should  be, 
for  the  success  of  the  undertaking,  he  should  have  full  power  to  em- 
ploy and  discharge  those  under  him.  I  think  this  is  well  expressed 
in  Rule  2  of  Rules  and  Regulations  of  the  State  Highway  Department 
of  Alabama,  which  reads  as  follows: 

The  functions  of  the  Commission  are  judicial  and  those  of  the  engineer, 
executive.  The  engineer  will  receive  and  carry  out  the  directions  of  the 
Commission  and  shall,  in  turn,  direct  those  under  him.  The  engineer  shall 
have  full  charge  of  construction  work,  directing  it  in  all  its  details.  Any  orders 
the  Commission  wish  to  give  an  employe  shall  be  given  through  the  engineer, 
and  the  engineer  shall  have  the  right  to  employ,  with  the  consent  of  the  Com- 
mission, and  to  suspend,  subject  to  discharge,  without  consulting  the  Com- 
mission. All  suspensions  shall  be  reported  to  the  Commission  for  such  action 
as  they  deem  necessary. 

.  In  conclusion,  let  me  say  to  you  who  are  commissioned  to  spend 
the  people's  money,  if  you  are  in  doubt  as  to  the  advisability  of 


114  AMERICAN  EOAD  CONGRESS 

employing  an  engineer,  observe  closely  the  roads  of  a  county  built 
without  the  guiding  hand  of  an  engineer  and  then  those  of  another 
that  have  been  built  by  a  man  skilled  in  highway  engineering.  Don't 
employ  a  man  whose  only  qualification  is  that  he  is  cheap.  His 
salary  will  be  small  and  his  mistakes  will  be  many  and  expensive. 

When  you  are  sick  you  call  the  doctor, 

When  you  are  mad  you  call  the  lawyer, 

When  you  are  hungry  you  call  the  baker, 

When  you  are  broke  you  call  the  banker, 

When  you  are  in  trouble  you  call  the  preacher, 

When  you  are  ignorant  you  call  the  teacher, 

When  you  want  cotton  you  call  the  farmer, 

Then,  when  you  are  in  need  of  good  roads,  why  don't  you  call  the 
engineer,  that  good  roads  physician  who  will  heal  the  wounds  of  the 
country  roads,  who  will  operate  upon  their  surfaces  and  place  them 
in  perfect  order. 

In  conclusion,  permit  me  to  say,  I  have  no  ill-will  or  animosity  for 
any  road  official.  I  have  tried  to  point  out  some  of  their  false  ideas 
and  mistakes  and  offered,  as  best  I  could,  a  remedy. 

MR.  JACKSON:  After  hearing  the  address  of  Mr.  Keller,  of  Ala- 
bama I  wish  to  make  a  few  remarks.  I  happen  to  be  a  county 
commissioner  and  naturally  paid  some  attention  to  the  remarks  of 
my  friend  from  Alabama.  I  fully  agree  with  Mr.  Keller  on  one  point 
and  that  is  the  necessity  of  engineers  supervising  the  work  in  the  vari- 
ous counties.  I  think  that  I  can  prove  my  statement  by  the  past 
record  of  the  county  commissioners  in  the  county  which  I  have  the 
honor  to  represent,  Hillsborough  in  South  Florida,  because  when  we 
voted  a  bond  issue  of  a  million  dollars,  more  than  a  year  ago,  we 
sought  a  competent  engineer  at  a  salary  of  $5,000  a  year;  that  in 
itself  is  proof  that  I  agree  with  Mr.  Keller  on  the  necessity  for  engi- 
neers. In  addition  we  have  an  engineer  employed  for  our  regular 
county  work  and  have  had  for  some  years  past,  at  from  $1200  to 
$1800  a  year,  and  I  don't  want  this  Congress  to  think  that  all  the 
county  commissioners  of  these  Southern  States  are  prejudiced 
against  engineers. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  Robert  C.  Terrell,  State  Highway  Com- 
missioner of  Kentucky,  will  open  the  discussion  on  Mr.  Keller's  paper. 

MR.  TERRELL:  In  discussing  Mr.  Keller's  paper  on  ' 'Engineer- 
ing Supervision  of  Road  Construction,"  I  have  no  criticism  to  make, 
and  wish  to  commend  the  statements  that  he  has  made. 

In  general,  however,  I  wish  to  call  attention  to,  and  emphasize 
the  fact,  that  not  only  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  but  in  every  other 
Southern  State  "the  marks  of  the  commissioner  (or  member  of  the 
fiscal  court)  who  saves  his  county  the  salary  of  an  engineer  and 
spends  it  thrice  over  in  useless  work  and  expensive  maintenance' 'this 


DISCUSSION  115 

is  true;  and  where  the  services  of  an  engineer  have  been  omitted,  the 
roads  in  general  follow  the  old  pack-horse  trails,  which  in  turn  fol- 
lowed the  foot-paths  of  the  Indian  who  climbed  from  the  top  of  one 
high  hill  to  the  top  of  the  next  on  the  shortest  and  most  direct  route 
and  in  order  to  attain  the  highest  point  from  which  to  search  the 
surrounding  country  for  the  herds  of  buffalo,  deer  and  elk  and  in 
order  to  be  on  the  lookout  for  the  enemy. 

Roads  constructed  along  these  lines  are  unnecessarily  steep, 
hard  to  construct,  and  ten  times  over,  harder  to  maintain,  than 
those  which  are  laid  out  by  the  engineer.  In  the  State  of  Kentucky 
there  are  splendid  examples  of  the  difference  between  roads  thus 
built  and  those  built  by  engineer;  for  as  early  as  1830  the  State 
began  the  construction  of  roads  under  the  supervision  of  competent 
engineers,  the  director  of  this  engineering  force  being  a  Frenchman 
who  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  methods  of  location  and  con- 
struction used  in  France  at  that  time.  Roads  laid  out  under  the 
engineers  during  that  period  still  show  marked  evidences  of  the  skill 
of  the  engineer  in  the  easy  grades,  easy  curves,  good  drainage,  wide 
roadbeds  and  types  of  construction.  In  the  many  miles  of  road 
which  were  constructed  during  that  period  at  which  interval  im- 
provement had  its  being  and  reached  its  zenith  in  the  Southern 
States  are  monuments  to  the  progressive  and  intelligent  ideas  that 
were  then  prevalent  among  our  political  and  economic  leaders. 

These  roads  in  many  instances  were  cut  from  solid  rock  in  order 
to  secure  proper  grades  and  alignment,  and  massive  stone  walls  were 
built  where  necessary,  but  with  the  backward  swing  of  the  pendulum 
followed  by  the  calamities  of  the  Civil  War,  the  wheels  of  progress 
stood  still,  not  only  in  commercial  and  financial  lines  but  also  in  road 
building  and  engineering  supervision  as  well.  Since  that  time, 
however,  little  progress  has  been  made,  although  many  miles  of  roads 
have  been  surfaced  with  stone  or  gravel,  at  possibly  much  lower 
first  cost  than  were  the  roads  previously  mentioned;  yet  the  main- 
tenance (or  possibly  better  put,  the  necessity  for  completely  resur- 
facing the  roads)  has  made  them  much  more  costly;  yea,  thrice  over 
more  costly  than  the  original  cost,  and  the  maintenance  of  roads  built 
under  engineering  supervision  many  years  before. 

The  Southern  States  have  probably  suffered  most  from  the  lack  of 
engineering  supervision  on  road  construction  due  to  the  reason  given 
above.  After  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  the  commissioners  (or 
magistrates)  felt  it  their  duty  to  save  the  salary  of  an  engineer  and 
to  surface  as  cheaply  as  possible  the  largest  number  of  miles  of  road, 
believing  that  a  road  surfaced  with  stone  or  gravel  would  last  in- 
definitely; paying  no  heed  to  grades  or  drainage  and  basing  their 
calculations  upon  the  results  of  roads  built  by  engineers  in  an  earlier 
day  who  had  given  special  attention  to  the  points  entirely  overlooked 
by  the  commissioner  or  magistrate.  Little  did  he  dream  that  his 
penny-wise  policy  was  costing  his  county  pounds;  yea,  many  thou- 
sands of  pounds  annually. 


116  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

No  pendulum  ever  swings  so  far,  however,  but  that  it  must  swing 
back  again;  and  in  1912  the  State  of  Kentucky  saw  the  dawn  of  a 
new  era  in  road  building  when  the  State  again  provided  for  engi- 
neering advice  on  the  construction  and  reconstruction  of  the  public 
roads  and  bridges;  and  still  more  definite  steps  were  taken  by  the 
1914  General  Assembly  in  the  passage  of  additional  laws  designating 
a  system  of  State  highways  and  providing  for  State  aid  for  their 
construction  and  engineering  supervision  on  all  work  to  which  State  Aid 
was  granted.  Already  the  fiscal  court,  or  board  of  magistrates, 
of  the  various  counties  are  seeking  to  take  advantage  of  the  State 
aid  engineering  advice  and  supervision,  and  are  beginning  to  real- 
ize more  fully  every  day  the  advantages  of  building  with  a  view 
of  not  only  caring  for  the  present,  but  looking  to  the  future  develop- 
ment of  the  country  and  the  travel  that  the  road  will  be  expected 
to  carry  by  constructing  or  reconstructing  their  roads  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  care  for  the  traffic  of  the  future  as  well  as  the  present. 

Mr.  .Keller's  paper  has  brought  out  well  the  advantages  to  be 
gained  by  having  engineers  take  up  the  estimates,  look  after  the 
purchase  of  materials  and  see  that  the  unit  costs  are  kept,  and 
that  the  prices  paid  are  correspondingly  low.  The  material  sales- 
man has  found  that  for  the  official  who  is  not  skilled  in  the  pur- 
chasing of  such  material  is  prone  to  reject  the  advice  and  infor- 
mation furnished  by  engineers,  or  rather  resent  the  idea  of  consult- 
ing an  engineer;  that  to  this  type  of  man  he  needs  only  to  pat  him 
on  the  back,  flatter  him  on  his  judgment  and  business  ability  and 
secure  the  contract  at  an  advanced  price,  and  in  many  instances, 
at  a  sufficient  price  to  enable  him  to  induce  his  competitors  by  one 
means  or  another  not  to  interfere. 

To  this  type  of  official,  the  material  dealer  finds  the  flattering 
tongue  for  the  commissioner  (or  magistrate)  and  a  denouncing 
tongue  for  the  engineer  very  profitable  and  effective,  as  the  engi- 
neer as  a  rule  refuses  to  stoop  to  heated  arguments  or  personalities 
with  the  dealer.  However,  this  tendency  toward  the  electing  of 
more  competent  officials  who  are  more  conscientious,  intelligent 
and  business-like,  is  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception,  and  with  the 
upward  trend  comes  the  recognition  of  the  engineer  and  his  value 
in  the  supervision  and  road  construction. 

I  have  endeavored  to  point  out  only  a  few  advantages  of  engi- 
neering supervision  which  are  apparent  in  my  native  State,  and  in 
closing  I  wish  to  say  that  I  do  not  feel  that  I  can  add  very  much 
to  Mr.  Keller's  splendid  paper.  I  wish  to  heartily  endorse  in  general 
the  statements  he  has  made. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  paper  is  "State  Control  of  Road  Work 
as  a  Policy,"  by  Mr.  A.  N.  Johnson,  of  the  Bureau  of  Municipal 
Research,  New  York  City. 


STATE   CONTROL   OP   ROAD   CONSTRUCTION  11? 

STATE  CONTROL  OF  ROAD  CONSTRUCTION 

BY  A.  N.  JOHNSON 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  New  York 

The  control  by  the  State  of  road  construction  has  grown  from  zero 
in  1893  to  a  widespread  policy  among  the  States,  varying  much  in 
degree  and  method  of  application;  from  extensive  control  extending 
even  to  supervision  over  the  smaller  political  units,  to  concern  only 
with  a  few  highways  in  whose  construction  the  State  is  directly  finan- 
cially interested.  Between  such  wide  limits  there  exist  almost  all 
degrees  of  State  interest. 

Before  entering  upon  any  discussion  as  to  the  merits  of  the  policy 
of  State  control  of  highway  construction,  it  is  perhaps  well  to  make 
a  brief  summary  of  existing  conditions.  For  this  purpose  a  study 
has  been  made  of  the  road  laws,  advantage  being  taken  of  summarized 
statements  where  they  existed  or  were  at  hand  for  consultation.  It 
may,  therefore,  happen  that  in  some  details  of  the  table  herewith 
presented  there  may  be  some  slight  error,  due  to  the  interpretation 
from  the  road  law  itself  to  the  summary,  and  also  the  interpretation 
placed  upon  the  summary.  However,  as  the  purpose  of  this  table 
is  merely  to  give  a  general  view  of  conditions  which  would  not,  there- 
fore, be  seriously  modified  by  any  slight  error,  it  was  not  thought 
of  sufficient  importance  to  take  the  large  amount  of  time  that  would 
have  been  necessary  to  check  carefully  this  table  against  the  text 
of  the  road  laws  themselves.  In  the  main  it  is  believed  to  be  accurate 
and  for  the  purpose  devised,  trustworthy.  Some  analysis  and  ex- 
planation of  the  table  will  aid  in  its  interpretation. 

The  States  have  first  been  checked  in  regard  to  the  existence  of 
a  State  highway  department.  Checks  have  been  made  in  divisions 
under  this  general  heading  showing  whether  a  State  has  highway 
commissioners  and  a  State  engineer,  or  both.  Under  the  heading 
"commissioners"  the  States  have  been  checked  to  show  whether 
the  commissioners  are  appointed  or  elected,  whether  any  qualifica- 
tion is  required,  whether  any  members  of  the  commission  are  ex  officio 
members.  Under  the  State  engineer  it  is  noted  whether  he  is  an  ap- 
pointive or  an  elective  officer  and  whether  any  qualification  is  re- 
quired. 

The  next  main  division  is  State  aid  roads.  By  State-aid  roads  is 
meant  specific  sections  of  roads  for  which  the  State  pays  some  por- 
tion of  the  cost,  and  exercises  direct  supervision  in  their  construction, 
as  contrasted  to  a  few  instances  where  the  State  pays  the  towns  cer- 
tain money  to  assist  in  the  construction  of  their  roads  in  general. 
Under  State-aid  roads  it  is  noted  whether  the  construction  is  controlled 
by  the  State,  and  whether  maintained  by  the  State  or  by  local  authori- 
ties. Also,  whether  they  are  paid  for  entirely  by  the  State,  by  the 
State  and  county,  by  the  State,  county  and  town,  and  whether  the 
land  owners  of  abutting  property  pay  any  portion  of  the  cost.  The 


118 


AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 


STATE   CONTROL   OF    ROAD    CONSTRUCTION  119 

relation  of  the  State  to  other  than  State-aid  roads  is  shown  by  the 
control  exercised  by  the  State,  whether  advisory  or  specific,  that  is, 
the  State  exercising  by  law  definite  supervision  or  whether  the  roads 
are  entirely  under  local  officials'  control.  The  existance  of  local 
highway  engineers  is  also  noted,  whether  they  are  appointed  by  the 
local  authorities  or  by  the  State  department,  and  whether  there  is  any 
qualification  required  on  the  part  of  the  State;  again  whether  their 
actions  are  controlled  in  any  way  by  the  State  or  are  under  the  con- 
trol of  local  officials  only. 

The  source  of  money  expended  upon  the  roads  is  noted,  whether 
from  county  or  township  taxes,  whether,  where  townships  exist, 
there  is  any  provision  for  county  aid  to  the  townships;  also  whether 
local  communities  receive  any  aid  from  the  State  to  assist  in  the 
maintenance  and  construction  of  their  local  roads  in  general. 

Some  of  the  facts  to  be  noted  from  this  table  are:  that  there  are 
but  seven  States  without  State  highway  departments.  There  have 
thus  been  created  in  the  past  twenty  years  thirty-six  State  highway 
departments.  Of  these  thirty-six  States  it  is  to  be  noted  that  thirty- 
four  have  State-aid  roads,  that  is,  specific  pieces  of  road  which  are 
constructed  in  part  by  State  funds;  five  of  the  State  highway  depart- 
ments have  no  commissioners,  only  a  State  engineer;  while  fifteen 
have  State  commissioners  and  no  State  engineer.  It  is  thus  seen 
that  a  majority  of  State  highway  departments  are  organized  with  a 
commission  and  State  engineer. 

The  State  highway  commissions  are  appointed  in  part  or  in  whole 
in  thirty-one  States,  while  in  fourteen  the  State  highway  commissions 
include  ex  officio  members.  In  but  one  State  is  the  highway  com- 
missioner elected,  and  in  seven  only  are  any  qualifications  required. 
In  twenty-seven  the  State  engineer  is  an  appointive  officer.  In  no 
State  is  he  an  elective  officer,  but  in  six  only  are  qualifications  required. 
Where  any  qualifications  are  required  for  the  position  of  State  engineer 
they  are  for  the  most  part  among  the  recently  enacted  State  highway 
laws.  State  highway  legislation  could  be  much  bettered,  if  qualifi- 
cations were  required  in  all  the  States  where  State  engineers  exist 
but  it  is  at  least  some  satisfaction  that  the  State  highway  engineer 
is  in  no  State  an  elective  officer. 

In  the  States  where  State-aid  roads  are  built,  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
the  construction  is  controlled  by  the  State  in  thirty-four  instances. 
In  twenty-one  instances  the  State-aid  roads  are  maintained  by  the 
State,  that  is,  the  State  exercises  immediate  supervision  and  con- 
trol of  the  maintenance,  although  the  expense  of  the  maintenance  may 
not  be  in  each  instance  fully  at  the  cost  of  the  State.  In  the  re- 
maining instances  the  control  of  the  maintenance  is  in  the  hands  of 
local  officials.  As  it  was  a  number  of  years  before  any  State  save 
Massachusetts  exercised  control  over  the  maintenance  of  the  State- 
aid  roads,  the  large  proportion  that  now  do  take  charge  of  this  import- 
ant function  shows  a  greater  realization  of  the  importance  of  mainte- 
nance of  the  State-aid  roads  by  a  central  control,  and  where  States 


120  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

are  contributing  funds  towards  any  considerable  mileage,  they  must 
soon  realize  the  absolute  necessity  of  State  control  of  the  maintenance 
of  these  roads  if  the  service  that  State-aid  roads  should  render  the 
public  is  to  be  secured  and  the  investment  made  by  the  State  in  their 
construction  conserved. 

The  method  of  paying  for  State-aid  roads  varies  in  different  States, 
and  it  varies  for  different  roads  in  the  same  State.  Some  States, 
for  example,  have  a  certain  system  of  highways  for  which  the  State 
pays  all  the  cost,  while  on  another  system  of  roads  the  State  and  coun- 
ty divide  the  cost.  There  are  fifteen  States  in  which  the  State  pays 
the  total  cost  on  State-aid  roads,  although  some  of  these  States  also 
share  with  the  county  or  town  in  the  construction  of  other  State-aid 
roads.  There  are  twenty-six  States  in  which  State-aid  roads  are 
built  by  the  aid  of  the  State  and  county,  two  in  which  the  State  and 
town  are  contributors;  also  but  two  in  which  any  assessment  of  the 
cost  of  the  State-aid  road  is  borne  by  the  adjoining  property.  It  is 
thus  seen  that  most  States  consider  that  State-aid  roads  should  not 
be  paid  for  by  assessments  on  adjoining  property. 

The  control  by  the  State  over  other  than  State-aid  roads  has  been 
a  recent  development  and  its  origin  may  probably  be  traced  directly 
to  those  States  which  began  their  State  road  work  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  commission  to  study  and  report  on  conditions  before  under- 
taking definite  expenditures  for  State-aid  roads.  This  was  first  under- 
taken in  Maryland,  and  the  law  provided  that  the  State  could  advise 
with  local  authorities  as  to  the  construction  of  their  roads  and  bridges, 
and  the  work  of  the  Maryland  highway  department  demonstrated  that 
there  was  much  to  be  gained  by  advisory  supervision  on  the  part  of 
the  State.  Such  work  has  been  done  by  a  number  of  States  only  to 
a  greater  degree,  notably,  in  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Iowa.  The  work 
in  these  States  at  first  was  advisory  only,  that  is,  the  local  authorities 
cooperated  with  the  State  departments  voluntarily,  the  law  not 
requiring  that  they  should  necessarily  follow  the  advice  given  by  the 
State.  But  the  remarkable  success  of  this  work,  the  widespread 
influence  it  exerted  after  a  few  years  of  activity,  the  hearty  coopera- 
tion on  the  part  of  many  local  officials,  and  compulsory  cooperation 
through  public  opinion  on  the  part  of  others,  demonstrated  con- 
clusively the  wisdom  and  the  need  for  definite  control  by  a  State 
highway  department  over  the  activities  of  local  road  officials. 

Today  advisory  control  is  exercised  by  State  departments  in  twenty- 
three  States  and  definite  control  already  exists  in  three. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  significance  attaches  to  the  fact  that  there 
are  fifteen  States  in  which  local  highway  engineers  are  provided  for 
by  statutes.  This  is  in  considerable  contrast  to  the  opinion  that 
road  work  could  be  done  by  anybody  and  did  not  require  any  skilled 
supervision.  But  the  fact  that  in  no  more  than  a  third  of  the  States 
are  local  engineers  required  by  statute  shows  that  the  appreciation 
of  skilled  control  has  not  spread  to  the  extent  that  it  should.  The 
work  that  has  been  accomplished  by  the  highway  engineers  in  the 


STATE  CONTROL  OF  ROAD  CONSTRUCTION  121 

past  ten  years  in  this  country  has  demonstrated  beyond  further 
argument  the  need  for  such  control. 

The  reason  for  a  policy  of  State  control  of  road  work  that  exists 
in  so  many  States,  and  is  increasing,  will  be  found  in  the  demand 
of  the  people  generally  in  all  parts  of  the  country  for  better  highway 
service.  Highway  transportation  has  become  an  increasing  factor 
in  economic  development,  and  with  its  increasing  importance  there  is 
demanded  better  transportation  facilities  of  the  highways.  This 
necessitated  that  the  highways  should  be  given  better  attention  and 
different  treatment  than  had  been  the  practice.  The  problem  of 
highway  development  is  realized  to  be  of  general  concern,  not  merely 
local.  The  interests  of  one  locality  in  this  problem  is  no  longer  con- 
fined to  the  roads  immediately  adjoining,  with  the  result  that  it  has 
been  manifest  that  a  larger  unit  of  control  than  a  town  or  county 
would  be  necessary  if  the  development  of  the  highways  was  to  be  such 
as  would  make  it  possible  for  them  to  render  the  service  the  public 
demands.  There  has,  therefore,  grown,  as  we  have  seen,  an  increasing 
control  by  the  State  over  the  local  communities  in  the  matter  of  road 
building,  and  as  a  broad  policy,  resting  as  it  does  on  sound  economic 
conditions,  it  is  not  only  wise,  but  inevitable;  and  that  it  is  practical 
has  already  been  demonstrated  by  the  work  done  in  many  States. 
Among  these  may  be  mentioned  notably  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Iowa. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  study  of  State  control  is  to  be  had  from 
an  examination  of  the  Iowa  law  and  its  practical  application.  In 
Iowa  the  State  highway  department  spends  no  money  on  State-aid 
roads  but  it  is  concerned  solely  with  the  direction  and  supervision 
of  the  taxes  raised  by  the  local  communities  for  expenditure  upon 
their  highways.1 

The  work  done  in  many  States,  particularly  in  Illinois,  has  demon- 
strated the  efficiency  of  road  construction  by  day  labor.  As  carried 
on  in  Illinois,  the  State  furnished  the  skilled  supervision  and  the  more 
expensive  machinery,  the  locality,  the  labor  and  teams.  There  is  a 
two-fold  benefit  gained  by  handling  the  work  in  this  manner — the 
quality  of  the  work  is  superior  to  contract  work,  or  perhaps,  a  fairer 
statement  would  be,  the  quality  of  the  work  desired  is  more  readily  ob- 
tained, and  is  done  at  a  cost  to  the  community  less  than  it  could  be 
done  by  contract.  Where  State  control  of  road  work  exists  and  ex- 
tends into  the  concerns  of  the  smaller  units,  it  is  possible  for  a  much 
greater  variety  and  amount  of  work  to  be  handled  by  day  labor, 
than  would  be  at  all  wise  or  practicable  if  the  skilled  supervision 
that  the  State  highway  department  can  furnish  the  localities  could 
not  be  obtained. 

What  has  been  realized  from  State  control  of  road  work  may  be 

1  For  more  detailed  examples  and  accomplishment  through  the  policy  of 
State  control  of  road  work,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  paper  prepared,  by 
Mr.  Thomas  H.  McDonald,  State  Highway  Engineer  of  Iowa,  to  whom  is  due 
chief  credit  for  the  splendid  results  that  have  been  attained  in  that  State. 


122  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRKSS 

thus  summed  up:  The  development  of  a  system  of  main  highways 
adapted  to  modern  motor  freight  traffic  which  promises  such  great 
economic  changes  in  both  rural  and  urban  life,  increasing  the  efficiency 
of  local  road  officials  in  the  expenditure  of  the  local  taxes  by  prevent- 
ing useless  undertakings,  by  suggesting  economic  forms  of  construction 
and  by  increasing  the  economic  service  of  the  highways  by  concen- 
trating expenditures  on  important  roads  and  preventing  waste  on 
unimportant  ones;  the  prevention  of  numerous  accidents  and  fatal- 
ities by  the  construction  of  safe  bridges  and  elimination  or  treatment 
of  railroad  grade  crossings  in  such  a  manner  as  greatly  to  lessen  the 
danger  from  them.  And  experience  has  demonstrated  that  these 
ends  are  accomplished  by  State  control  of  road  work  and  only  by 
such  control. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Next  on  the  program  is  the  discussion  of  Mr. 
Johnson's  paper,  by  T.  H.  MacDonald,  State  Highway  Engineer 
of  Iowa,  which  will  be  read  by  Mr.  H.  C.  Beard,  member  of  the 
Iowa  Highway  Commission. 

MR.  BEARD:  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Congress: 
This  paper  was  prepared  by  Mr.  MacDonald,  pur  highway  engineer, 
who  is  unable  to  attend  this  meeting  and  I  will  read  it.  I  will  also 
say,  while  I  do  so,  that  at  one  place  in  this  paper,  I  wish  to  enlarge 
a  little  bit  upon  it  relative  to  the  organization  that  we  have  com- 
pleted under  the  law  as  laid  out  here.  State  control  with  State 
aid,  as  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Johnson,  is  written  into  all  of  the  older 
State  laws  which  established  and  placed  in  authority,  State  Highway 
Departments.  State  control  without  State  aid  is  a  new  principle 
in  such  legislation  because  of  the  long  association  of  these  two  ideas, 
they  have  become  confused  in  the  popular  mind  so  that  State  control 
has  come  to  mean  State  aid,  and  if  a  State  proposes  to  exercise  cer- 
tain control  without  paying  for  the  privilege  by  the  appropria- 
tions of  funds  to  the  local  communities  the  State  immediately 
encounters  more  or  less  hostility  from  these  communities.  The 
more  or  less  is  dependent  upon  the  number  of  local  patriots  who 
are  willing  to  sacrifice  their  own  personal  interests  on  the  altar 
of  public  service,  i.e.,  in  some  office  within  the  gift  of  the  voters. 
Seriously,  however,  the  principle  of  State  control  is  quite  separate 
and  distinct  from  that  of  State  aid  appropriations,  and  these  are  not 
necessarily  complementary  State  policies.  State  aid  may  be  appro- 
priated from  State  revenues  received  from  sources  which  do  not 
contribute  to  local  taxes  or  it  may  consist  in  a  distribution  of  State 
tax  receipts  on  property  which  also  pays  local  taxes.  If  the  former, 
then  State  control  with  State  aid  is  a  justifiable  policy  only  if  this  con- 
trol secures  equal  or  greater  returns  to  the  State  than  if  such  aid  were 
distributed  without  State  control.  If  the  State  aid  funds  are  simply 
the  distribution  of  direct  property  taxes,  then  State  control  must 
justify  itself  by  better  results  than  if  the  same  amount  were  ex- 


DISCUSSION  123 

pended  as  local  taxes.  As  shown  in  the  preceding  paper  all  of  the 
thirty-four  States  which  have  State  aid  roads,  exercise  State  con- 
trol over  the  construction  and  twenty-one  States  have  found  it 
necessary  to  take  over  the  control  of  the  maintenance.  It  seems 
to  be  a  thoroughly  established  fact  that  the  State  must  control  the 
maintenance  of  State  built  roads  if  these  are  to  be  maintained  ade- 
quately and  continuously.  This  fact  is  proof  positive  that  State 
aid  is  something  more  than  the  appropriation  of  money,  and  that  it 
contributes  an  element  of  administrative  efficiency  that  is  not  in  any 
way  measured  by  the  amount  of  funds  appropriated.  If  this  be 
true,  then  in  this  fact  we  find  a  justification  of  State  control  without 
State  aid.  From  a  study  of  the  policies  of  the  method  of  extending 
State  aid  as  set  forth,  each  method  is  a  product  of  the  method  of  rais- 
ing State  revenues,  the  state  of  development  of  road  construction 
reached,  the  area  or  mileage  which  the  plan  is  adopted  to  cover  and 
the  particular  type  of  administrative  scheme  adopted.  The  older 
State  laws  in  force  in  the  Eastern  States  show  the  influence  of  the 
French  and  other  foreign  administrative  plans.  These  methods  as 
they  have  been  adopted  by  States  further  west,  have  been  changed 
or  modified  by  the  above  factors.  The  more  recently  adopted 
measures  in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  States  have  shown  a  con- 
siderable divergence  from  the  older  plans.  As  stated  by  Mr.  John- 
son, these  plans  were  adopted  generally  after  some  years  of  opera- 
tion of  a  commission  or  State  Highway  Department  having  advisory 
powers.  The  work  of  these  departments  greatly  demonstrated  the 
desirability  of  a  more  efficient  use  of  the  funds  available  and  the 
possibility  of  greater  results  with  such  an  administration  than 
through  increased  appropriations  without  an  efficient  administrative 
system.  Of  the  highway  laws  that  have  been  passed  in  recent 
years,  the  Iowa  law  probably  contains  more  distinctive  departures 
from  what  might  be  termed  established  practice  than  any  other 
law.  The  less  than  two  years  in  which  this  law  has  been  in  operation 
is  far  too  short  a  time  to  judge  of  the  measure  as  a  practical  work- 
ing policy.  That  it  is  not  yet  a  finished  or  polished  administrative 
measure  will  be  admitted  by  any  of  its  warmest  friends,  but  even  its 
enemies  must  admit  that  the  change  in  the  road  situation  in  the 
State,  speaking  from  the  balance  sheets  which  show  the  results  accom- 
plished, are  surprising.  Those  competent  to  judge  expected  that  it 
would  take  five  years  to  bring  such  a  measure  into  a  satisfactorily 
working  system,  but  in  many  of  the  counties  practically  the  first 
year's  work  has  shown  the  law  enforced  almost  to  the  letter  so  far 
as  the  county  work  is  concerned,  and  in  these  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  townships  are  operating  in  full  accord  with  its  provisions. 
The  smoothness  with  which  the  system  has  been  working  in  many 
of  the  counties  has  astonished  those  who  expected  several  years  of 
general  opposition  to  a  policy  of  State  control  without  State  aid. 
In  formulating  this  law,  which  is  taken  as  a  typical  example  of  a  law 
formed  to  supply  State  control  without  State  aid,  the  General 


124  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Assembly  of  Iowa  disregarded  practically  all  measures  relating  to 
roads  and  bridges  then  on  the  statute  books,  excepting  those  relat- 
ing to  revenues  alone.  An  entirely  new  road  measure  was  drafted 
without  changing  the  revenues  that  could  be  raised  for  road  and 
bridge  purposes.  One  fund  was  made  a  mandatory  levy  in  place  of 
an  optional  one,  which  is  absolutely  the  only  change  in  revenues 
made.  It  is  true  that  a  somewhat  larger  sum  has  been  raised  for 
road  and  bridge  purposes  the  past  year  than  during  previous  years, 
but  this  has  been  due  principally  to  increased  valuations,  and  the 
per  cent  of  increase  is  not  large.  We  have  then  the  situation  of  a 
measure  providing  State  control  over  local  administrative  units 
under  an  entirely  new  system  without  a  material  change  in  the 
revenues.  If  under  such  a  system  results  greater  than  under  the 
old  system  are  secured  the  policy  of  State  control  must  be  given 
the  major  share  of  the  credit,  as  it  will  not  be  due  to  increased 
local  revenues,  and  there  is  no  State  aid  fund.  Briefly  the  plan 
of  organization  is  as  follows:  each  township  is  controlled  by  a  board 
of  trustees  which  has  power  to  levy  taxes  for  township  road  pur- 
poses and  appoint  one  man  who  is  responsible  for  maintenance  of 
township  roads.  In  each  average  Iowa  county  there  are  sixteen 
townships.  I  wish  to  add  here  that  those  township  men  appointed 
by  the  board  are  non-experts,  they  have  no  engineering  ability  and 
receive  not  more  than  $4.50  a  day  for  their  services.  They  nomi- 
nate superintendents  and  supervise  the  work  in  areas  about  6  miles 
square  and  expending  only  under  their  direction  from  $600  to  $2000 
per  annum.  Each  county  is  governed  by  a  board  of  three  to  seven 
supervisors  who  must  appoint  a  county  engineer  or  engineers,  and 
who  have  the  sole  authority  to  levy  the  taxes  for  county  roads  and 
for  building  all  culverts  and  all  bridges,  on  both  the  county  and  the 
township  roads.  The  State  Highway  Department  is  a  board  of 
three  men,  two  appointed  by  the  Governor  and  one  ex-officio. 
These  men  have  authority  to  appoint  an  engineering  corps  and 
office  assistants.  Under  this  provision  of  the  law  we  have  13 
or  14  engineers  working  all  the  time  under  the  direction  of  the 
Highway  Commission.  The  three  members  of  the  commission 
have  devoted  a  great  deal  more  of  their  time  than  the  law  con- 
templated that  they  should  to  putting  into  effect  this  law.  They 
limited  us  to  pay  for  only  100  days  in  the  year.  I  worked  160 
days  myself  and  the  other  members  of  the  commission  appointed 
by  the  Governor,  who  is  the  owner  of  several  hundred  acres  of 
Green  County  land,  worked  over  200  days  and  the  chairman  of  our 
commission  who  is  Dean  of  Engineering  in  the  Iowa  State  College 
worked  perhaps  150  days  in  putting  this  law  into  effect  the  first 
year.  We  have  now  under  the  direction  of  our  field  engineer  and 
our  highway  engineers  6  district  engineers  who  have  the  State 
under  their  immediate  control  for  the  direction  of  road  work.  We 
have  the  State  divided  into  5  districts  and  a  man  in  each  district 
to  supervise  and  direct  the  work  of  the  county  engineers,  and  in 
addition  to  that  we  have  one  man  who  is  a  district  engineer  at 


DISCUSSION  125 

large,  practically,  although  he  will  be  assigned  a  district  soon.  We 
have  another  engineer  who  puts  in  all  his  time  at  the  work  of  mak- 
ing surveys  and  plans  for  the  elimination  of  dangers  at  grade,  under- 
grade and  overgrade  railroad  crossings.  The  county  engineers 
are  appointed  by  the  board  of  supervisors,  but  are  liable  to  removal 
by  the  highway  commissioner  for  any  cause  that  the  highway  com- 
missioner may  deem  proper.  Up  to  this  time  we  have  removed  about 
20  county  engineers.  At  the  beginning  we  found  an  inclination 
on  the  part  of  supervisors  to  honor  the  memory  of  a  lot  of  county 
surveyors  by  making  them  county  engineers.  A  number  of  these 
men  had  to  be  removed.  Several  others  accepted  the  suggestion 
that  it  was  nearly  time  to  resign,  and  now  we  have  county  engi- 
neers, one  at  least  in  each  county  and  in  some  counties  two,  who  are 
more  or  less  competent  although  there  are  removal  proceedings 
pending  against  perhaps  a  dozen  or  more  at  this  time  which  will 
probably  come  to  a  termination  against  the  county  engineers 
before  the  first  of  the  year  or  before  the  work  begins  next  year. 
The  Iowa  law  does  not  provide  for  any  merit  system  in  the  selection 
of  highway  engineers  or  the  county  engineers  but  we  have  put 
into  effect  such  a  principle  in  a  merit  system  of  our  own  since  the 
beginning.  We  were  accused  when  we  started  out  of  being  en- 
gaged in  the  occupation  of  creating  offices,  soft  snaps  they  were 
called  and  considered — for  the  graduates  of  the  Iowa  State  College 
—but  the  fact  of  our  year  and  a  half's  work  disproved  that  charge. 
We  now  have  in  our  force  a  number  of  men,  I  am  not  able  to  tell 
exactly  the  number,  who  are  not  graduates  of  any  college,  or  uni- 
versity within  the  State,  and  many  more  who  are  not  from  the 
institution  with  which  our  highway  commission  is  connected  by  be- 
ing located  in  one  of  the  buildings  and  having  the  Dean  as  chair- 
man of  the  commission.  The  county  engineers  have  been  drawn 
from  all  parts  of  the  country.  We  took  the  county  engineer  of 
Buchanan  County,  Missouri,  for  one  of  our  county  engineers  and  we 
had  thrust  upon  us  the  assistant  engineer  of  the  State  of  Nebraska 
as  the  county  engineer  and  there  are  engineers  at  work  in  the  State 
from  all  parts  of  the  country.  We  got  most  of  our  efficient  engi- 
neers from  the  railroad  companies.  At  this  time  the  railroad  com- 
panies in  our  State  are  letting  out  their  engineers  and  we  have  pos- 
sibly 25  engineers  that  have  come  to  us  within  the  last  year  from 
the  railroad  companies.  Those  men  are  almost  always  proven  to 
be  very  efficient  in  the  work  that  is  put  under  their  charge.  The 
plan  of  operation  is  as  follows:  All  roads  are  divided  into  two  classes. 
The  county  roads  which  are  the  main  traveled  roads,  constitute  a 
definite  system  in  each  county  of  not  more  than  15  per  cent  of  the 
mileage  and  these  county  systems  are  interconnecting  at  the  borders 
with  the  other  county  systems  so  that  a  county  system  of  16,000 
miles  of  interconnected  highways  constitute  a  primary  or  county 
highway  system.  Being  continuous  as  they  are  through  the  coun- 
ties the  county  systems  form  one  great  State  system  reaching  every 
trading  point  in  the  whole  State.  These  roads  were  selected  pri- 


126  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

marily  by  the  board  of  supervisors  of  each  county,  but  the  com- 
mission was  charged  to  the  duty  of  receiving  all  protests,  and  of 
finally  passing  upon  each  system  to  make  a  continuous  State  system. 
About  two  miles  of  road  were  petitioned  for,  for  each  one  mile 
that  could  be  established.  The  system  thus  established  constitutes 
a  definite  mileage  that  must  be  improved  by  the  county  before  any 
change  may  be  made  or  new  roads  added  to  the  system.  The  re- 
maining roads  are  placed  in  the  local  or  township  systems.  Each 
local  system  is  under  the  direction  of  the  board  of  trustees  and  the 
township  road  superintendent,  who  is  charged  with  certain  defi- 
nite duties  among  which  is  the  continuous  dragging  of  the  roads, 
for  which  a  non-divertible  drag  fund  is  levied  by  the  townships. 
It  might  be  interesting  to  many  of  you  to  know  that  under  this 
division  of  county  and  township  systems,  that  in  some  of  the  coun- 
ties where  the  supervisors,  backed  by  a  certain  per  cent  of  public 
sentiment,  have  resisted  the  operation  of  this  law,  the  townships 
have  gone  ahead  under  the  law  and  done  better  than  the  coun- 
ties have  been  able  to  do  in  the  building  and  maintaining  of  better 
roads.  The  township  trustees,  in  many  instances,  have  shown  the 
county  boards  the  better  way  of  building  roads  in  the  townships 
in  the  same  county  where  the  board  of  supervisors  was  resisting 
the  new  law.  All  bridges  and  all  culverts  on  both  systems  are 
built  by  the  board  of  supervisors.  The  State  Highway  Com- 
mission has  general  supervisory  powers  over  both  county  and  town- 
ship boards,  with  power  to  enforce  provisions  of  the  law.  All  officials 
from  the  State  highway  commissioners  to  the  local  road  superintend- 
ents are  bonded  officers,  and  responsible  under  these  bonds  for  the 
performance  of  their  duty.  The  whole  frame  work  of  the  law  is 
founded  upon  one  general  principle,  that  is  the  fixing  of  responsi- 
bility for  each  and  every  bit  of  work  that  is  to  be  done  in  the  con- 
struction and  maintenance  of  adequate  primary  and  secondary 
highway  systems.  Without  going  into  the  details  of  the  opera- 
tions and  considering  the  fact  that  the  law  has  only  been  in  opera- 
tion for  one  year,  and  that  many  problems  must  be  met  in  the 
future  in  an  administrative  scheme  that  reaches  down  to  the  most 
unimportant  road  official,  the  following  is  a  summary  of  the  results 
which  are  being  accomplished  under  the  policy  of  State  control  with- 
out State  aid : 

First:  Each  mile  of  road,  each  culvert  and  each  bridge  is  under 
the  immediate  supervision  of  some  one  man  who  is  responsible 
on  his  bond  for  the  proper  condition  of  that  particular  item.  If 
this  official  fails  to  perform  his  duties  an  appeal  may  be  taken  to  the 
Highway  Commission,  which  has  full  power  and  authority  to  enforce 
the  provisions  of  the  law. 

Second:  The  road  work  has  all  been  divided  into  certain  definite 
classes  and  plans  have  been  standardized  for  each  class  of  work 
throughout  the  ninety-nine  counties.  For  example,  the  profiles 
and  sections  for  permanent  road  grading  are  made  up  in  exactly  the 
same  form  in  each  of  the  ninety-nine  counties. 


DISCUSSION  127 

Third:  Every  piece  of  permanent  road  work  is  approved  by  the 
district  engineers  of  the  Highway  Commission  so  that  the  same 
sections,  maximum  grades  and  finished  product  are  secured  so  far 
as  the  topographical  formation  of  the  counties  will  permit. 

Fourth:  Culvert  and  bridge  plans  have  been  standardized. 
Standard  plans  and  specifications  are  supplied  to  all  of  the  coun- 
ties by  the  commission.  The  adoption  of  uniform  standardized 
plans  is  resulting  in  a  more  satisfactory  class  of  work  at  lower 
prices. 

Fifth:  The  system  is  predicated  upon  the  appointment  of  a  cap- 
able county  engineer.  The  commission  has  the  power  of  removal 
if  the  engineer  fails  to  carry  on  his  work  efficiently.  Already  there 
have  been  changes  in  a  number  of  counties  in  the  interests  of  efficiency. 
This  means  that  eventually  there  will  be  a  strong  class  of  county 
engineers  who  have  broad  constructive  duties  to  perform. 

Sixth:  A  uniform  system  of  records  and  cost  keeping  and  blanks 
have  been  supplied  by  the  commission  to  all  of  the  counties  and 
townships,  and  each  year  a  detailed  report  will  be  made  by  the 
county  engineer  of  all  the  expenditures  of  road  and  bridge  moneys 
in  each  county. 

This  law  is  essentially  an  earth  road  and  permanent  bridge  measure. 
Within  the  funds  available  a  large  mileage  of  gravel  surfaced  roads 
can  also  be  constructed.  Some  few  stretches  of  the  more  permanent 
types  will  be  built,  but  the  system  so  far  provides  mainly  for  earth 
roads  and  permanent  waterways.  For  a  State  such  as  Iowa,  which 
has  a  fairly  uniform  distribution  of  population  and  in  which  the 
wealth  is  also  quite  equally  distributed,  there  has  suddenly  come  a 
demand  for  a  large  mileage  of  roads  that  will  not  only  serve  the 
market  purposes  but  the  intercounty  needs  as  well.  There  are  regis- 
tered in  the  State  over  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  automobiles. 
This  traffic  alone  has  created  a  demand  for  and  a  sentiment  in  favor 
of  improved  roads,  but  the  demand  is  for  a  large  mileage  rather  than 
a  small  mileage  of  more  permanent  types  of  road  surfaces.  Un- 
der these  conditions  the  policy  of  State  control  without  State  aid 
it  is  believed  will  secure  these  results  quickly.  Whether  a  policy 
of  State  aid  is  adopted  or  not,  under  the  present  system  there  is 
being  built  up  an  organization  which  will  be  capable  of  handling 
the  more  expensive  types  of  road  construction  if  the  State  con- 
cludes to  establish  the  policy  of  State  aid  appropriations  and  ap- 
propriates large  sums  for  permanent  road  construction.  If  this 
policy  is  not  adopted,  then  permanent  road  construction  will  be 
developed  in  districts,  and  under  this  plan  State  control,  issuing 
proper  standards  of  materials  and  methods  and  efficient  local  engi- 
neering, will  justify  State  control  without  State  aid  by  the  results 
obtained.  [Applause.] 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  meeting  will  now  adjourn  until  10  o'clock 
tomorrow  morning. 


128  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

November  11,  10  a.m. 
MR.  JOSEPH  W.  HUNTER  IN  THE  CHAIR 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  convention  will  please  come  to  order. 
We  will  take  up  the  program  for  the  session.  I  want  to  say  in 
this  connection  that  I  regret  very  much  that  Mr.  Bigelow,  State 
Highway  Commissioner  of  Pennsylvania  was  unable  to  attend  the 
session  of  the  Congress.  He  has,  however,  sent  me  to  represent 
him  and  in  opening  up  this  meeting  I  have  a  few  remarks  to  make 
along  the  line  of  the  subject  that  he  was  to  take  up,  namely,  con- 
struction and  maintenance.  I  certainly  appreciate  the  honor  of 
having  the  privilege  of  being  at  this  Congress  and  attending  its 
sessions. 

A  twofold  subject,  any  one  part  of  which  is  a  subject  in  itself,  a 
proper  treatment  and  presentation  of  which  would  require  more 
than  the  allotted  time  for  the  presentation  of  such  a  paper. 

First  of  all  is  the  proper  location  of  the  road  or  highway  that 
is  to  be  improved,  then  comes  the  drainage  and  the  proper  con- 
struction of  the  subgrade  or  foundation.  With  these  two  requisites 
properly  taken  care  of,  the  balance  of  the  construction  work  is  a 
matter  of  detail.  Without  proper  drainage  and  the  proper  con- 
struction of  the  subgrade  it  is  useless  to  construct  or  erect  the  road 
bed.  Many  contractors  are  beginning  to  realize  that  it  pays  them 
much  better  to  give  more  attention  to  the  proper  drainage  and  con- 
struction of  the  subgrade  of  the  road  than  to  hurry  through  with 
this  portion  of  the  work  than  to  have  to  go  back  and  do  the  work 
over  because  of  the  failure  of  the  metal  and  surfacing  has  been 
placed  thereon.  No  building  that  is  intended  to  be  permanent  will 
stand  long  on  a  poor  or  shaky  foundation. 

The  work  of  maintenance  is  the  larger  and  broader  field,  while 
the  problems  in  construction  are  many,  yet  most  of  them  have  been, 
and  others  will  be  readily  solved.  But  maintenance  work  is  newer 
and  the  problems  more  varied,  and  on  the  whole  of  more  impor- 
tance; of  course,  much  depends  on  the  material  used  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  road,  particularly  in  the  surfacing.  As  eternal  vigilance 
is  the  price  of  liberty,  so  is  eternal  vigilance  or  constant  watch- 
fulness necessary  in  the  maintenance  of  any  reconstructed  or  im- 
proved stone  road.  The  historic  stitch  that  saves  nine  means  in 
road  maintenance  a  shovel  full  of  stones  here,  a  shovel  full  of  earth 
removed  or  placed,  at  the  proper  time,  a  ditch  or  culvert  cleaned 
out  or  opened  up.  It  costs  less  to  properly  and  constantly  main- 
tain a  road  or  highway  than  to  neglect  it,  allowing  it  to  become 
worn  out  and  then  resurfacing  it. 

The  maintenance  of  the  improved  roads  in  Pennsylvania  is  being 
done  by  the  State  Highway  Department  with  its  own  equipment  and 
labor,  at  less  cost  than  by  any  other  method.  The  question  of 
securing  sufficient  labor  at  the  proper  time  has  been  a  serious  prob- 
lem and  will  continue  to  be  so  until  a  sufficient  number  of  laborers 


PROCEEDINGS  129 

can  be  employed  continually.  With  such  a  body  of  trained  men, 
better  results  can  be  obtained  at  less  cost. 

The  maintenance  of  the  8000  miles  of  State  highways,  some  of 
which  are  improved  stone  roads,  but  the  majority  of  which  are 
earth  roads,  is  under  the  care  of  a  maintenance  engineer,  and  fifty 
superintendents;  as  is  the  maintenance  of  about  1500  miles  of  State 
aid  roads. 

In  addition  to  the  above  work  the  State  Highway  Department 
was  given  by  an  act  of  assembly  at  the  1913  session,  general  super- 
vision of  upwards  of  80,000  miles  of  earth  roads.  These  roads  are 
primarily  under  the  care  of  three  men,  who  are  designated  as  a  Board 
of  Township  Supervisors.  These  men  are  elected  for  a  term  of  six 
years,  one  being  elected  every  two  years,  this  making  a  continuing 
board. 

The  writer  was  under  the  provision  of  the  act  appointed  by  the 
State  Highway  Commission  to  organize  and  take  charge  of  the 
Bureau  of  Township  Highways. 

The  first  step  taken  was  to  get  in  touch  with  more  than  4600  su- 
pervisors of  the  State  by  forming  them  into  66  county  organiza- 
tions under  the  provisions  of  an  act  of  assembly  which  authorized 
the  formation  of  such  associations.  Each  association  has  its  own 
officers,  by-laws  and  rules  which  provide  for  one  to  four  meetings 
per  year. 

At  each  of  these  meetings  information  was  furnished  to  and  in- 
structions given  to  the  supervisors,  rules  and  regulations  which  the 
supervisors  are  required  to  observe  were  adopted,  a  uniform  system 
of  accounting  established,  all  books  and  forms  being  furnished  by  the 
State;  bulletins  of  instructions  prepared  and  sent  out,  an  engineer- 
ing corps  organized  for  the  purpose  of  making  surveys  upon  requests 
of  townships  that  desired  to  change  the  grade  of  a  road  or  to  recon- 
struct an  earth  road  as  a  stone,  brick  or  bituminous  road;  also  to 
stake  out  bridges,  plans  for  which  are  made  by  the  Bridge  Depart- 
ment. Surveys,  bridge  plan  and  all  work  done  for  township  is  at  the 
expense  of  the  State.  Upward  of  fifty  road  surveys  have  been 
made  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  bridge  and  culvert  plans  have 
been  furnished  in  less  than  a  year. 

Upon  compliance  with  the  provisions  of  the  law  and  with  rules 
and  regulations  of  the  State  Highway  Department,  each  town- 
ship is  entitled  to  receive  50  per  cent  of  the  amount  collected  in 
cash,  the  work  tax  has  been  abolished,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  earth 
road,  and  in  the  maintenance  of  bridges,  or  in  the  reconstruction  of 
earth  roads  as  stone  or  brick  or  bituminous  roads,  or  in  the  recon- 
struction of  bridges,  provided  that  the  sum  to  be  paid  by  the  State 
shall  not  exceed  $20  per  mile. 

The  total  amount  collected  and  expended  by  the  several,  town- 
ships in  the  State  for  the  year  1913  as  shown  by  the  annual  reports 
of  the  several  Boards  of  Township  Supervisors  is  $5,410,424.27. 
About  13  per  cent  of  this  amount  was  expended  for  collecting  and 


130  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

disbursing.  The  board  of  supervisors  serve  without  compensation 
but  are  allowed  their  necessary  expenses.  Hereafter  township  super- 
visors must  show  that  they  have  expended  for  some  permanent  im- 
provement of  their  roads  a  sum  equal  in  amount  to  the  sum  received 
from  the  State. 

This  hasty  sketch  has  been  given  to  show  that  Pennsylvania  is 
now  starting  in  the  right  direction  to  obtain  the  improvement  of 
the  earth  roads  in  the  State.  Because  of  the  information  furnished 
and  advice  given  a  noticeable  improvement  has  been  made  in  many 
sections  of  the  State.  There  has  been  some  antagonism  shown  on 
the  part  of  the  few  township  supervisors,  but  the  great  majority  of 
them  are  in  favor  of  the  changed  method  and  new  system. 

Good  township  government  is  seldom  obtained  on  purely  party 
lines.  Party  politics  should  not  be  allowed  to  enter  into  the  or- 
ganization of  any  State,  County  or  Township  Highway  Depart- 
ment. Get  the  best  men  possible  from  your  home  State,  county  or 
township  if  practicable,  but  get  good  practical  men,  no  matter  where 
they  may  come  from. 

While  the  Pennsylvania  State  Highway  Department  employees 
are  not  under  civil  service,  yet  it  is  the  rule  of  the  commissioner 
that  the  man  who  has  shown  proficiency  is  the  man  who  is  retained 
and  promoted.  More  than  a  majority  of  the  division  engineers  have 
been  with  the  department  for  about  nine  years,  some  of  them  have 
been  promoted  to  maintenance  engineers.  Assistants  to  division 
engineers  have  been  made  division  engineers  and  their  places  filled 
by  promoting  transitmen,  and  so  along  the  whole  line.  Of  the  fifty 
superintendents  of  State  highways,  but  few  are  engineers.  They 
were  selected  from  among  men  who  had  been  supervisors  and  from 
among  others  who  had  some  practical  knowledge  of  road  work,  some 
changes  had  to  be  made  until  the  superintendents,  as  a  whole,  are  a 
good  practical  lot  of  men.  Many  of  the  inspectors  of  construction 
work  are  others  than  engineers,  in  fact,  some  of  them  make  better 
inspectors  than  the  engineers,  they  being  more  practical  and  seem  to 
use  their  common  sense  to  better  advantage.  Anyhow,  about  90 
per  cent  of  road  work  is  common  sense. 

Much  can  be  gained  by  having  at  least  an  annual  meeting  of 
all  the  men  in  the  employ  of  a  State  Highway  Department,  a  semi- 
annual meeting,  perhaps  would  be  better.  It  is  coming  together, 
the  touching  of  elbows,  the  exchange  of  thoughts,  the  discussion  of 
methods  that  make  for  the  efficiency  of  the  whole  organization,  and 
help  many  a  timid  fellow  over  a  hard  place.  The  old  motto  "In 
unity  there  is  strength"  still  stands,  and  will  for  all  times. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  first  paper  on  the  program  is  "Rights  of 
Way,"  by  Austin  B.  Fletcher,  State  Highway  Engineer  of  Cali- 
fornia. This  paper  will  be  read  by  Mr.  Sohier,  Chairman  of  the 
Massachusetts  Highway  Commission. 


RIGHTS    OF   WAT  131 

MR.  SOHIER:  I  am  so  accustomed  in  Georgia  to  your  not  know- 
ing who  I  am  or  quite  who  I  represent  that  I  feel  perfectly  at  home 
in  representing  Mr.  Fletcher  of  California,  because  he  originally 
came  from  Massachusetts  and  served  with  me.  He  has  a  topic  that 
will  interest  everybody  who  is  interested  in  highways.  Most  of 
the  subjects  interest  only  a  few;  dirt  roads,  sand  clay  roads,  macadam 
roads  and  various  bituminous  macadam  roads  and  pavements  only 
interest  people  who  have  money  enough  to  build  those  kinds  of 
pavements,  and  most  of  us  in  this  country  have  to  be  satisfied  for 
some  years  to  come  with  the  well  maintained,  well  graded  dirt  roads, 
but  the  right  of  way  is  totally  different.  Men  may  come  and  men 
may  go,  but  if  the  right  of  way  is  not  sufficient  for  all  future  time, 
then  you  as  the  highway  commissioners  have  been  recreant  in  your 
duty. 

RIGHTS  OF  WAY 

BY  AUSTIN  B.  FLETCHER 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  California 

Adequate  "rights  of  way"  of  "locations"  are  of  prime  importance 
in  any  highway  system  and  too  little  attention  has  been  given  to 
this  feature  of  highway  work  hitherto. 

In  the  mad  haste  to  get  the  roads  built  so  that  the  automobile 
enthusiasts  may  use  them  "while  they  are  yet  alive,"  we  are  prone 
to  forget  that  the  highway  location  is  the  one  really  permanent  fea- 
ture of  the  road  work. 

The  time  to  secure  proper  locations  for  the  roads,  and  widths 
sufficient  to  serve  all  purposes  for  long  years  to  come,  is  NOW.  If 
we  wait  until  some  future  day  to  correct  improper  locations,  and 
to  secure  suitable  widths  of  rights  of  way  when  we  have  more  leisure, 
we  will  have  wasted  much  money  in  pavements  constructed  and  the 
land  needed  will  cost  much  more  and  will  be  more  difficult  to  acquire. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  all  land  owners  are  more  complacent 
in  giving  up  portions  of  their  property  to  the  public  before  the 
improvements  are  begun  than  at  any  time  afterward. 

In  some  of  the  older  States  the  people  came  long  before  "section- 
alization"  by  the  government  was  thought  of  but  in  the  Middle 
West  and  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  most  of  the  land  was  divided  years 
ago  "checkerboard"  fashion  by  the  government  surveyors. 

The  highways  in  the  older  States  were  laid  out,  or  in  most  cases, 
simply  grew  where  the  travel  wanted  to  go  but  in  the  flat  prairie 
land  of  the  west,  and  even  in  the  Pacific  Coast  valleys,  the  roads 
were  often,  if  not  generally,  laid  out  straddling  the  section  lines,  the 
center  of  the  right  of  way  being  usually  coincident  with  the  section 
line.  This  plan  had  the  merit  of  lessening  the  area  of  land  deducted 
for  road  purposes  from  the  holding  of  an  owner  by  making  his  ad- 
joining neighbor  provide  one-half  of  the  land  required  for  the  roadway. 

This  method  of  road  location  often  proves  to  be  an  embarrass- 


132  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

ment  to  the  present-day  road  builder  since  this  time-honored  recti- 
linear scheme  does  not  fit  the  present  needs.  Centers  of  population 
often  times  have  not  occurred  in  conformity  to  such  a  plan;  often 
the  railroads  have  determined  the  location  of  the  towns.  In  such 
cases  it  is  desirable,  considering  the  volume  of  "through  travel" 
in  motor  cars  and  trucks,  to  construct  the  roads  in  the  most  direct 
lines  possible.  This  often  entails  rights  of  way  running  diagonally 
across  the  sections,  "cuts  up"  land  holdings  and  makes  trouble 
generally  for  the  right-of-way  department. 

But  when  the  rectilinear  plan  has  been  carried  still  farther  and  the 
land  owners,  to  conserve  particularly  good  areas  for  agricultural 
purposes,  have  had  in  times  past  enough  influence  to  cause  the 
county  authorities  to  discontinue  or  vacate  portions  of  ways  along 
the  section  lines  and  have  introduced  right  angled  turns  into  the 
half  or  even  quarter  section  lines,  then  the  engineer  has  a  task  worthy 
of  his  mettle  to  secure  a  proper  location  for  his  improved  road. 

And  if  the  road  be  in  an  orange  grove  section,  his  joy  is  indeed 
complete. 

The  writer  knows  of  a  main  paved  road  in  one  of  the  California 
counties  which  has  at  least  ten  right  angled  turns  in  it  in  a  distance 
of  about  20  miles  and  this  road  passes  through  no  town  or  city  and 
is  practically  level.  In  planning  their  new  highway  system  several 
years  ago,  that  county  gave  up  as  hopeless  the  task  of  securing  a 
direct  route  in  the  locality  referred  to,  so  for  many  years  to  come 
all  through  travel  over  those  20  miles  of  beautifully  paved  highway 
must  be  subjected  to  the  dangerous  right  angled  turns  and  to  the 
unnecessarily  increased  length. 

There  is  reason  in  cities  and  other  centers  of  population  for  ways 
laid  out  in  rectilinear  fashion.  In  the  open  country,  there  is  no 
excuse  for  planning  a  new  highway  system  along  such  lines.  Land 
should  be  condemned  if  the  owners  will  not  donate  it. 

There  should  be  as  direct  a  line  between  important  centers  as  the 
topographical  conditions  will  permit. 

Assuming  that  the  best  alignment  for  the  highway  has  been 
adopted  taking  into  consideration  the  factors  of  topography,  climate 
and  traffic  needs,  present  and  prospective,  the  next  question  con- 
fronting the  highway  engineer  is  the  width  of  right  of  way. 

It  is  certainly  desirable  that  in  any  highway  system  the  right  of 
way  be  of  uniform  width  but  as  a  practical  matter,  each  link  in  the 
system  must  be  considered  by  itself.  Near  the  centers  of  popula- 
tion it  is  obvious  that  the  pavement  and  the  rights  of  way  must 
be  wider  than  in  remote  rural  communities,  sparsely  settled. 

It  is  the  writer's  opinion,  however,  that  for  a  minimum  width 
of  right  of  way  50  feet  is  none  too  much  and  that  wherever  possible, 
a  width  of  60  feet  is  the  least  that  should  be  secured,  even  in  sparsely 
settled  localities. 

It  is  inevitable  that  street  railway,  electric  light  and  power,  gas, 
telephone,  and  telegraph  companies  will  at  some  time  clamor  for 


RIGHTS   OF   WAY  133 

locations  in  the  highway,  and  although  too  little  attention  has  thus 
far  been  paid  to  the  matter,  tree  planting  and  other  landscape  treat- 
ment of  our  country  highways  will  have  to  be  provided  for. 

In  many  of  the  older  sections  of  the  country  right  of  way  problems 
are  not  serious  affairs.  Ways  have  been  established  there,  well 
defined  and  traveled,  for  many  years,  and  right  of  way  improvements 
consist  chiefly  in  rectifying  the  side  lines  of  locations  where  abutting 
land  owners  have  encroached  successfully  under  the  "open  adverse 
possession"  statutes  which  apply  in  some  of  the  States. 

But  in  many  localities,  the  acquisition  of  necessary  easements  of 
way  becomes  as  important  a  factor  in  the  plan  and  progress  of 
highway  work  as  the  road  work  itself. 

In  the  more  sparsely  settled  communities,  roads  have  been  built 
following  lines  of  least  resistance,  in  the  valleys  the  "  sectionalized" 
land  lines,  and  in  the  hills  wherever  the  ranchers  could  best  spare 
it.  Accordingly,  when  modern  road  building  methods  are  invoked, 
it  becomes  necessary  to  alter  meandering  and  precipitous  roads  by 
straightening,  widening,  and  improving  the  gradients.  The  needed 
rights  of  way  for  these  purposes  must  be  acquired. 

This  feature  of  the  work  is  particularly  annoying  to  the  highway 
engineer.  His  desire  is  to  press  forward  the  best  line  in  the  best 
way  in  the  best  time.  When  he  is  confronted  by  a  hostile,  reluctant 
or  indifferent  land  owner,  the  engineer  usually  loses  his  patience. 

It  is  not  alone  in  cases  of  new  rights  of  way  that  there  is  litigation, 
but  frequently  old  surveys  do  not  exactly  coincide  with  existing  ways, 
many  of  which  in  course  of  usage  have  become  winding  and  irregu- 
lar, and  consequently  additional  land  has  to  be  acquired  to  widen, 
straighten  or  alter  them. 

Owners  often  build  fences  or  cultivate  up  to  the  used  portion  of 
the  ways  and  resist  the  shifting  of  the  lines  and  delay  the  progress 
of  the  work.  In  many  cases  much  time  is  lost  where  owners  who 
have  allowed  people  to  pass  and  re-pass  in  vehicles  without  objec- 
tion for  years,  assert  adverse  claims  and  work  must  be  delayed  to 
avoid  complications. 

One  has  also  the  experience  of  attempting  to  use  dedicated  rights 
of  way  shown  on  plats  recorded  in  times  past  but  which  have  been 
entirely  unused  or  allowed  to  fall  into  disuse,  and  then  being  con- 
fronted by  claimants,  with  their  attorneys,  who  contest  the  rights 
of  the  public  therein. 

There  are  many  unavoidable  delays  in  obtaining  rights  of  way, 
arising  outside  of  the  disputed  rights  of  way  mentioned.  Even 
when  the  owners  intend  to  be  liberal  they  exact  a  great  deal  of 
information  before  signing  the  deeds  of  easement.  The  records  have 
to  be  searched  to  ascertain  the  true  owners  of  the  lands  affected; 
owners  must  be  notified  or  corresponded  with;  draftsmen  are  asked 
to  furnish  sketches  to  many  owners  defining  the  rights  of  way  desired ; 
visits  to  the  lands  must  be  made  and  surveys  inspected;  minor 
adjustments  of  lines  and  fences  must  be  settled  upon;  vacation  pro- 


134  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

ceedings  arranged  and  prepared,  abandoning  the  old  roads  or  por- 
tions of  roads  over  property  so  as  to  leave  no  incumbrance  on  the 
same  when  the  new  road  is  located  and  built;  co-owners  must  con- 
sult among  themselves  before  executing  deeds  of  easement;  owner- 
ships involved  in  probate  proceedings  or  title  litigation  must  be 
searched  and  a  good  title  to  the  roads  acquired  out  of  the  confusion, 
and  there  are  other  details  ad  infinitum. 

These  many  difficulties  have  led,  in  the  writer's  western  experi- 
ence in  highway  work,  to  the  employment  of  the  subtle  right-of-way 
man,  who  needs  be  a  psychologist  as  well  as  a  philosopher.  His 
chief  duty  consists  in  attempting  to  wheedle  the  often-times  contrary 
land  owners  into  signing  the  needed  conveyances  and  to  convince 
them,  usually,  that  their  duty  to  the  public  lies  in  giving  their  prop- 
erty gratis.  Such  an  employee  becomes  a  very  important  member 
of  the  organization.  His  troubles  are  many. 

In  addition  to  the  "right-of-way  man"  and  his  assistants  in  the 
California  work,  the  help  and  advice  of  an  attorney  learned  in  emi- 
nent domain  practice  has  been  had  who  devotes  all  of  his  time  to 
the  highway  work  and  whose  principal  activities  are  in  right  of  way 
matters.  The  writer  takes  this  opportunity  of  acknowledging  the 
assistance  of  Mr.  Charles  C.  Carleton,  attorney  to  the  California 
highway  commission,  in  the  preparation  of  this  paper. 

In  many  jurisdictions,  if  the  deeds  cannot  be  acquired  by  diplo- 
matic methods,  war  must  be  declared  in  the  courts,  and  the  high- 
way board  must  desist  from  its  efforts  to  promptly  furnish  the 
community  with  necessary  thoroughfares  until  the  courts  finally 
determine  that  the  litigious  land  owners'  holdings  may  be  entered 
upon. 

There  is  a  great  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  different  States  in  the 
methods  of  paying  or  securing  the  payment  of  damages  in  taking 
property  for  public  highway  purposes.  Such  methods  are  of  course 
regulated  entirely  by  the  constitutions  and  statutes  of  the  respec- 
tive commonwealths. 

In  some  States  it  is  not  necessary  for  the  authorities  to  pay  for 
private  property  taken  for  public  use  in  advance  of  the  actual  taking 
of  possession.  The  property  owner  has  been  provided  with  a  method 
of  making  his  claim  and  with  a  tribunal  constituted  so  that  he  may 
enforce  his  claim  and  obtain  his  damages  therein. 

In  such  jurisdictions,  highway  work  may  speedily  progress  and 
the  laying  out  of  routes  followed  by  immediate  construction.  The 
property  owner,  if  he  is  dissatisfied  with  the  original  offer  of  pay- 
ment or  the  award  made  to  him  by  the  public  authorities,  may 
pursue  his  remedy  in  the  appropriate  court  even  though  his  land 
has  already  been  occupied  by  the  public. 

The  public  has  the  advantage  of  celerity  in  the  progress  of  its 
enterprise;  the  land  owner  is  protected  by  ultimate  and  adequate 
compensation  for  his  injuries,  and  in  one  State,  at  least,  he  may 
wait  until  after  the  State  highway  is  completed  before  he  must  file 


RIGHTS   OF   WAY  135 

his  petition  for  jury  trial,  it  then  being  evident  to  all  interested 
parties  just  what  damage  has  been  done,  not  only  by  reason  of  the 
land  taken  but  by  the  road  construction  as  well. 

But  some  States  are  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  harassed  in  their 
public  work  by  constitutions  and  statutes  expressly  requiring  pre- 
payment before  entry  upon  the  land  required  for  public  use. 

The  writer  has  had  to  do  with  highway  activities  in  two  States 
which  have  operated  under  each  of  these  methods,  the  one  having 
the  right  to  take  land  necessary  for  public  use  in  advance  of  satis- 
fying the  owner;  the  other  requiring  that  if  the  owner  is  not  pleased 
with  the  offer  made  to  him  by  the  public  authorities,  he  may  stand 
back  on  his  property  with  a  shot  gun  and  compel  public  officers  to 
initiate  proceedings  in  the  court  and  remain  off  his  property  until 
after  judgment  has  been  obtained  and  the  assessed  damages  paid 
into  court  for  his  use  and  benefit. 

In  the  first  mentioned  commonwealth,  the  welfare  and  progress 
of  the  people  as  a  whole  are  superior  to  the  notions  and  eccentrici- 
ties of  an  individual  land  owner. 

In  the  other  State,  the  recalcitrant  land  owner  may  oppose  and 
delay  the  vital  needs  of  a  city,  county  or  State,  as  the  case  may  be, 
and  his  immediate  rights  predominate  over  the  requirements  of  the 
community  at  large. 

No  rights  of  way,  in  States  having  regulations  similar  to  the  latter, 
can  arbitrarily  be  taken  by  the  people  before  the  same,  after  a  vast 
amount  of  red  tape,  have  been  acquired  by  donation,  purchase  or 
condemnation;  that  is,  a  taking  cannot  be  made  and  compensation 
and  damages  adjusted  afterwards. 

Consequently  obstinate  land  owners  are  able  to  "hold  up"  the 
community  at  large  until  it  either  pays  the  demands  or  contests  the 
question  of  compensation  and  damages  in  trials,  the  latter  usually 
requiring  considerable  time,  particularly  in  the  case  of  the  belliger- 
ent or  indifferent  land  owners  residing  in  other  States  or  foreign 
countries  when  long  publications  of  summons  are  necessary  before 
the  suits  may  be  commenced.  The  western  States  appear  to  be 
particularly  oppressed  by  such  roundabout  methods  of  entering  upon 
private  property  and  installing  improvements  for  the  benefit  and 
welfare  of  millions  of  people. 

For  illustration,  under  such  a  system  a  large  western  land  owner 
owning  an  area  equal  in  size  to  an  entire  eastern  State  may  be  lux- 
uriously traveling  abroad.  A  county  has  voted  and  issued  bonds 
for  a  large  amount  to  construct  important  highways.  Before  the 
great  ranch  can  be  entered  upon,  except  for  surveys,  a  correspond- 
ence must  ensue  between  the  public  authorities  and  the  land  magnate. 
The  owner  declines  to  sign  a  conveyance  and  the  people  are  compelled 
to  commence  proceedings  in  eminent  domain  against  the  absent 
owner.  Before  a  trial  can  be  had,  summons  must  be  published  for 
sixty  days,  and  then  follow  the  tedious  court  proceedings. 

It  usually  happens  that  pugnacious  land  owners  demand  some 


136  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

exorbitant  sum.  The  court  may  upon  trial  only  allow  a  small  per- 
centage of  their  original  claim  but  during  the  pendency  of  the  action 
an  important  artery  of  travel  may  be  debarred. 

Such  a  system  is  absolutely  hostile  to  progress;  the  people  should 
be  greater  than  the  individual. 

The  writer  submits  that  at  this  time,  when  modern  highway  con- 
struction is  becoming  so  active  throughout  the  nation,  it  is  apparent 
that  there  should  be  simplification  in  the  constitutions  and  statutes 
relating  to  the  subject  of  eminent  domain,  and  that  this  Congress 
may  render  invaluable  service  in  assisting  to  bring  about  so  desir- 
able a  result. 

Too  much  attention  can  be  given  to  the  title  technicalities  of  right 
of  way  activities.  It  has  been  an  almost  universal  practice  for 
public  boards  performing  road  work  to  obtain  at  great  expense 
exhaustive  abstracts  of  title  to  ascertain  land  ownerships. 

The  writer  has  had  under  his  supervision  the  acquisition  of  hun- 
dreds of  miles  of  highway  right  of  way  in  California  where  the  secur- 
ing of  rights  of  way  could  not  be  made  much  more  difficult,  complex 
or  annoying,  yet  the  purchase  of  expensive  abstracts  of  title  has 
been  dispensed  with.  Out  of  hundreds  of  ownerships  affected,  not 
one  serious  complication  has  resulted  from  the  following  plan: 

When  the  field  parties  are  making  the  original  surveys,  the  chiefs 
of  party  usually  inquire  from  the  occupants  of  the  land  surveyed 
who  the  owners  or  those  interested  in  the  property  may  be.  This 
gives  a  clue  to  the  ownership.  Thereafter,  one  of  the  staff  visits 
the  proper  county  offices  and  ascertains  from  the  assessment  rolls 
or  the  records  who  purport  to  be  the  owners.  Deeds  or  agreements 
are  then  prepared,  containing  the  proper  descriptions,  and  it  is  very 
rare,  indeed,  that  any  objection  has  been  made  to  the  accuracy  of 
the  instrument  submitted. 

By  thus  performing  its  own  title  searches,  even  though  they  may 
not  have  always  been  the  most  exact  from  a  title  lawyer's  stand- 
point, the  authorities  have  saved  thousands  of  dollars  and  have  never 
had  an  injunction  or  ejectment  proceeding  instituted  against  them 
by  objecting  land  owners. 

By  taking  a  few  remote  chances  of  complaints,  work,  which  would 
otherwise  be  hopelessly  harassed  and  delayed  in  the  performance 
of  a  highway  project,  may  proceed. 

Furthermore,  in  most  States,  title  may  be  obtained  two  ways  by 
user  or  implied  dedication  by  the  passage  of  time.  It  has  been  the 
custom  in  California  where  the  present  traveled  roads  are  wide 
enough  for  use  and  properly  located,  to  place  the  monuments  and 
build  the  pavements  and  assert  jurisdiction  thereover,  the  theory 
being  that  if  the  owner  objects,  the  authority's  title  being  funda- 
mentally weak,  the  State  can  "  condemn"  as  rapidly  as  the  alleged 
owner  can  "oust." 

The  so-called  State  highways  in  the  several  States  may  be  divided 
into  at  least  two  classes  with  regard  to  the  control  by  the  State  of 


DISCUSSION7  137 

the  roads  after  they  are  built,  namely,  those  which  are  maintained 
by  the  State  and  over  which  the  State  assumes  complete  charge  from 
property  line  to  property  line  with  the  possible  exception  of  the 
policing  of  the  way,  and  those  sometimes  called  State-Aid  roads 
where  the  Commonwealth  has  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  main- 
tenance of  the  roads  and  the  burden  is  placed  by  law  upon  some 
subdivision  of  the  State,  usually  the  county. 

The  writer  has  had  to  do  only  with  the  class  of  State  highways 
first  mentioned  and  he  believes  that  the  State  ought  to  have  as 
complete  control  as  possible  over  its  highways,  State  or  otherwise. 
Such  control,  however,  places  a  considerable  burden  upon  the  author- 
ity which  administers  the  law. 

More  is  expected  of  a  State  organization,  and  rightly  so,  than  of 
a  county  board.  Its  work  must  be  done  carefully  and  accurately. 
The  surveys  and  plans  of  the  State  highways  must  be  well  made 
and  no  small  part  of  the  engineering  costs  is  chargeable  to  the  care- 
ful work  needed  in  running  out  and  establishing  the  right  of  way 
lines. 

In  trying  to  establish  old  right  of  way  lines  in  anticipation  of  high- 
way improvements,  much  difficulty  is  often  experienced  in  finding 
any  landmarks  to  indicate  what  the  right  of  way  really  is,  and  the 
old  surveys  and  plans  often  prove  to  be  of  little  assistance.  Often 
the  roads  to  be  taken  over  and  built  as  State  highways  were  laid 
out  when  the  land  was  of  little  value  and  the  surveys  were  carelessly 
made  or  the  descriptions  carelessly  recorded.  With  the  lapse  of 
time  buildings,  trees,  and  other  similar  features,  which  formerly 
marked  the  location  of  the  road,  have  entirely  disappeared,  and  the 
traveled  ways  have  shifted  from  place  to  place  as  the  action  of  the 
elements  or  the  whims  of  the  travelers  have  directed.  Fences,  if 
they  exist,  have  been  so  moved  about  that  they  in  no  way  indicate 
the  original  line  of  the  road. 

In  all  State  work  with  which  the  writer  has  had  to  do  it  has  been 
the  policy  to  fix  the  right  of  way  lines  on  the  ground  by  setting  proper 
monuments  into  the  soil  to  such  a  depth  that  they  serve  as  markers 
for  all  time  to  come. 

In  planning  a  new  system  of  highways,  careful  plans  should  be 
made  and  permanent  monuments  set.  Future  generations  will  surely 
appreciate  such  records  and  the  additional  cost  of  this  kind  of  work 
should  not  forbid. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  this  paper  will  be  opened  by 
Mr.  W.  S.  Gearhart,  Highway  Engineer  of  Kansas. 

MR.  GEARHART:  Properly  located  public  roads  mean  so  much 
for  the  safety  of  the  traveling  public,  economy  in  transportation, 
and  the  reduction  of  the  expense  of  up-keep  on  highways,  that  all 
who  are  interested  in  road  improvement  will  be  very  grateful  indeed 
to  Mr.  Fletcher  for  the  valuable  suggestions  in  his  excellent  paper  on 
"Rights  of  Way." 


138  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

The  time  to  solve  the  right  of  way  problem,  as  Mr.  Fletcher 
states,  is  now.  No  part  of  the  highway  is  so  permanent  as  its  loca- 
tion and  after  the  location  has  been  firmly  established  in  a  certain 
place  no  part  of  the  road  is  so  hard  to  improve  as  the  right  of  way. 

The  greater  part  of  Mr.  Fletcher's  paper  has  to  do  with  the  prob- 
lems involved  where  the  State  Highway  Department  selects  the 
rights  of  way  for  roads  on  which  the  State  proposes  to  make  exten- 
sive improvements,  and  the  methods  described  are  not  unlike  the 
best  railroad  practice,  except  possibly  in  the  matter  of  land  titles, 
which  the  railroad  companies  are  very  particular  about,  for  reasons 
which  are  evident. 

The  writer  has  not  been  connected  with  State  highway  work  of 
this  kind,  but  on  railroad  location  has  had  all  the  experiences  inci- 
dent to  facing  a  double  barreled  shot  gun  and  recalcitrant  land  owners. 

The  roads  that  straddle  the  section  lines  are  the  ones  most  of 
the  good  road  advocates  in  the  Central  West  are  especially  inter- 
ested in,  for  like  Mr.  Lincoln  stated  concerning  the  common  people, 
there  are  so  many  of  them.  Too  many  miles  of  roads  have  been 
opened  in  these  States.  This  is  particularly  so  in  Kansas,  except 
in  the  western  third  of  the  State,  where  there  is  a  highway  on  prac- 
tically every  section  line,  and  in  many  cases  the  half  section  lines 
have  been  opened. 

With  such  an  established  checker-board  system  there  is  little  the 
engineer  can  do  in  the  matter  of  new  road  locations  without  specific 
authority  except  to  agitate  and  educate  and  to  parallel  the  railroads 
until  the  State  begins  to  participate  in  road  construction  and  main- 
tenance. 

Those  living  outside  the  prairie  courtry  no  doubt  wonder  how 
the  highways  came  to  be  located  astride  these  imaginary  lines.  The 
Central  West  was  surveyed,  mapped  and  the  corner  stones  set,  by  the 
United  States  Government  at  an  early  date,  and  the  country  was 
divided  into  rectangular  counties,  townships  six  miles  square,  sec- 
tions one  mile  square,  and  quarter  sections.  This  provided  an 
easy,  practical,  accurate,  convenient  method  of  making  the  surveys, 
fixing  the  boundary  lines  and  recording  land  titles,  and  all  deeds 
at  the  present  time  refer  to  the  township,  range  and  section.  It 
also  had  the  further  advantage  of  dividing  the  farms  into  the  most 
practical  form  and  it  is  only  natural  that  the  owners  of  these  farms 
should  insist  that  the  land  be  not  cut  up  by  diagonal  rights  of  way 
— hence  the  section  line  roads. 

The  trails,  military  highways  and  other  early  roads  of  Kansas 
were  located  by  the  old  plainsmen,  and  the  United  States  mili- 
tary engineers,  on  the  most  direct  routes  and  on  the  best  ground 
available,  as  Mr.  Fletcher  is  insisting  that  the  State  roads  in  Cali- 
fornia shall  be  today. 

One  of  the  territorial  road  laws  of  Kansas,  enacted  in  1860,  reads 
in  part  as  follows: 


DISCUSSION  139 

That  each  territorial  road  shall  be  laid  out  from  the  place  of  beginning  to 
the  place  of  termination  on  the  most  direct  route,  where  suitable  ground  can 
be  found  to  establish  the  same. 

In  1861  the  Legislature  of  Kansas  enacted  a  law  providing  for 
the  establishment  of  forty-five  State  roads  covering  all  sections  of 
the  State.  The  act  specified  the  cities  or  towns  which  each  of  the 
several  roads  were  to  connect,  and  named  the  three  men  who  were 
to  act  as  commissioners  in  locating  each  road.  The  commissioners 
were  required  to  locate  these  roads  upon  the  best  possible  ground 
consistent  with  the  most  direct  and  practical  route  and  to  as  nearly 
as  possible  avoid  in  all  cases  making  two  or  more  angles  where  good 
ground  for  a  road  could  be  had  upon  a  direct  course  with  but  one 
angle. 

This  was  a  good  beginning,  and  at  the  present  time  few  States 
in  the  Union  have  statutes  governing  highway  location  so  com- 
mendable as  these.  Unfortunately,  however,  in  1861,  during  the 
same  session  of  the  legislature  at  which  some  of  these  excellent  high- 
way provisions  were  enacted,  a  special  law  was  passed  declaring  all 
the  section  lines  in  Brown  County  to  be  the  centers  of  the  public 
highways  whenever  any  road  was  opened  for  traffic  by  order  of  the 
county  commissioners. 

This  measure  looked  innocent,  no  doubt,  for  it  was  entirely  a  local 
proposition,  and  applied  only  to  Brown  County.  The  necessary 
road  surveys  and  views  were  expensive,  at  least  they  were  considered 
so  at  that  time,  even  though  the  cost  probably  did  not  exceed  $5 
per  mile.  In  one  early  statute  this  expense  was  limited  to  S3  per 
mile.  This  section  line  road  measure  was  no  doubt  enacted  in  the 
name  of  economy,  as  most  of  the  other  blunders  in  highway  improve- 
ment are  made. 

In  1871  the  section  lines  in  fourteen  other  counties  were  declared 
to  be  the  centers  of  the  public  highways  and  from  that  time  on  the 
roads  have  been  laid  out  almost  exclusively  astride  the  section  lines, 
regardless  of  the  proper  location,  hills,  character  of  soil,  safety  of 
traffic,  first  cost  maintenance  expense,  or  convenience  or  economy 
of  traffic,  and  now  only  in  rare  instances  is  any  part  of  the  original 
trails  or  territorial  or  State  roads  left,  except  such  as  follow  the  section 
lines. 

In  the  cattle  country  of  the  extreme  western  part  of  the  State 
where  there  are  few  fences  most  of  the  roads  used  today  follow  the 
natural  locations  on  the  most  direct  routes  on  the  high  ground. 
These  roads,  however,  are  not  legally  laid  out,  and  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  when  they  are  officially  opened  they  are  almost  always 
bisected  by  a  section  line. 

All  highways  at  the  present  time  are  laid  out  on  petition  to  the 
county  commissioners  by  twelve  free  holders  who  live  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  the  road.  The  petition  must  specify  the  place  of 
beginning,  the  intermediate  points,  if  any,  and  the  place  of  termina- 
tion of  such  road.  The  statute  provides  that  the  width  of  the  right 


140  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

of  way  shall  not  be  more  than  sixty  feet  or  less  than  forty,  the  exact 
width  to  be  determined  by  the  viewers  at  the  time  of  establishing 
the  road. 

If  the  county  commissioners  pass  favorably  upon  the  petition  they 
may  act  as  a  board  of  viewers  or  they  may  appoint  three  viewers 
to  definitely  locate  the  road.  Generally  the  appointed  viewers  have 
no  interest  whatever  in  the  road  or  desire  it  to  be  located  on  a  cer- 
tain section  line,  and  in  either  case  the  interests  of  the  individual 
land  owners  prevail  at  the  expense  of  the  public  welfare.  The 
statutes  do  not  now  require  the  highways  to  be  located  on  the  section 
lines,  but  public  sentiment  does,  which  is  just  as  bad,  if  not  worse. 

The  statutory  provisions  for  locating  highways  in  the  other  Cen- 
tral West  States  are  not,  and  have  not  been,  unlike  those  of  Kansas, 
and  the  evolution  of  the  section  line  roads  has  been  the  same,  always 
selfish  and  at  the  expense  of  the  public. 

Some  of  the  advantages  of  the  section  line  roads  are:  The  elimi- 
nation of  local  strife  in  establishing  locations;  little  or  no  trouble 
to  get  a  road  as  compared  with  the  method  of  petitioning  and  view- 
ing; low  cost  for  views  and  surveys;  relatively  low  damages  for 
rights  of  way,  since  such  a  road  would  generally  be  located  along 
the  side  of  the  farm  instead  of  dividing  it;  the  lessening  of  the  area 
of  land  deducted  from  the  holding  of  any  owner  by  requiring  his 
adjoining  neighbor  to  furnish  half  the  roadway,  as  stated  by  Mr. 
Fletcher;  the  elimination  of  sharp  angles  in  the  fields;  greater  ease 
in  farm  operations  in  the  fields  adjoining  the  highways,  this  is  es- 
pecially true  where  large  machinery  is  used;  the  facility  with  which 
strangers  can  follow  the  highways;  and  most  important,  a  majority 
of  the  people  believe  that  the  road  should  be  there,  and  that  no 
land  can  be  spared  for  highways  any  place  else. 

Probably  no  enumeration  of  the  disadvantages  of  the  section  line 
roads  would  include  all  the  objections.  However,  some  of  the  worst 
ones  are:  The  resulting  large  number  of  unnecessary  excessively 
steep  grades,  expensive  bridges  and  culverts,  dangerous  railroad 
crossings,  and  sharp  angle  turns;  the  practical  difficulties  in  reloca- 
tions; the  increased  distance  around  the  two  sides  of  a  right  angle 
triangle  as  compared  with  the  length  of  the  direct  road  located  on 
the  hypothenuse  of  the  triangle;  the  zig-zag  traveling  or  sail  boat 
like  tacking  necessary  to  reach  any  given  point  except,  possibly, 
due  east,  west,  north  or  south;  the  bad  soil  conditions  often  encoun- 
tered; the  high  first  cost,  and  expensive  maintenance;  increased  trans- 
portation expenses  due  to  the  longer  haul  and  extra  time  required 
to  reach  market;  nine  times  out  of  ten  the  section  line  is  not  located 
where  the  road  should  be  and  the  highway  that  straddles  the  sec- 
tion line  is  nearly  always  located  in  the  interest  of  the  individual 
instead  of  the  public. 

The  practice  of  section  line  road  location  has  been  followed  so 
long  that  it  is  now  not  uncommon  to  see  all  other  considerations 
wholly  disregarded.  The  writer,  while  employed  on  some  drainage 


DISCUSSION  141 

work  straightening  a  stream,  met  an  old  lady  who  was  opposed  to 
the  improvement  and  she  gave  as  her  reason  that  if  God  Almighty 
had  not  wanted  the  stream  located  just  where  it  was  He  would 
have  put  it  some  place  else.  A  good  many  people  seem  to  have  the 
same  opinion  of  the  government  made  section  lines  and  the  location 
of  the  highways,  as  evidenced  by  the  following  examples: 

A  mile  of  road  was  recently  opened  in  the  rolling  prairie  country 
of  Kansas  on  an  east  and  west  section  line.  This  mile  of  road  crosses 
the  same  stream  three  times  and  a  more  scenic  route  could  probably 
not  be  found  in  any  White  City.  The  expense  for  bridges  was 
about  $5500  and  for  grading  $2500,  or  a  total  of  about  $8000  to 
make  the  road  passable.  The  highway  benefited  only  four  men, 
whose  property  is  not  worth  as  much  as  it  cost  to  open  the  road. 
By  establishing  one  and  one-half  miles  of  north  and  south  road 
only  one  bridge  would  have  been  needed  and  the  same  purpose  would 
have  been  served  at  a  total  expense  of  about  $2000.  The  writer 
advised  the  county  officials  in  this  case  to  buy  the  farms  and  rent 
them  for  pasture  rather  than  fasten  upon  the  county  indefinitely 
the  maintenance  of  such  an  abominable  road. 

In  1905  a  $2500  bridge  was  built  on  a  section  line  and  $1000  was 
expended  for  grading.  Then  the  bridge  and  the  work  was  aban- 
doned and  it  has  never  been  used,  for  it  will  require  an  additional 
expenditure  of  $3000  to  obtain  a  13  per  cent  approach  grade.  By 
placing  the  bridge  at  the  ford  on  the  old  natural  road  only  225  feet 
off  the  section  line  a  very  good  road  with  a  6  per  cent  grade  could 
have  been  had  at  a  total  cost  of  not  to  exceed  $2500. 

Less  than  four  miles  from  the  bridge  referred  to  above  another 
$1800  section  line  bridge  was  built  against  the  face  of  a  rock  bluff. 
The  east  approach  has  never  been  made  and  on  the  west  end  at  130 
feet  from  the  end  of  the  bridge  the  rock  bluff  is  forty-two  feet  above 
the  bridge  floor.  About  $150  was  spent  in  quarrying  rock  to  make 
an  approach  and  then  the  work  and  the  bridge  was  abandoned,  for 
the  only  practical  way  to  make  a  road  at  all  on  this  section  line  at 
this  point  would  be  to  construct  a  tunnel.  By  moving  the  bridge 
120  feet  to  the  old  ford  a  good  crossing  and  a  water  grade  around 
the  bluff  could  have  been  had  without  any  change  in  the  present  road. 
The  distance  around  the  bluff  is  practically  the  same  as  over  it. 

Where  the  railroads  run  diagonally  across  the  sections  it  is  not 
uncommon  to  see  two  unnecessary,  dangerous,  highway  grade  cross- 
ings within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and  often  much  closer.  Apparently 
it  never  occurs  to  the  viewers  that  in  such  cases  the  highways  should 
parallel  the  railroad. 

On  account  of  the  local  influences  and  the  lack  of  proper  infor- 
mation the  average  road  viewers  cannot  handle  this  problem  of 
rights  of  way  alone,  satisfactorily.  The  State  Highway  Depart- 
ment should  approve  the  location  of  all  main  roads  before  they  are 
improved  and  until  this  is  required  by  statute  there  is  little  or  no 
hope  for  much  favorable  change  in  the  States  where  the  highways 


142  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

ride   the   section   lines   except   by   paralleling  the   railroads.     The 
streams  are  too  crooked  to  make  it  practical  to  parallel  them. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  will  proceed  with  the  next  paper  on  the 
program,  "Drainage  Structures,"  by  Mr.  W.  E.  Atkinson,  State 
Highway  Engineer  of  Louisiana. 

DRAINAGE  STRUCTURES 
BY  W.  E.  ATKINSON 

State  Highway  Engineer  of  Louisiana 

Drainage  structures  like  many  other  features  of  highway  construc- 
tion require  the  consideration  of  many  factors  in  determining  the 
type  and  character  of  construction  adaptable  to  any  particular  loca- 
tion, or  in  determining  a  uniform  standard  or  design  to  be  used 
throughout  any  particular  proposed  highway  project.  Inasmuch  as 
road  construction  together  with  drainage  structures  are  more  or  less 
problems  to  be  solved  by  every  State  or  highway  commission  to 
meet  local  conditions,  I  shall  not  attempt  to  set  forth  any  rules  or 
plans  governing  the  type  or  construction  of  all  drainage  structures, 
but  merely  present  to  you  some  of  the  general  methods,  factors  and 
policies  governing  the  construction  of  such  drainage  structures  in 
Louisiana,  under  the  supervision  of  its  highway  department. 

In  determining  the  length  of  bridges  and  spans  between  bents 
and  piers  and  the  size  of  culverts,  consideration  is  given  to  the 
maximum  rainfall,  amount  of  run  off,  average  slope  of  ground  of 
drainage  area,  seepage,  etc.,  as  included  in  the  same  factors  govern- 
ing similar  structures  under  railroad  construction.  After  determin- 
ing the  required  opening  for  waterway,  the  factor  governing  the 
required  ^trength  or  carrying  power  of  the  structure  is  determined, 
so  far  as  it  is  possible,  upon  the  maximum  load  the  structure  is  likely 
to  be  subjected  during  its  bonded  life.  As  to  the  bonded  life  of 
structures  of  this  character,  it  is  figured  that  they  should  last  until 
bonds  or  taxes  voted  for  the  construction  of  same  are  retired,  all 
structures  being  computed,  however,  to  safely  carry  a  minimum  live 
load  of  not  less  than  ten  tons,  plus  50  per  cent  impact  and  a  factor 
of  safety  of  four. 

It  has  been  the  policy  of  the  highway  commission  of  Louisiana 
to  construct,  whever  funds  and  conditions  will  permit,  permanent 
structures  and  adopt  uniform  and  standard  plans  for  bridges  and 
culverts  for  any  particular  highway  project,  however,  oftentimes 
different  designs  are  necessary  to  meet  existing  conditions,  the  type 
and  design  of  bridges,  whether  they  be  of  wood,  concrete,  or  masonry, 
etc.,  are  determined  largely  by  the  amount  of  funds  available,  and 
the  character  and  nature  of  soil  for  foundation. 

Due  to  the  alluvial  character  of  the  soil,  with  the  exception  of 
some  sections  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State,  there  are  instances 


DRAINAGE   STRUCTURES  143 

where  it  is  not  safe  nor  economical  to  construct  the  arch  type  of 
concrete  bridges;  even  with  some  of  our  girder  and  slab  bridges,  it 
oftentimes  becomes  necessary  to  provide  pile  foundations  for  the 
piers,  abutments  and  wing  walls.  In  some  places  it  is  necessary 
these  piles  be  of  concrete  instead  of  wood  on  account  of  many  recla- 
mation projects,  now  under  way,  lowering  the  ground  water  which 
would  become  detrimental  to  the  latter  type  of  construction. 

We  have  found  it  advantageous  and  economical  to  provide,  where 
conditions  will  permit,  a  uniform  design  for  all  drainage  structures, 
especially  for  those  of  concrete  construction,  that  the  contractor 
may  use  the  same  drainage  forms  over  and  over,  permitting  thereby 
much  lower  bids  per  cubic  yard  on  such  work  than  otherwise  under 
a  system  of  non-uniform  standard  designs  for  such  structures,  and 
in  addition,  many  times  permitting,  without  greater  cost,  greater 
waterway  opening  than  theoretically  computed,  resulting  in  a  larger 
factor  of  safety,  and  often  providing  for  some  unprecedented  rain- 
fall or  cloudburst  not  anticipated.  In  addition  to  concrete  bridges, 
the  department  is  building  many  wooden  bridges,  both  of  creosoted 
and  uncreosoted  materials,  this  character  of  construction  predomi- 
nating in  some  parishes  due  to  lack  of  funds  for  more  permanent 
construction. 

The  department  has  installed  several  types  of  culverts,  that  of 
vitrified  clay,  cement,  concrete,  cast  iron,  wood,  corrugated  galvan- 
ized iron,  etc.,  the  type  of  construction  being  governed  by  the  avail- 
able funds  and  topographical  features  together  with  character  of 
soil  encountered  in  foundation,  however,  where  practicable,  concrete 
has  always  been  recommended. 

At  many  places,  however,  we  have  found  it  impracticable  and  not 
economical  to  use  concrete  culverts  and  others  of  a  monolithic  char- 
acter, especially  in  some  of  the  bayous  and  coulees.  In  one  place 
in  particular,  it  is  recalled,  where  the  foundation  in  one  bayou  was 
so  poor  that  a  strip  2  inches  by  2  inches  by  16  feet  was  pushed  down 
its  full  length  in  the  bottom  of  the  bayou,  and  could  have  been 
pushed  farther  if  the  strip  had  been  longer.  This  bayou  was  250 
feet  wide  across  the  top  and  25  feet  deep,  and  the  only  opening 
necessary  was  that  of  an  equalizer  with  an  area  of  some  28  square 
feet  to  be  filled  over  with  earth,  thereby  making  a  bridge  of  earth 
and  of  an  equalizer.  The  equalizer  installed  at  this  particular  loca- 
tion, was  a  ten  gauge  6  feet  diameter  corrugated  galvanized  iron 
pipe  culvert.  The  entire  cost  of  this  combination  bridge,  if  it  may 
be  so  termed,  amounted  to  $2,059.27,  including  an  item  of  $215.73 
for  riprap,  whereas  to  have  bridged  the  bayou  with  concrete,  or  to 
have  attempted  to  build  a  concrete  culvert,  would  have  made  the 
cost  very  much  in  excess  of  this  amount.  The  only  weak  point  I 
see,  relative  to  this  construction,  is  the  more  or  less  uncertainty  as 
to  the  lasting  qualities  of  the  culvert  from  corrosion.  This  is  stated 
merely  to  show  some  of  the  conditions  that  have  to  be  met  in  Louisiana. 

Due  to  de*bris,  drift  wood,  and  other  extraneous  matter,  our  high- 


144  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

way  department  has  adopted  a  policy  not  to  install  any  culverts 
of  less  than  18  inches  in  diameter  where  possible,  it  preferring  that 
they  should  be  not  less  than  24  inches  in  diameter. 

No  doubt  many  of  you  will  take  issue  with  me  on  this  point,  but 
my  experience  has  been  that  culverts  of  these  sizes  have  proven 
more  satisfactory  and  given  better  service,  requiring  less  maintenance 
both  for  road  and  culvert  at  such  places  than  when  culverts  of  less 
diameter  are  used,  even  though  the  smaller  culverts  are  ample  to 
carry  the  water,  due  to  the  ineffectiveness  of  the  latter  from  drift 
choking  and  filling  them  up. 

I  have  yet  to  find  my  first  culvert  that  is  too  large  for  the  amount 
of  water  and  rainfall  to  be  drained,  but  many  have  I  found  that 
were  too  small. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  the  paper  just  read  was  to 
have  been  opened  by  Mr.  S.  D.  Foster,  Chief  Engineer  of  the  State 
Highway  Department  of  Pennsylvania.  In  his  absence  Mr.  Willis 
Whited,  Engineer  of  Bridges  of  Pennsylvania  State  Highway  De- 
partment will  open  the  discussion. 

MR.  WHITED:  The  paper  just  read  is  very  interesting  to  me, 
but  the  conditions  in  Louisiana  are  very  much  different  from  those 
in  Pennsylvania.  In  Pennsylvania  we  have  a  smaller  rainfall  than 
in  Louisiana,  but  we  have  steep  slopes  so  that  the  water  has  great 
velocity  sometimes  and  we  seldom  have  any  great  difficulty  about 
foundations.  Where  we  do  have  soft  foundations  like  those  men- 
tioned, it  is  very  common  practice  for  us  to  build  a  rectangular 
culvert  and  make  the  bottom  strong  enough  to  distribute  the  load 
over  the  whole  of  the  bottom.  That  not  only  checks  the  erosion 
due  to  the  water  flowing  through,  but  also  distributes  the  founda- 
tion load  enough  so  that  there  is  very  little  difficulty  about  settle- 
ment. In  that  case  of  course  the  culvert  would  have  to  be  rein- 
forced longitudinally  also,  so  that  if  the  load  was  heavier  in  the 
middle  it  would  not  crack  crossways.  Now  much  has  been  written 
about  the  strength,  stability,  etc.,  and  the  proper  loading  of  cul- 
verts, but  comparatively  little  literature  is  available  on  the  action 
of  the  water.  A  culvert  has  to  perform  two  offices;  it  has  to  carry 
the  traffic  overhead  and  it  has  to  carry  the  water  under.  Now  in 
providing  for  that  purpose  we  are  very  careful  especially  in  Penn- 
sylvania where  we  have  high  velocity  of  water,  to  arrange  it  so 
that  the  water  enters  the  culvert  with  as  little  deflection  of  the 
current  and  as  little  obstruction  as  possible.  We  usually  flare 
or  wing  walls  about  30  degrees  from  the  line  of  the  stream  so  that 
it  acts  really  as  a  juttage  and  we  have  to  put  a  wall  down  at  the 
head,  if  it  is  soft  ground,  to  prevent  the  water  getting  under  it. 
We  often  pave  the  bed  of  it  for  the  same  purpose,  but  even  with  our 
assistant  engineers  I  have  some  difficulty  in  persuading  them  to 
give  the  bottom  of  the  culvert  all  the  slope  possible.  Some  of  them 


GRADES    AND    EXCAVATIONS  145 

insist  on  making  it  nearly  level  and  then  having  the  debris  accumu- 
late on  the  underside  where  they  can  clean  it  out.  I  tell  them, 
"Give  it  all  the  slope  you  can,  give  the  other  fellow  the  chance  to 
take  it  up."  It  is  a  good  deal  cheaper  for  the  Highway  Department 
if  the  other  man  clears  away  the  driftwood  and  the  debris  than 
it  is  for  the  department  to  do  it,  and  in  doing  so,  there  is  also  some 
difficulty  occasionally  in  preventing  serious  erosion  on  the  down 
stream  side.  We  find  the  erosion  due  to  water  is  usually  much 
more  severe  on  the  down  stream  side  than  it  is  on  the  upstream 
side,  so  that  we  have  to  take  more  precautions  with  it.  I  have 
seen  culverts  with  good  paved  bottoms  grouted  in  and  made  in  nice 
shape  and  the  water  gets  to  cutting  a  little  on  the  downstream 
side,  and  then  it  cuts  back  and  cuts  back  and  I  have  known  that  to 
be  cut  down  four  feet,  and  half  of  that  paving  destroyed.  But 
that  is  a  thing  that  we  preach  to  our  men  all  the  time,  in  season  and 
out  of  season,  to  give  the  water  as  free  an  entrance  as  possible  into 
the  culvert,  as  rapid  a  passage  through  as  possible  and  a  safe  exit 
after  it  gets  out,  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  erode  the  soil  as  little 
as  possible,  and  in  that  way  we  reduce  the  cost  of  maintenance, 
reduce  the , necessary  size  of  the  culvert  and  get  much  more  satis- 
factory results  all  around. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  paper  is  by  Mr.  A.  D.  Williams, 
Chief  Engineer  State  Roads  Commission  of  West  Virginia. 

GRADES  AND  EXCAVATIONS 

CONDITIONS  DETERMINING  MAXIMUM  GRADES— METHODS 

AND  COST  OF  GRADING  AND  EXCAVATING— 

ECONOMIC  CONSIDERATIONS 

BY  A.  D.  WILLIAMS 
Chief  Road  Engineer  State  of  West  Virginia 

In  the  past  two  or  three  years  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  permanent  roads.  Many  articles  have  been  written  bearing 
upon  the  various  kinds  of  surfaces,  but  the  ever-important  subject 
of  grade  and  excavation  has  received  only  passing  notice.  Yet  the 
only  permanent  thing  about  a  road  is  its  grade  and  location.  The 
various  kinds  of  surface  will  yield  to  the  actions  of  the  elements 
and  pass  the  march  of  time,  but  the  road  once  established  will  be- 
come more  fixed  as  the  years  go  by,  adding  improvements  and  new 
property  lines  to  bind  it  firmly  in  place.  This  makes  more  im- 
portant the  engineering  subject  of  our  roads.  The  establishment  of 
grades  and  location  should  be  given  the  greatest  consideration. 

THE   MINIMUM   GRADE 

The  principal  factor  entering  into  the  determination  of  a  mini- 
mum grade  is  the  question  of  sufficient  drainage.  Except  on  fills 


146  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

over  2  feet  the  minimum  grade  should  not  be  less  than  three-tenths 
(A)  °f  1  Per  cen^  and  preferably  not  less  than  five-tenths  (3%)  of  1 
per  cent. 

THE   MAXIMUM   GRADE 

There  are  a  number  of  factors  that  enter  into  the  maximum 
grade,  but,  before  attempting  to  locate  any  road  or  to  establish  any 
grade  the  engineer  should  make  a  thorough  study  of  the  territory 
to  be  developed  by  the  proposed  road  giving  due  consideration  to 
the  following  points: 

First.  What  will  be  the  present  and  future  demands  of  the  terri- 
tory adjacent  to  the  proposed  improvement; 

Second.  What  are  the  possible  developments  in  the  territory 
from  an  industrial,  agricultural,  educational  and  social  standpoint. 

Third.  What  part  will  the  proposed  road  be  of  a  general  system 
of  roads  reaching  to  other  communities  and  what  will  be  the  effect 
of  the  improvement  on  other  sections; 

Fourth.  The  nature  of  traffic  that  the  road  will  be  called  upon  to 
take  care  of,  making  due  allowance  for  development,  considering 
the  present  and  future  tonnage; 

Fifth.  The  general  direction  in  which  the  greatest  amount  of 
tonnage  will  be  transported,  the  class  of  tonnage  and  the  time  neces- 
sary to  move  it  in  order  to  make  it  the  most  marketable; 

Sixth.  The  direction  in  which  the  ascending  grade  will  be  in 
comparison  with  the  possible  traffic  demands; 

Seventh.  The  maximum  load  that  a  horse  can  pull  based  upon 
the  length  of  grade  and  the  time  required  to  make  the  trip,  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  horse  and  the  time  necessary  to  get  the  best  re- 
sults for  the  kind  of  material  the  country  will  produce; 

Eighth.  Consideration  should  always  be  given  to  climatic  condi- 
tions and  to  the  season  that  the  roads  will  be  required  to  take  care 
of  the  heaviest  traffic,  as  well  as  a  study  of  the  foothold  for  horse- 
drawn  vehicles.  The  possible  amount  of  frozen  or  icy  weather  should 
be  noted  in  determining  a  maximum  grade; 

Ninth.  The  class  of  material  over  which  the  road  is  to  be  made 
and  the  cost  of  construction  on  the  longer  distance  compared  with 
the  steeper  grade  and  shorter  distance  have  a  certain  bearing  upon 
the  subject,  because  the  most  important  subject  in  connection  with 
the  cost  of  roads  on  grades  is  that  of  maintenance  which  increases 
very  rapidly  with  the  increase  of  grade.  Roughly  speaking  the 
destructive  effect  of  violent  and  periodical  storms  is  four  times  as 
great  on  a  5  per  cent  as  on  a  level  ground,  and  nine  times  as  severe 
on  a  10  per  cent  as  on  level  grade.  Thus  if  no  other  factors  were  to  be 
considered  on  earth  roads  alone  the  cost  of  upkeep  in  a  very  few  years 
would  justify  the  elimination  of  bad  grades; 

Tenth.  The  condition  of  the  right-of-way  and  the  possible  chances 
for  disposition  of  water  and  drainage  are  factors  of  much  importance 
when  considering  the  maximum  grade,  because  on  steeper  grades  the 


GRADES   AND   EXCAVATIONS  147 

increasing  velocity  demands  more  drainage  and  greater  skill  in  hand- 
ling the  water,  which,  if  kept  on  or  near  the  road  will  soon  de- 
stroy it. 

Eleventh.  The  consideration  of  a  grade  from  the  ascension  is 
not  the  only  angle  of  approach  in  the  location  of  highway  grades 
because  important  items  enter  into  the  descending  grade  that  should 
be  given  as  much,  if  not  more,  consideration  than  the  ascending 
direction; 

Twelfth.  A  grade  should  not  be  steeper  than  a  horse  can  descend 
safely  in  a  trot ; 

Thirteenth.  A  grade  should  not  be  steeper  than  a  team  can  safely 
descend  with  a  load  that  it  can  handle  for  ten  hours  under  normal 
conditions,  exerting  its  normal  tractive  force. 

Fourteenth.  The  amount  of  time  necessary  to  descend  a  grade 
should  be  considered  making  due  allowance  for  the  maximum  speed 
that  can  safely  be  used  on  that  grade; 

Fifteenth.  The  highway  engineer  of  today  must  remember 
that  as  time  passes  the  motor  traffic  requirements  of  the  public 
highway  will  be  more  and  more  exacting.  Experiments  as  to  gaso- 
line consumption  and  its  efficiency  on  ctifficult  grades  and  materials 
are  now  being  conducted  near  Uniontown,  Pennsylvania,  by  Mr. 
R.  O.  Gill,  Experimental  Engineer  for  the  Chalmers  Motor  Com- 
pany of  Detroit,  Michigan.  In  this  connection  we  have  but  little 
data.  Some  recent  experiments  made  by  Mr.  H.  Kerr  Thomas  and 
Mr.  D.  Ferguson  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  for  the  Fierce-Arrow  Motor 
Company,  show  that  the  class  and  kind  of  surface  exert  more  influ- 
ence upon  the  motor-driven  truck  than  the  percentage  of  grade  and 
that  it  requires  practically  the  same  tractive  force  on  a  1  per  cent 
grade  in  sand  and  loose  stone  to  handle  the  same  load  as  it  does  on  a 
27  per  cent  grade  on  concrete,  asphalt,  new  brick  and  first-class 
macadam.  But  observations  of  the  speaker  lead  to  the  conclusion 
that  grades  of  any  length  exceeding  5  or  6  per  cent  are  not  as  sat- 
isfactory and  as  economical  as  lighter  grades  for  motor  traffic  owing 
to  the  increased  hazard,  increased  consumption  of  gasoline,  and 
loss  of  power  due  to  the  resistance  to  gravity.  The  speaker's  ob- 
servation further  concludes  that  in  frozen  or  icy  weather  motor 
traffic  is  extremely  hazardous  on  grades  exceeding  10  per  cent,  and 
entirely  unsafe  on  grades  exceeding  16  per  cent; 

Sixteenth.  Grades  crossing  a  summit  should  merge  into  each 
other  by  some  form  of  vertical  curve.  The  speaker  has  been  ac- 
customed to  using  the  following  formula  which  proves  satisfactory 
and  practicable.  Take  the  summit  grade  at  e  and  a  grade  point 
100  feet  on  each  side  or  any  other  desirable  distance  and  by  use  of 
either  one  of  the  following  formulas  find  the  elevation  at  /  which  will 
be  half-way  between  e  and  g,  then  by  use  of  the  formula  find  the 
offset  from  the  tangent  at  each  of  the  prdinates.  This  subtracted 
from  the  elevation  of  the  ordinate  will  give  the  true  elevation  of  the 
grade. 


148  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

By  reference  to  Gillespie  whose  work  contains  about  all  we  have 
upon  tractive  power  of  a  horse,  which  embraces  the  experiments  of 
Sir  John  McNeil,  Sir  Henry  Paraell,  and  Mr.  Cayffier,  some  of 
whose  works  are  quoted  by  nearly  every  writer,  we  find  that  a  horse 
traveling  at  the  rate  of  two  and  one-half  miles  per  hour  can  exert 
10  per  cent  of  his  weight,  and  travelling  at  the  rate  of  four  miles 
per  hour,  can  exert  6  per  cent  of  his  weight.  These  observations 
prior  to  1850  and  just  before  the  advent  of  the  steam  road  into  our 
field  of  engineering  embrace  about  all  the  experiments  we  have 
excepting  the  work  of  Mr.  E.  B.  McCormick  of  Kansas  State  Agri- 
cultural College  and  the  works  of  Prof.  J.  H.  Waters  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Missouri,  and  other  work  by  Mr.  McCormick  is  now 
being  done  for  the  Office  of  Public  Roads,  at  Washington.  The 
speaker's  personal  observations  have  shown  that  a  horse  for  a  lim- 
ited period  can  exert  one-fourth  and  sometimes  even  greater  percent- 
age of  his  weight,  this  depending  in  a  measure  upon  the  kind  of  shoes 
on  the  horse  and  the  foothold  on  the  grade.  A  horse  on  a  road  ma- 
terial that  offers  safe  footing  can  be  safely  trotted  down  a  5  per  cent 
grade,  but  cannot  be  trotted  down  this  heavy  a  grade  for  any  great 
length  of  time  without  injury  by  " jamming  or  stoving  him  up." 
Therefore,  the  ruling  grade  should  not  exceed  5  per  cent,  if  for  a  horse- 
drawn  vehicle  over  which  speed  must  be  made  on  the  descending 
grade  because  the  average  horse  in  walking  down  a  grade  will  not 
make  over  four  miles  per  hour,  while  he  will  trot  twelve  miles  per 
hour,  thus,  from  this  standpoint,  we  can  double  the  distance  of  the 
road  and  increase  the  time  33J  per  cent.  The  speed  of  twelve  miles 
per  hour  should  not  be  undertaken  down  a  grade  of  more  than  3  per 
cent  with  a  vehicle  bearing  any  kind  of  a  load.  In  ascending  a  5 
per  cent  grade  the  capacity  of  the  team  is  about  four-tenths  of 
its  capacity  on  level  ground  and  about  one-fourth  of  its  capacity 
on  10  per  cent  grade,  on  a  loading  for  the  same  tractive  exertion, 
but  a  point  here  that  should  not  be  forgotten  is  that  for  a  short  dura- 
tion a  horse  can  exert  from  25  to  40  per  cent  of  his  weight,  thus 
doubling  and  quadrupling  its  normal  tractive  force  and  in  this  con- 
nection it  is  often  economy,  considering  the  financial  condition  of  the 
community  to  put  in  a  short  piece  of  6  and  even  7  per  cent  grade, 
than  to  expend  a  large  amount  of  money  in  making  an  exhaustive 
and  expensive  cut,  especially  so  if  the  cut  must  be  made  at  the 
expense  of  development  in  some  other  part  of  the  community.  One 
thing  that  should  be  borne  in  mind  is  that  each  year's  develop- 
ment of  our  country  makes  the  chances  for  changing  of  grades  and 
their  elimination  less  possible,  and  that  while  the  improvement 
of  the  surface  of  a  road  increases  its  tractive  efficiency  about  200 
per  cent  on  level  ground  it  only  increases  about  one-fourth  for  a  horse- 
drawn  vehicle  on  a  10  per  cent  grade,  thus  money  expended  in  de- 
creasing the  grade  within  a  reasonable  amount  of  distance  is  the 
beet  possible  investment. 

Then  with  these  conclusions  drawn  and  a  decision  as  to  the  kind 


GRADES   AND    EXCAVATIONS 


149 


of  surface  that  will  possibly  be  placed  upon  the  road  at  some  future 
time,  we  are  in  position  to  determine  what  should  be  the  maximum 
grade. 

METHODS  AND   COSTS   OF  GRADING   AND   EXCAVATING 

This  is  a  machine  age  and  wherever  grading  can  be  done  by  ma- 
chinery it  is  usually  more  economical.  The  following  table  based 
upon  figures  taken  from  different  pieces  of  work  is  approximately 
correct  to  a  wage  scale  of  15  cents  per  hour  and  capable  super- 
vision. 

Picking  5  cts.,  Plowing  2  cts.,  Steam  plowing  1.5  cts.  per  cubic  yard.  Hauling 
by  wagon  approximately  S5  cts.  per  cubic  yard.  Hauling  by  trucks  and  tram 
14  cts.  per  cubic  yard. 


COMPARATIVE  COST  PER  CUBIC  TARD  FOR  MOVING  EARTH  WITH 

DIS* 

TANCE8 
HAULED 

Wheel- 
barrow 

Drag  or 

Slide 
Scraper 

No.  1 
Wheel 
Scraper 

No.  2 

Wheel 
Scraper 

l 

Horse  Cart 

Wagon 

Tractor 
and 
Trucks 

Grader 

Casting 
Over 
Bank 

Feet 

100 

SO.  057 

$0.090 

$0.100 

$0.100 

$0.056 

$0.095 

$0.080 

$0.022 

200 

0.114 

0.135 

0.130 

0.125 

0.068 

0.103 

0.080 

300 

0.170 

0.180 

0.160 

0.150 

0.080 

0.111 

0.080 

400 

0.230 

0.225 

0.190 

0.175 

0.090 

0.119 

0.080 

500 

0.285 

0.270 

0.220 

0.200 

0.101 

0.127 

0.080 

600 

0.342 

0.315 

0.250 

0.225 

0.112 

0.135 

0.080 

800 

0.457 

0.405 

0.310 

0.275 

0.135 

0.151 

0.080 

1000 

0.570 

0.495 

0.370 

0.325 

0.160 

0.167 

0.090 

1500 

0.857 

0.720 

0.520 

0.450 

0.214 

0.207 

0.090 

2000 

1.143 

0.945 

0.670 

0.575 

0.271 

0.247 

0.100 

3000 

1.713 

1.395 

0.970 

0.825 

0.388 

0.327 

0.100 

4000 

2.280 

1.845 

1.270 

1.075 

0.500 

0.407 

0.100 

Loading  by  hand 


0.050 

0.010 

0.010 

0.010 

0.130 

0.130 

0.100 

Loading  by  steam  shovel 


0.060 

0.060 

0.060 

By  a  glance  at  the  figures  it  will  be  seen  that  at  22  cents  per  yard 
or  at  the  same  cost  for  any  given  ratio  the  ratio  cost  distances  are  for 
wheelbarrow,  200  feet;  drag  scraper,  400  feet;  wheel  scrapers,  500  and 
600  feet;  one  horse  cart,  1500  feet;  wagon,  1800  feet,  while  tractor 
and  truck  on  track  do  not  reach  the  amount  within  one  mile.  The 
cost  of  grading  depends  materially  upon  the  class  of  material,  the 
location  and  the  management  of  the  operation.  In  McDowell 
County,  West  Virginia,  a  contractor  failed  on  a  contract  at  65  cents 
per  cubic  yard,  for  a  material  running  about  60  per  cent  soft  sand- 
stone rock,  and  40  per  cent  earth.  The  county  purchased  a  steam 


150  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

shovel  and  moved  the  material  at  a  cost  of  19  cents,  including  ex- 
plosives, drilling  and  shooting.  This  was  casting  work  on  heavy 
hillside  grade.  Thus  the  contract  price  to  the  county  was  $13,000 
for  the  20,000  yards.  The  cost  of  the  labor  and  explosives,  upkeep 
of  the  machine  was  $3800.  The  cost  of  the  machine  including 
drill  and  compressor  was  $5500,  or  a  total  of  $9300  incluoling  the  cost 
of  the  machine,  leaving  the  county  a  profit  of  $3700  in  cash  and 
the  equipment. 

In  Marion  County,  West  Virginia,  a  contractor  recently  con- 
tracted for  a  piece  of  work  unclassified  at  46  cents  and  the  work  cost 
52  cents,  this  was  done  by  steam  shovel,  being  about  70  per  cent  rock 
and  30  per  cent  earth. 

In  Mercer  County,  West  Virginia,  Walton  and  Company  have 
contracted  for  grading  of  nine  miles  of  road  at  48  cents  per  cubic 
yard  unclassified  which  work  is  running  about  7360  cubic  yards  per 
mile. 

In  Pleasants  County,  West  Virginia,  material  running  about 
80  per  cent  rock,  and  20  per  cent  earth  costs  83  cents  per  cubic 
yard  to  grade  by  day  labor  at  20  cents  per  hour,  teams  at  $3.50 
per  day.  On  the  same  piece  of  work  with  prison  labor  on  the  honor 
system  which  costs  75  cents  per  day  and  teams  $3.50  per  day,  the 
grading  cost  30  cents  per  cubic  yard. 

In  Kanawha  County,  West  Virginia,  the  Atlantic  Bitulithic 
Company  has  a  contract  for  three  miles  of  road  grading  and  surfacing. 
The  grading  is  contracted  at  $1.25  for  stone  and  34  cents  for  earth 
classifications  running  about  70  per  cent  and  30  per  cent  earth,  or 
an  average  of  97.7  cents  per  yard.  The  State  has  a  prison  camp 
working  on  the  honor  system  under  a  competent  engineer  and  is 
moving  the  same  class  of  material  at  24  cents  per  cubic  yard. 

Then  as  to  methods  the  speaker  would  suggest  the  use  of  ma- 
chinery wherever  possible  under  competent  supervision  and  under 
proper  direction  and  to  make  use  of  the  State  and  county  prison 
labor.  On  work  that  is  light  and  on  which  machinery  can  be  em- 
ployed the  work  should  be  done  by  day  labor.  On  heavier  work  and 
large  quantities  the  speaker  would  recommend  contracting  and  to 
the  contractor  a  systematic  organization  of  his  work  so  as  to  get 
the  most  efficient  service  from  his  men  and  equipment.  There 
are  volumes  written  covering  the  subject  of  Cost  Data  in  heavier 
work  but  the  speaker's  experience  in  highway  work  leads  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  are  many  elements  entering  into  the  cost  of  high* 
way  construction  that  are  often  overlooked  when  comparing  this 
class  of  work  with  heavier  work.  One  point  of  deficiency  that  has 
been  noticeable  and  should  be  emphasized  here  is  the  lack  of  organi- 
zation in  highway  construction  in  the  various  sections  of  the  coun- 
try. In  many  instances  50  per  cent  of  the  cost  could  be  saved  by 
an  adequate  organization. 


GRADES  AND  EXCAVATIONS  151 

ECONOMICAL  CONSIDERATIONS 

The  economical  phases  of  highways  and  highway  construction 
are  many,  and  call  for  more  time  than  the  speaker  should  occupy. 
We  might  say  that  in  studying  the  history  of  highways  and  high- 
way economics  that  it  can  be  divided  into  three  periods :  The  Roman 
or  Ancient  Road,  the  Telford  and  MacAdam  period,  extending  from 
1750  to  about  1840,  and  our  modern  or  twentieth  century  awaken- 
ing. The  Roman  road  with  its  3  feet  of  stone  was  reduced  about 
one-half  in  the  days  of  Telford  and  MacAdam  and  now  with  modern 
machinery  we  are  constructing  macadamized  roads  in  West  Vir- 
ginia at  costs  ranging  from  $1000  to  $4000  per  mile,  concrete  from 
$7500  to  $12,000  per  mile,  and  brick  from  $9,000  to  $20,000  per 
mile.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  cross  section  of  a  road 
should  be  so  as  to  permit  the  greater  portion  of  the  work  to  be  done 
by  machinery  on  ground  where  machinery  can  be  operated,  and 
that  an  extra  width  of  the  road  on  hillsides  increase  the  cost.  A 
road  on  hillsides  should  not  be  wider  than  is  needed  to  care  for  the 
traffic.  In  county  districts  a  9-foot  concrete  bituminous  or  brick 
or  a  10-foot  macadam  with  5  feet  of  earth  on  each  berm  will  meet 
all  the  requirements  at  much  less  cost. 

On  ground  free  from  roots  and  stone,  where  a  road  machine  can 
be  used  the  material  can  be  moved  at  a  cost  of  less  than  5  cents 
per  yard,  and  on  hillside  grading  where  the  work  is  casting  a  small 
steam  shovel  is  an  economical  machine  to  use.  With  this  should 
go  a  drilling  outfit  and  attachments  so  it  can  be  operated  with  the 
same  power.  Barbour  County,  West  Virginia,  this  season  pur- 
chased a  tractor  and  heavy  grader  for  each  district,  equipped  them 
with  drilling  outfit  and  with  less  money  than  they  expended  in  1913 
without  showing  visible  improvement  upon  their  roads  and  have 
graded  nearly  all  of  the  roads  of  the  county  in  good  shape. 

In  conclusion  I  want  to  say  that  the  most  economical  thing  a 
community  can  do  is  to  improve  its  roads  so  as  to  serve  all  its  de- 
mands and  to  do  this,  it  should  employ  a  competent  highway  engi- 
neer to  make  a  careful  study  of  the  needs  of  the  territory,  its  financial 
ability  to  construct  and  maintain  a  road  and  to  locate  and  supei  in- 
tend the  construction  of  their  road  for  them.  When  the  road  is 
constructed  a  competent  patrolman  should  be  placed  on  it  to  con- 
tinually keep  up  the  maintenance  and  repairs.  Many  of  our  paths 
and  by-ways  were  not  located  by  men  or  by  engineers  but  were 
the  foot-prints  of  the  primitive  mound  builders,  the  buffalo,  the 
deer  and  the  wild  animal  that  wandered  to  and  fro  in  the  wildwood. 
Thus  our  roads  need  revising  because 

One  day  through  the  primeval  wood, 

A  calf  walked  home,  as  good  calves  should: 

But  made  a  trail  all  bent  askew, 

A  crooked  trail  as  all  calves  do. 


162  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Since  then  two  hundred  years  have  fled, 

And,  I  infer  the  calf  is  dead. 

And  from  that  day  o'er  hill  and  glade 

Through  those  old  woods  a  path  was  made; 

And  many  men  wound  in  and  out, 

And  dodged  and  turned,  and  bent  about 

And  uttered  words  of  righteous  wrath 

Because  'twas  such  a  crooked  path. 

This  forest  path  became  a  lane, 

That  bent,  and  turned,  and  turned  again; 

This  crooked  lane  became  a  road. 

Where  many  a  poor  horse  with  his  load 

Toiled  on  beneath  the  burning  sun, 

And  traveled  some. three  miles  in  one. 

And  thus,  a  century  and  a  half 

Trod  in  the  footsteps  of  that  calf. 

The  years  passed  on  in  swiftness  fleet, 

The  road  became  a  village  street; 

And  this,  before  men  were  aware, 

A  city's  crowded  thoroughfare. 

And  soon  the  central  street  was  this 

Of  a  renowned  metropolis. 

And  men  two  centuries  and  a  half 

Trod  in  the  footsteps  of  that  calf. 

Each  day  a  hundred  thousand  rout 

Followed  the  zigzag  calf  about; 

And  o'er  this  crooked  journey  went 

The  traffic  of  a  continent. 

A  hundred  thousand  men  were  led 

By  one  calf  near  three  centuries  dead. 

They  followed  still  his  crooked  way, 

And  lost  one  hundred  years  a  day; 

On  some  roads  the  first  engineer 

Was  a  wild  beast  or  fleeting  deer, 

Road  Builders,  be  sure  when  you  laugh, 

That  you're  not  trailing  a  calf. 

For  such  a  reverence  is  lent 

To  well  establish  precedent, 

That  men  are  prone  to  go  it  blind 

Along  the  calf  paths  of  the  mind, 

And  work  away  from  sun  to  sun 

To  do  what  other  men  have  done. 

They,  follow  in  the  beaten  track, 

And  out.  and  in,  and  forth,  and  back, 

And  still  their  devious  course  pursue, 

To  keep  the  path  that  others  do. 

But  how  the  wise  old  wood  gods  laugh 

Who  saw  the  first  primeval  calf. 

Ah!  many  things  this  tale  might  teach 

But  I  am  not  ordained  to  preach. 


tt  HAD  IDS    *Nl>    ttXCAVATIONS 


153 


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164  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  Mr.  Williams'  paper  will 
be  opened  by  Mr.  William  R.  Roy,  State  Highway  Commissioner 
of  Washington. 

MR.  ROY:  I  have  been  asked  to  lead  the  discussion  on  Mr.  Wil- 
liams' paper  "Grades  and  Excavations."  I  have  no  disposition  to 
criticise  Mr.  Williams'  findings.  He  has  handled  his  subject  with 
skill,  and  in  a  very  painstaking  manner,  and  I  am  sure  that  you 
gentlemen  who  have  had  the  privilege  of  hearing  him  feel  well  repaid 
for  your  time. 

The  question  of  grades  is  a  very  important  one,  and  we  in  the 
State  of  Washington  find  the  extremes  confronting  us  on  every 
hand,  and  on  account  of  the  topography  of  our  country  we  are  com- 
pelled to  keep  close  to  water  grades,  hence  we  cannot  make  our 
locations  on  section  or  township  lines,  except  in  very  rare  cases. 
We  have  a  large  State  in  which  are  more  than  40,000  miles  of  roads 
without  counties,  the  winding  calf  trails  that  Mr.  Williams  refers  to. 

We  are  fortunate  in  our  State  to  have  a  governor,  who  is  not  only 
a  road  enthusiast,  but  a  practical  road  builder  of  large  and  varied 
experience,  and  being  chairman  of  the  Highway  Board  is  a  tower 
of  strength  to  the  working  force  of  the  department.  The  other 
members  of  the  board  are  equally  zealous  and  enthusiastic  and 
under  their  guidance  we  have  during  this  biennium  completed  233.5 
miles  of  State  highways,  and  we  have  completed  442  miles  of  perma- 
nent highways.  This  represents  most  all  of  the  different  types  of 
surface.  In  addition  to  the  above  the  counties  have  built  during 
the  biennium  1900  miles  of  road,  or  a  grand  total  of  State  and  county 
roads  of  2343  miles  of  roads.  The  State  roads  are  cleared  and  graded, 
ditched  and  drained  to  standard  plans  with  concrete  culverts — 
bridges  designed  to  take  care  of  future  traffic.  Our  maximum  grade 
is  5  per  cent.  We  have  just  completed  a  section  of  the  Sunset 
Highway  over  the  Snognalinie  Pass  in  the  Cascade  Mountains. 
There  is  no  grade  on  this  road  exceeding  5  per  cent.  This  was  a 
gigantic  undertaking,  but  with  an  efficient  engineering  force  and 
the  cooperation  of  a  competent  contractor  we  have  exceeded  our 
expectations,  and  opened  for  tourist  traffic  next  year  across  the 
State  that  the  people  of  the  State  and  nation  will  be  proud  of  for 
all  time  to  come.  The  scenic  beauty  along  this  road  is  unsur- 
passed anywhere  in  the  world.  The  drainage  problems  in  our  State 
have  to  be  handled  according  to  local  conditions.  Formula  used 
with  satisfaction  in  eastern  Washington  where  there  is  light  ram- 
fall  would  not  be  adequate  on  the  west  side  of  the  State  where  there 
is  very  heavy  precipitation.  There  we  are  compelled  to  spend  a 
great  deal  more  money  per  mile  for  drainage. 

During  this  biennium  we  have  expended  for  State  roads  $2,000,000, 
for  permanent  highways  $3,264,091,  and  in  addition  to  the  above 
expenditure  of  State  moneys  the  counties  have  expenditure  for  new 
construction  $4,533,000  and  for  maintenance  during  the  same  time 


DISCUSSION  155 

$3,220,000.  Taking  the  total  mileage  in  the  State  the  cost  of  main- 
tenance is  about  $43  per  mile.  Most  of  the  counties  in  the  State 
are  well  organized  for  helping  the  cause  of  road  building,  and  the 
Highway  Department  has  been  fortunate  indeed  to  have  had  the 
hearty  support  and  cooperation  of  all  the  county  commissioners, 
engineers,  supervisors  and  good  roads  associations  all  over  the  State. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Secretary  Pennybacker  has  a  letter  he  desires 
to  read. 

THE  SECRETARY:  This  is  a  letter  just  received  from  President 
Woodrow  Wilson: 

Mr.  Austin  B.  Fletcher,  President  of  the  Fourth  American  Road 
Congress,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FLETCHER:  I  regret  that  I  am  compelled  to  forego 
the  pleasure  of  attending  the  Fourth  American  Road  Congress. 
May  I  ask  you  to  convey  to  the  members  of  the  Congress  my  deep 
interest  in  the  important  work  they  are  striving  to  promote?  I 
need  scarcely  emphasize  the  social  and  economic  importance  of  good 
roads.  They  are  prerequisite  to  the  betterment  of  rural  life  in  a 
number  of  directions.  Improved  roads,  especially  improved  com- 
munity roads  from  the  farm  to  the  nearest  railway  station,  are 
an  urgent  necessity.  They  are  essential  for  the  economical  mar- 
keting of  farm  products,  and  for  the  development  of  the  educa- 
tional and  social  institutions  of  the  country.  As  important  as  the 
matter  of  providing  additional  funds  may  be  even  more  impor- 
tant are  the  matters  of  better  road  administration  and  the  better 
maintenance  of  roads  already  constructed.  The  nation  is  now  ex- 
pending more  than  $205,000,000  annually  for  the  construction  and 
maintenance  of  roads,  and  it  is  clear  that  we  are  not  getting  the 
results  we  should  have.  The  proper  planning  for  road  systems  in 
States,  the  development  of  better  methods  of  administration,  State 
and  local,  and  the  proper  maintenance  of  roads,  will,  I  am  sure, 
receive  peculiar  attention  from  your  body.  When  the  people  are 
convinced  that  they  will  receive  full  value  for  every  dollar  expended 
on  roads  they  will  be  brought  more  easily  to  an  appreciation  of  the 
need  for  future  expenditure  and  will  make  the  requisite  provision. 
I  believe  that  your  body  can  furnish  intelligent  guidance  in  the 
solution  of  our  problems  in  this  field.  Sincerely  yours,  (Signed) 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

The  White  House,  Washington. 

MR.  MURPHY  (of  Pike  County,  Ga.):  Mr.  Chairman:  In  look- 
ing over  the  list  of  distinguished  speakers  at  this  Congress  I  fail 
to  find  any  of  the  ear-marks  of  the  farmer,  the  man  who  is  more 
intensely  interested  in  good  roads  because  it  is  the  foundation  and 


156  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

the  bed  rock  of  all  development  and  uplift  of  the  agricultural  inter- 
ests of  this  country;  I  mean  the  farmer  who  lives,  moves  and  works 
upon  the  farm  and  is  dependent  upon  the  results  of  those  farm 
operations.  If  I  did  not  fear  that  I  would  shock  my  hearers,  I 
would  claim  that  this  good  roads  movement  is  of  far  more  inter- 
est to  the  farmers  of  the  South  than  any  cooperative  bank  loan  or 
government  aid  to  relieve  the  present  conditions,  for  just  so  far  as 
the  farmers'  obligations  are  increased  in  connection  with  present 
conditions,  just  that  far  will  you  distract  his  brain  and  energy  from 
farm  operations  of  the  future  which  are  so  necessary  for  his  success. 
But  in  travelling  over  this  State  from  near  the  line  of  Florida  to 
the  line  of  Tennessee,  I  find  that  wherever  there  is  a  short  stretch 
of  good  road,  upon  that  you  see  farm  homes  that  are  attractive, 
upon  that  you  see  commodious  barns,  you  see  fences  well  kept  up 
and  painted;  you  see  flowers  in  the  front  yard  and  everything  is 
an  evidence  of  thrift  and  good  living.  The  land  surrounding  these 
farm  homes  is  worth  $50  to  $200  per  acre.  On  the  contrary  when 
you  reach  a  stretch  of  road  where  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a  team 
to  pull  one  bale  of  cotton,  you  see  the  farm  home  of  the  past  occupied 
by  negroes,  falling  down,  dilapidated,  the  barn  consisting  of  a  little 
log  house  of  about  10  x  15,  the  fences  falling  down,  if  you  find  any; 
the  grass  is  growing  up  to  the  front  steps  of  the  little  dilapidated 
residence;  the  land  around  such  a  habitation  has  no  market  value; 
no  one  wants  to  live  in  a  community  where  it  takes  all  of  his  motive 
power  to  carry  one  bale  of  cotton  to  market.  Now  I  have  a  few 
criticisms  to  pass  upon  the  road  work  of  the  present.  I  believe  in 
reducing  these  things  down  to  hard  tacks.  The  farmer  is  the  man 
who  is  dependent  entirely  upon  the  dirt  roads  of  rural  districts. 
What  is  the  road  work  of  the  present?  Simply  temporary;  it  is 
dry  weather  road  work.  Your  road  force  goes  along  today,  grades 
the  road  if  it  grades  it  at  all,  crowns  it  up,  irons  it  over  with  a  scraper 
and  leaves  it.  What  is  the  result?  Tomorrow  your  rain  comes, 
and  for  the  next  ten  days  the  road  is  almost  impassable.  That  road 
force  will  not  get  back  to  that  road  for  something  like  a  year  or 
two  years.  Not  only  that,  but  here  is  an  elevation,  there  is  a  de- 
pression, there  is  another  elevation;  he  crowns  up  his  road  and  runs 
all  of  that  surface  water  down  to  the  depression  and  makes  no  dis- 
position of  the  water  collected  there.  And  there  is  a  gully  washed 
across  the  roadway  for  the  unsuspecting  automobilist  at  night  and 
away  goes  his  front  axle  and  spring.  Now  that  is  what  I  see  in 
traveling  over  Georgia;  that  is  the  result  of  the  road  work  we  are 
getting;  that  is  the  kind  of  work  our  taxes  are  going  to  support. 
Again,  maintenance — oh,  there  is  the  key  to  the  situation.  I  refer 
in  all  of  my  criticisms  to  sand  clay  and  clay  sand  roads.  That  is 
the  only  practical  and  feasible  thing  for  our  rural  districts  for  the 
present  at  least,  so  my  criticism  will  be  on  that  class  of  roads.  Now 
this  question  of  maintenance — there  is  not  a  single  county  in  the 
State  of  Georgia  to  my  knowledge  where  a  systematic  provision  is 


SURFACES    FOR    MIXED    TRAFFIC  157 

made  for  maintenance  and  up-keep  of  the  roads  of  Georgia.  They 
go  ahead  with  their  initial  work  and  then  it  all  looks  nice  and  smooth, 
but  as  I  stated  a  while  ago,  the  rain  comes  and  here  goes  your  ex- 
penditures of  thousands  and  thousands  of  dollars  for  road  work. 
I  want  this  Congress  to  impress  upon  those  men  who  have  in  charge 
the  actual  building  of  the  road,  the  important  fact  that  the  up- 
keep is  more  important  than  the  initial  work.  Now,  Mr.  President, 
what  I  want  to  see  is  a  school  to  teach  road  builders  of  this  country 
how  to  build  a  road;  that  should  be  the  intent  of  your  Congress. 
Create  a  school;  they  are  ignorant,  they  don't  know  how  to  build 
a  road,  but  they  think  they  do,  and  won't  come  here  to  hear  these 
experts  tell  them  how  to  build  a  road.  This  expert  knowledge  is 
fine,  I  enjoy  it.  I  am  so  intensely  interested  in  good  roads  that 
I  would  like  to  hear  it  for  a  week,  but  it  is  just  like  the  government 
aid  to  the  farmers  and  the  cooperative  bank  loans  to  farmers,  it 
don't  reach  the  man  who  is  in  distress.  This  expert  knowledge  that 
you  are  giving  forth  here  in  this  convention  does  not  reach  the  man 
who  moves  the  dirt,  you  understand,  the  overseer,  the  superintend- 
ent. Let  us  have  that  kind  of  an  education  under  State  authority, 
if  it  is  possible,  and  make  it  compulsory  that  he  must  bear  a  diploma 
from  this  school  before  he  can  accept  a  position  as  road  builder  in 
our  country.  Thank  you. 

MR.  WILLIAMS:  If  the  gentleman  will  present  his  name  to  the 
State  Highway  Commissioner  of  West  Virginia,  we  will  send  him 
a  copy  of  that  kind  of  a  law  that  is  already  in  operation  and  doing 
good  work. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  think  there  can  be  no  question  but  what  the 
whole  convention  is  with  our  friend  from  Georgia  who  has  just 
spoken  to  us.  The  next  paper  is  "Light  Traffic  Roads,"  by  Mr. 
S.  Percy  Hooker,  State  Superintendent  of  Highways  of  New 
Hampshire. 

SURFACES  FOR  LIGHT  VOLUME  MIXED  TRAFFIC 

BY  S.  PERCY  HOOKER 
State  Superintendent  of  Highways  of  New  Hampshire 

In  a  subject  of  this  kind  the  first  question  to  determine  is  the 
exact  meaning  of  the  title. 

What  is  light  volume  mixed  traffic?  How  many  vehicles  are  to 
pass  over  a  given  piece  of  highway  and  still  be  classed  as  light  vol- 
ume? What  is  their  relative  proportion  as  to  motor  propelled  and 
horse  drawn?  I  confess  I  am  not  clear  upon  the  right  interpreta- 
tion of  these  terms.  There  are  sections  of  the  country  where  pre- 
sumably the  mixed  traffic  would  consist  almost  entirely  of  horse 


158  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

drawn  vehicles,  while  in  others  a  very  large  per  cent  would  be  motor 
traffic. 

The  treatment  of  the  surface  of  these  two  sub-divisions  would 
vary  to  a  considerable  extent.  I  am  inclined  to  consider  the  sub- 
ject as  being  the  treatment  of  subsidiary  roads  which  have  only 
the  horse  drawn  traffic  originating  upon  the  road,  together  with 
motor  traffic  of  the  pleasure  class  and  little  or  no  freight  traffic  which 
is  motor  driven. 

From  my  point  of  view,  the  word  "surfaces"  is  somewhat  super- 
fluous and  the  subject  is  the  entire  treatment,  comprising  the  sub- 
grade  and  drainage  conditions,  which  must  be  considered  as  part 
of  the  surfacing  in  order  to  treat  intelligently  its  surface. 

I  shall  treat  the  subject,  therefore,  broadly  as  the  improvement 
of  the  ordinary  country  road  as  it  now  exists.  The  purpose  being 
to  obtain  the  greatest  amount  of  linear  feet  with  the  least  expendi- 
ture of  money. 

With  the  immense  mileage  of  roads  in  the  United  States,  it  seems 
to  me  perfectly  clear  that  even  in  the  wealthier  States  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  roads  will  never  be  improved  under  the  types  of  con- 
struction which  are  now  considered  necessary  for  their  improvement 
and  that  90  per  cent  of  the  entire  mileage  will  be  unimproved  if  it 
is  necessary  to  improve  them  with  the  higher  types  of  construction. 

My  impression  is  that  there  must  be  a  revulsion  of  feeling  which 
will  compel  more  mileage  and  lesser  cost.  Given  then  a  country 
highway  as  it  now  exists  and  the  proposition  that  for  10  miles  of 
this  road  there  is  only  available  the  sum  of  $25,000,  what  can  we 
do  to  render  this  really  an  improved  road,  which  under  proper  main- 
tenance will  take  care  of  the  traffic  upon  it?  A  preliminary  survey 
may  show  that  a  portion  of  the  road  is  in  a  low  lying  level  section 
without  proper  ditches  where  at  present  the  natural  tendency  of  the 
road  is  to  act  as  a  sort  of  drainage  canal  for  lands  adjacent  to  it. 
The  soil  itself  consisting  partially  of  leaf  mold  containing  a  large 
amount  of  humus  and  which  if  used  as  a  cultivated  field  would  pro- 
duce good  crops. 

The  next  portion  may  consist  of  a  sand  and  gravel  formation,  con- 
taining boulders  and  on  a  grade  of  from  5  to  8  per  cent,  rolling  over 
elevations  and  down  into  hollows  and  gullies  and  eventually  working 
out  into  clear  deep  sand. 

Succeeding  this  may  be  a  hollow  from  which  you  rise  upon  a  side 
hill  cut  through  a  clay  bank.  Here  you  face  the  proposition  that 
the  clay  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to  practically  absorb  all  the  water  and 
where  your  drainage  condition  is  most  difficult  to  handle. 

Your  last  section  may  be  through  ledge  of  native  rock  or  large 
boulders,  the  soil  slightly  covered  with  either  hard  pan  or  sand  and 
upon  grades  which  easily  wash  under  the  annual  rain  falls. 

On  almost  all  country  roads  several  of  these  conditions  will  ordi- 
narily appear,  while  of  course  it  is  an  exaggeration  that  they  will  all 
occur  within  the  10-mile  stretch. 


SURFACES  FOR  MIXED  TRAFFIC  159 

Confronted  with  these  conditions  it  seems  to  me  to  be  absurd 
to  attempt  a  standardization  of  such  a  highway  in  order  to  econom- 
ically work  out  your  problem.  You  must  use  the  material  which 
is  comparatively  local  and  the  treatment  of  each  section  will  be 
different. 

The  width  of  the  present  highway  must  first  be  taken  up  and  in 
general  standardized  for  the  ordinary  traffic,  probably  a  width  of 
21  feet  between  ditches  is  the  most  satisfactory  standard  and  con- 
sidering that  this  should  be  accepted  as  the  width  of  the  road,  you 
are  next  confronted  with  the  alignment  and  drainage. 

In  all  probability  the  alignment  will  be  comparatively  easy  over 
your  level  fertile  section,  but  the  drainage  on  this  section  will  be 
your  principal  problem.  Here  in  general  you  must  first  provide  by 
deep  ditching  for  reducing  the  water  level  of  the  surrounding  land 
and  by  deep  ditching  I  do  not  mean  the  ordinary  ditch  from  which 
the  crown  of  your  road  rises,  but  in  many  instances  a  ditch  which 
acts  to  a  considerable  extent  as  a  drainage  canal. 

You  must  provide  culverts  at  all  points  where  the  drainage  may 
be  taken  away  from  the  road  at  every  accessible  point,  and  however 
level  you  may  consider  the  plain  or  plateau  as  a  whole,  you  will 
doubtless  find  a  large  number  of  places  by  which  the  water  will  be 
conveyed  entirely  away  from  the  road  and  bother  you  no  more. 

In  most  instances  the  grading  material  obtained  from  the  ditches, 
though  seemingly  of  very  inferior  quality,  may  be  used  to  raise  the 
general  grade  of  your  road  and  if  kept  dry  by  the  side  ditches  will 
compact  and  make  a  fair  subgrade. 

Your  next  essential  is  in  some  way  to  obtain  upon  such  raised 
grade  a  sufficient  quantity  of  metal  of  some  kind  to  prevent  the 
cutting  through  of  your  road  surface  from  water  which  falls  upon 
the  road  or  in  flood  seasons  cannot  be  entirely  carried  away  by  your 
ditches.  On  my  plan  this  may  be  obtained  from  either  fields,  stone 
fences  or  even  drawn  from  section  two,  which  has  an  entirely  differ- 
ent soil.  In  some  places  it  would  be  necessary  to  practically  lay 
this  stone  as  telford.  In  other  places  it  is  enough  to  simply  dump 
it  in  the  road  and  only  partially  place  it  by  hand  labor.  In  many 
places  where  a  roller  is  available  this  may  be  the  method  and  the 
stone  simply  forced  into  the  soft  material  which  you  have  excavated 
from  the  ditches  and  which  has  not  as  yet  thoroughly  dried  out  from 
the  service  rendered  by  the  ditches. 

Now  what  shall  be  applied  as  your  surface  material?  In  many 
places  you  will  find  that  along  or  adjacent  to  the  road  there  are  hills 
or  hummocks  which  contain  soil  not  properly  either  hard  pan  or 
clay,  but  in  many  places  a  combination  of  each  containing  consid- 
erable metal  in  the  shape  of  either  pebbles  or  fractured  stone,  and 
having  obtained  your  bottom  through  drainage  and  the  addition  of 
stone  so  that  you  are  confident  your  sub-base  will  be  practically 
dry,  you  may  apply  10  inches  of  the  material  containing  a  small 
amount  of  metal  and  by  the  use  of  road  drags  and  road  hones  bring 


160  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

this  first  into  section  and  next  into  a  smooth  hard  surfacing,  which 
will  prove  satisfactory  in  all  weather  for  traffic,  provided  it  has  con- 
stant attendance  and  is  repeated  after  every  rain  dragged  with  the 
ordinary  road  drag.  The  drag  removes  every  slight  rut  which  may 
be  started  and  does  not  allow  the  water  to  settle  through  your  weak 
upper  surfacing.  The  maintenance  must  be  not  intermittent,  but 
constant.  You  may  find  that  you  still  have  a  somewhat  slippery 
upper  surface  in  which  case  it  will  be  necessary  to  add  an  inch  or 
two  of  your  gravel  or  sand  from  section  two.  You  will  find  that 
this  will  only  require  from  3  to  6  yards  of  your  gravel  surfacing  per 
100  feet  and  while  it  may  be  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
improvement,  it  will  not  add  materially  to  the  cost. 

Your  surfacing  upon  such  a  type  of  road  will  require  practically 
2000  yards  per  mile  and  if  the  material  is  from  different  banks  along 
the  roads  your  cost  will  not  exceed  twenty  cents  per  yard.  It  is  then 
perfectly  feasible  over  this  section  to  build  such  a  highway,  including 
the  raising  of  the  grade  from  1  to  2  feet  at  a  cost  of  not  more  than 
your  estimated  limit  of  $2500  per  mile. 

On  section  two,  as  I  have  imagined  it,  you  have  a  problem  of  grad- 
ing, rather  than  of  drainage.  That  is,  the  soil  will  readily  dispose 
of  your  water,  but  you  must  reduce  the  grades  to  a  reasonable 
gradient  and  with  a  sandy  material  provide  some  method  for  com- 
pacting the  road.  The  first  to  consider  then  is  what  shall  be  your 
maximum  grade. 

I  confess  that  in  this  class  of  construction  I  proceed  backwards, 
like  a  crab,  rather  than  attempting  to  dictate  an  absolute  gradient. 
That  is,  I  take  the  heaviest  grade  and  see  to  which  per  cent  I  can 
reduce  this  with  a  reasonable  amount  of  money,  instead  of  saying 
arbitrarily  that  a  4  per  cent  grade  is  the  maximum,  I  figure  how  much 
it  will  cost  for  a  4  per  cent,  how  much  less  for  a  5  per  cent  and  what 
the  saving  would  be,  should  I  allow  it  at  even  a  6  per  cent  grade. 

We  will  say  that  I  have  found  that  I  may  reasonably  reduce  the 
grade  on  this  section  to  5  per  cent.  This  I  establish  as  a  maximum 
and  the  other  grades  are  brought  to  this  maximum. 

There  will  doubtless  be  considerable  blasting  on  the  large  boulders 
to  do  on  this  section  in  order  to  properly  widen  your  road,  because 
the  ordinary  country  road  has  no  established  width.  In  cutting 
your  grades  you  will  usually  find  that  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
material  which  you  have  excavated  in  reducing  the  grade  makes 
good  surface  material  and  almost  your  entire  expense  will  be  the 
shaping  of  your  roadway  and  your  drainage. 

As  I  have  imagined  it,  however,  ae  you  approach  the  end  of  this 
section  you  have  run  through  your  gravel  and  into  what  is  prac- 
tically sand.  Here  the  gravel  that  you  have  on  the  other  end  will 
not  properly  compact  or  pack  so  as  to  make  a  suitable  road  surface 
and  you  will  have  to  build  practically  a  sand-clay  road.  I  have  not 
had  good  success  with  the  sand-clay  roads,  unless  I  have  practically 
telfordized  the  same  by  making  the  sub-base  largely  of  metal. 


SURFACES    FOR   MIXED   TRAFFIC  161 

In  my  treatment  of  this  particular  part  of  section  two,  I  should 
endeavor  from  the  gravel  pits  used  on  the  first  part  of  it  to  obtain 
the  small  boulders  sufficient  to  build  the  entire  bottom  of  the  road 
to  at  least  6  inches  in  thickness  of  such  pebbles. 

These  I  should  fill  with  sand  up  to  the  top  of  the  metal,  then  put 
on  at  least  three  alternating  sections  of  clay  and  sand  repeating 
until  I  had  my  road  at  least  10  inches  thick,  harrow  each  section  as 
it  is  built  up,  seeing  that  the  top  surface  is  of  sand  rather  than  of  clay. 

This  portion  of  the  section,  as  I  advise  building,  will  doubtless 
cost  much  more  than  the  sum  per  mile  than  you  have  expended 
upon  the  gravel  portion,  but  together  they  should  leave  your  gen- 
eral average  within  the  limit. 

Section  three,  consisting  largely  of  grade,  is  almost  entirely  a 
drainage  proposition  and  it  will  be  very  necessary  to  practically  tap 
the  water  coming  from  the  side  hill  near  the  surface  or  originating 
within  the  road.  You  may  find  it  necessary  in  many  instances  to 
run  short  drains  for  the  express  purpose  of  tapping  the  water  holes, 
which  come  up  in  the  road  bed  proper  and  it  will  doubtless  be  neces- 
sary on  the  inside  of  such  a  road  to  lay  a  side  drain  the  entire  length 
of  every  grade.  A  ditch  should  be  dug  on  the  upper  side  of  your 
road  to  a  depth  of  at  least  below  frost  line,  a  foot  of  sand  being 
placed  in  the  bottom  and  then  an  open  drainage  tile  laid  to  as  per- 
fect a  grade  as  possible  and  your  ditch  filled  in  with  sand  seems  to 
be  the  most  satisfactory  way  of  cutting  off  this  water. 

Having  shaped  your  clay  road  which  is  a  comparatively  easy 
matter  as  such  a  road  will  retain  its  section  and  may  be  practically 
worked  with  a  road  machine  and  then  covered  with,  not  to  exceed 
2  inches,  of  sand  and  gravel  harrowed  in  as  thoroughly  as  possible, 
though  it  is  somewhat  difficult  upon  a  clay  road  to  get  the  sand  to 
work  into  it  at  first  and  the  farther  application  during  wet  weather 
of  at  least  2  inches  more,  will  ordinarily  give  such  a  road  a  most 
desirable  surface.  The  only  caution  being  that  you  must  not  apply 
the  sand  in  large  quantities  at  a  time,  but  must  expect  to  renew  this 
surface  frequently  during  the  first  two  years. 

We  have  assumed  that  we  have  now  come  to  the  ledge  and  boulder 
section  and  that  all  material  must  be  drawn  from  a  considerable 
distance  to  make  a  satisfactory  road.  Here  without  question,  the 
most  feasible  plan  is  to  use  a  macadam  roadway.  The  putting  up 
of  a  local  crusher  and  the  macadam  method  of  construction  may 
enable  you  to  build  at  a  less  cost  than  would  the  use  of  the  uncrushed 
material. 

Frequently,  however,  on  such  sections  there  is  a  great  difficulty 
in  getting  sufficient  water  to  properly  flush  a  water  bound  macadam 
road.  You  may  obviate  the  use  of  large  quantities  of  water  by  the 
use  of  bitumen  but  this  adds  greatly  to  the  cost  of  your  road. 

Wherever  macadam  is  used  you  may  retain  the  same  21 -foot 
section,  though  15  feet  should  be  the  extreme  width  of  the  metalling. 
This  will  take  2600  tons  per  mile  of  stone  and  assuming  the  use  of 


162  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

2J  gallons  of  bitumen  per  square  yard,  your  added  cost  will  be  some- 
thing over  $2000  per  mile.  If  water  is  fairly  available,  you  may 
build  your  water  bound  road  and  apply  one-half  gallon  per  square 
yard  of  bitumen  as  a  cover  coat  at  a  cost  of  about  $650  per  mile, 
which  will  reduce  the  cost  of  your  road  for  light  traffic  about  $1500 
per  mile.  Unless  there  is  considerable  trouble  about  getting  your 
water  therefore  I  should  recommend  the  use  of  water  bound  macadam 
with  the  blanket  coat. 

You  must  consider  also  the  added  cost  of  maintenance  upon  your 
macadam  road  as  compared  with  the  cheaper  forms,  so  that  per- 
sonally I  should  hesitate  about  using  macadam  whenever  there  is 
a  possibility  of  using  the  cheaper  surfacing. 

Assuming  a  small  apportionment  available  for  the  entire  mileage 
needing  improvement  the  economic  question  is  what  plan  will  you 
adopt  for  the  treatment  of  such  a  highway.  Will  you  practically 
complete  this  10  miles  with  your  money  or  will  you  build  3  miles  of 
the  higher  type  of  roadway  and  leave  the  rest  unimproved.  This 
seems  to  be  the  attitude  adopted  by  most  highway  departments. 
They  standardize  their  plans  and  specifications  and  are  content  with 
the  small  mileage  of  what  they  are  willing  to  say  is  the  best  con- 
struction and  they  dislike  extremely  to  build  for  small  cost  what 
they  term  an  inferior  type  of  road. 

I  believe  this  is  a  serious  economic  error  and  in  most  sections  a 
road  infinitely  better  than  has  previously  existed  may  be  built  at  a 
comparatively  small  cost  to  the  great  betterment  of  the  roads  in 
general  and  to  the  great  help  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  State. 

As  far  as  automobile  traffic  is  concerned,  I  am  sure  that  many  of 
the  inferior  types  of  road  are  far  more  satisfactory  to  them  in  gen- 
eral than  the  highest  type.  Your  autoist  cares  little  for  a  short 
section  of  the  best  possible  road  if  at  the  end  of  it  he  plunges  into 
what  he  is  pleased  to  call  an  impassable  road  for  three-quarters  of 
the  distance.  I  believe  the  development  of  roads  in  the  future  will 
be  along  the  line  of  more  mileage  and  less  cost  and  that  this  is  the 
proper  trend  of  development. 

I  have  talked  so  far  almost  entirely  about  the  preliminary  building 
of  such  surfaces.  I  want  to  say  a  little  about  the  cost  and  methods 
of  maintenance  on  these  types  of  road. 

Constant  continuous  maintenance  is  necessary  upon  all  the  types 
of  roads  that  are  built.  It  is  indispensable,  however,  that  upon  the 
surfaces  of  the  cheaper  type  of  roadway  the  maintenance  be  both 
continuous  and  intelligent. 

A  road  of  what  may  be  called  natural  surfacing,  if  left  for  even 
a  week  during  the  summer  season  without  attention  loses  all  its 
features  of  a  good  road.  It  must  be  constantly  patrolled,  all  holes 
in  it  which  have  worn  must  be  filled,  all  weak  spots  which  develop 
must  be  repaired  within  a  few  hours  after  discovery  or  your  road 
will  so  rapidly  degenerate  that  it  is  useless  as  an  "  improved." 


SURFACES   FOR   MIXED   TRAFFIC  163 

The  higher  types  of  roadway  may  be  left  for  varying  periods  of 
time  without  attention  and  while  this  results  in  the  end  in  being  a 
more  expensive  method  of  treatment  it  is  only  a  loss  of  money,  you 
still  have  the  road  which  may  be  repaired,  but  if  you  attempt  this 
sort  of  treatment  upon  your  cheap  surface  you  eventually  lose  your 
highway  entirely. 

My  experience  is  that  a  patrolman  with  a  horse  and  cart,  an 
efficient  drag  or  hone  and  the  willingness  to  work  will  keep  in  almost 
perfect  condition  from  5  to  7  miles  a  cheaply  constructed  roadway, 
at  an  approximate  cost  of  from  $175  to  $200  per  mile. 

Given  the  same  mileage  of  the  higher  types  of  road  he  will  require 
a  helper,  a  much  larger  equipment  and  if  working  upon  bituminous 
roads  probably  not  less  than  $150  per  mile  for  material  in  the  way 
of  bitumen,  crushed  stone,  etc. 

My  average  cost  of  maintenance  upon  the  higher  types  of  road 
including  the  use  of  a  blanket  treatment  once  in  two  years  will  not 
be  less  than  $500  per  mile,  and  in  many  instances  it  will  greatly 
exceed  this.  On  the  expensive  road  also  you  are  constantly  facing 
the  fact  that  within  a  reasonable  number  of  years  you  must  resur- 
face at  a  cost  approximating  $6000  a  mile,  while  upon  your  cheaper 
road,  if  properly  patroled,  you  will  find  that  your  surface  material 
is  thicker  than  it  was  at  the  time  the  road  was  built  and  has  been 
in  practically  perfect  condition  during  the  entire  period. 

If  the  dust  nuisance  upon  your  cheaper  road  becomes  intolerable 
it  may  be  alleviated  greatly  and  practically  removed  by  the  appli- 
cation of  light  bituminous  oils  or  tars.  The  objection  of  this  treat- 
ment, however,  being  the  tendency  on  the  part  of  a  patrolman  to 
allow  the  road  to  get  out  of  section  by  neglecting  to  drag  it  after 
every  rain,  as  he  does  not  wish  to  destroy  the  skin  coating  on  top, 
which  is  left  after  the  treatment. 

The  cost  of  this  treatment  adds  about  $150  per  mile  to  the  cost 
of  maintenance  and  on  the  whole  is  not  as  satisfactory  for  light 
travel  in  its  final  results,  as  adhering  to  the  use  of  the  natural  soil 
and  the  regular  treatment  by  dragging. 

Road  problems  may  be  roughly  divided  into  four  sub-divisions, 
and  their  order  of  importance  is  about  as  follows;  drainage,  align- 
ment, grade  and  surfacing. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  to  most  people  the  latter  is  more  important, 
while  relatively  it  is  of  far  less  importance  than  the  other  three. 
The  surfacing  material  is  frequently  considered  paramount  and  the 
settling  of  the  question  as  to  whether  you  have  a  bituminous  road, 
penetration  method  or  mixing,  a  concrete  road,  or  a  pavement  type 
is  the  main  subject  of  discussion  and  with  far  more  attention  given 
to  it,  than  in  my  opinion  it  rightly  deserves. 

Your  drainage,  alignment  and  your  change  of  grade  are  permanent 
features.  The  surfacing  can  never  be  permanent.  I  have  sometimes 
wondered  whether  a  bond  issue  to  be  paid  for  by  posterity  should 
ever  be  expended  on  any  feature  that  is  not  permanent. 


164  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

Concededly,  surfacing  of  all  kinds  will  require  not  only  constant 
maintenance  but  rebuilding.  With  the  essentials  fully  attended  to 
it  is  surprising  how  the  surfacing  may  be  maintained  at  a  compara- 
tively small  cost.  I  believe  that  it  is  as  necessary  for  us  to  turn 
our  attention  to  the  economic  side  of  the  road  question  as  to  the 
scientific.  A  highway  must  have  an  economic  road  rental,  as  well 
as  a  fixed  road  maintenance  and  wherever  the  actual  cost  plus  its 
maintenance  exceeds  its  rental  value  we  are  wasting  money  in  build- 
ing too  expensive  a  road.  We  must  so  adjust  the  scales  that  our 
costs  are  such  as  to  provide  a  roadway  for  the  traffic  at  the  least 
possible  expense. 

I  realize  that  this  is  a  very  sketchy  treatment  of  the  subject  given 
me.  It  is  not  scientific,  but  it  equally  is  not  theoretic.  Financial 
problems  in  a  State  with  a  very  small  assessment  roll  and  a  large 
road  mileage  has  made  it  a  necessity  in  my  State. 

In  order  to  accommodate  a  large  tourist  traffic  we  must  have 
reasonably  good  roads  and  we  cannot  afford  the  kinds  of  roadway 
that  are  being  built  in  many  of  the  richer  States.  We  have  met  the 
problem,  as  I  have  outlined  in  a  rambling  way,  and  it  is  satisfactory 
to  us.  It  seems  to  me  that  there  are  many  other  States  which  might 
well  adopt  a  plan  of  more  mileage  at  less  cost  to  their  great  financial 
benefit  and  to  the  comparative  satisfaction  of  their  residents  and 
visitors. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Before  taking  up  the  discussion  of  this  subject, 
I  want  to  announce  that  the  Resolutions  Committee  will  meet  at 
three  o'clock  today  in  the  second  floor  front  room  of  this  building. 
I  also  want  to  announce  that  there  will  be  a  meeting  of  State  high- 
way officials  and  Federal  highway  officials  in  the  moving  picture 
room  across  the  hall  at  three  o'clock  tomorrow.  The  discussion  of 
this  paper  will  be  opened  by  Mr.  Frank  F.  Rogers,  State  Highway 
Commissioner  of  Michigan. 

MR.  ROGERS:  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen:  I  am  almost  with- 
out any  underpinning  here,  because  I  had  prepared  to  discuss  the 
very  paper  that  was  written  out  so  carefully  by  the  speaker  who 
has  just  preceded  me,  but  inasmuch  as  he  did  not  give  you  any  of 
that  paper,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  exactly  what  I  am  going  to  discuss 
but  I  have  it  all  written  out  before  me.  Well,  I  don't  know  but 
I  will  take  a  little  different  view  of  the  subject  from  that  of  the 
man  who  preceded  me  because  I  do  not  assume  that  the  people 
who  are  before  me  all  represent  this  territory  around  Atlanta.  I 
have  seen  men  on  the  platform  from  Washington  and  from  Kansas 
and  from  New  Hampshire  and  Pennsylvania  and  I  assume  that 
this  subject  is  to  an  audience  somewhat  farther  reaching  than  the 
territory  that  is  affected  by  the  roads  about  Atlanta. 

I  don't  know  much  about  road  conditions  except  in  Michigan 


DISCUSSION  165 

where  I  have  been  connected  with  the  system  for  several  years, 
but  as  Michigan  is  somewhat  typical  of  the  States  of  the  Central 
West,  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  few  of  the  problems  that  have  occurred 
to  us  and  if  any  of  this  becomes  wearisome,  I  can  cut  it  short. 

The  few  traffic  records  that  we  have  taken  show  that  the  travel 
over  Michigan  roads  has  a  daily  average  ranging  from  something 
over  2000  vehicles  per  day  down  to  a  very  few,  say  less  than  10. 
Our  traffic  records  also  show,  as  have  those  taken  by  other  States, 
that  the  volume  of  traffic  drops  off  very  rapidly  as  the  distance  from 
the  market  town  increases  and  that  on  the  main  or  trunk  line  roads, 
the  minimum  traffic  is  found  approximately  midway  between  the 
towns,  or  more  correctly,  where  the  effort  to  reach  a  given  town 
meets  with  the  least  resistance. 

To  illustrate,  the  main  roads  entering  the  city  of  Detroit  bear  a 
traffic  near  the  city  limits  ranging  from  500  to  2000  vehicles  per 
day,  of  which  from  one-half  to  three-fourths  are  motor  driven. 

The  travel  on  the  main  roads  entering  the  city  of  Lansing,  a  town 
of  approximately  40,000  population,  ranges  from  200  to  600  vehicles 
daily  with  about  the  same  percentage  of  motor  vehicles.  Michigan 
Avenue,  which  is  \he  main  road  entering  Lansing  from  the  west 
and  on  the  main  line  of  highway  towards  Detroit,  bears  a  traffic 
according  to  a  count  taken  one-half  mile  from  the  city  limits,  of 
600  vehicles  per  day.  This  road  connects  the  city  of  Lansing  with 
East  Lansing,  which  is  really  a  suburb  of  Lansing,  and  the  home 
of  the  Michigan  Agricultural  College.  One  mile  east  of  East  Lansing 
on  this  same  road,  the  traffic  drops  to  300  vehicles  per  day,  and 
eight  miles  from  Lansing  on  the  same  road  and  about  one  mile  east 
of  the  little  village  of  Okemos,  the  traffic  drops  to  about  125  vehi- 
cles per  day,  which  is  considerably  less  than  on  any  main  road  entering 
Lansing  at  about  one  mile  from  the  city  limits. 

From  the  foregoing  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  roads  having  a 
traffic  of  less  than  300  vehicles  per  day  might  consistently  be  con- 
sidered as  coming  within  the  scope  of  this  subject,  and  I  wish  to 
confine  my  remarks  chiefly  to  roads  of  this  class  which  have  come 
under  my  observation. 

In  1906  the  Michigan  Avenue  road  between  Lansing  and  East 
Lansing,  some  two  miles  in  length  above  referred  to  as  carrying  a 
traffic  of  600  vehicles  per  day,  was  surfaced  with  water  bound 
cobblestone  macadam.  It  immediately  began  to  ravel,  especially 
midway  between  the  two  towns,  due  to  the  fact  that  it  became  a 
speedway  for  automobiles,  as  it  was  then  the  only  improved  road 
leading  out  of  Lansing.  The  second  year  a  contract  was  let  to  the 
-  Refining  Company  to  improve  this  road  by  incorporat- 
ing a  bituminous  binder.  The  road  was  scarified  and  a  rather  light 
asphaltic  oil  added  and  re-rolled  with  a  hope  of  binding  the  road. 
The  oil  did  not  prove  a  good  binder  and  the  road  soon  became  rutted 
and  uneven,  so  that  it  was  even  in  poorer  condition  a  few  months 
after  treatment  than  before.  As  this  road  was  put  in  under  a  two 


166  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

year  guarantee,  the  next  year  the  company  scalped  off  the  old 
bituminous  surface  with  a  thin  layer  of  stone  which  adhered  to  it, 
and  carted  it  all  away.  The  road  was  then  scarified  and  more 
bituminous  material  with  greater  cementing  qualities  added,  after 
which  the  road  was  surfaced  with  about  an  inch  of  screened  gravel 
and  rolled.  This  seemed  like  a  fairly  good  road  for  a  few  months, 
but  the  binder  was  sticky  in  warm  weather  and  while  the  road 
appeared  smooth,  the  adhesion  of  iron  tired  vehicles  to  the  road 
surface  made  traction  heavy  rather  than  light.  Later  this  road 
became  very  much  rutted  and  was  in  poor  condition  and  during  the 
fall  of  1913  it  was  decided  to  give  the  road  a  screened  gravel  top. 

The  bottom  layer  of  gravel  about  four  inches  thick,  loose  meas- 
ure, was  applied  to  the  road  in  the  fall  of  1913  and  allowed  to  work 
down  under  traffic  during  the  winter  and  spring  months.  In  the 
spring  of  1914  another  layer  of  screened  gravel  was  added  which 
was  harrowed  and  rolled,  but  mainly  compacted  under  traffic.  After 
the  road  had  become  fairly  hard,  it  was  treated  with  two  or  three 
applications  of  gluterin.  The  road  surface  remained  in  a  smooth 
and  firm  condition  most  of  the  summer,  but  at  this  writing,  Novem- 
ber, 1914,  the  road  crust  is  breaking  at  points  and  for  quite  long 
distances  the  surface  presents  a  series  of  pit  holes  at  quite  uniform 
distances  of  about  one  foot  apart,  measuring  along  the  axis  of  the 
road. 

The  above  facts  have  convinced  the  writer  that  roads  having  as 
much  traffic  as  the  above,  cannot  be  held  up  with  water  bounded 
macadam  nor  even  with  the  best  gravel  surfaces,  unless  they  have 
constant  repairs.  It  would  doubtless  be  wise  to  pave  such  roads 
with  cement — concrete,  asphaltic  concrete,  or  brick. 

Still  further  analyzing  the  traffic  on  the  above  road  and  rating 
single  horse  vehicles  at  one-half  ton,  •  double  team  light  vehicles 
at  1  ton,  double  team  loaded  vehicles  at  2  tons,  runabout  auto- 
mobiles at  1  ton,  touring  cars  at  2  tons,  and  motor  trucks  at  4  tons, 
the  above  road  was  found  to  have  225.6  tons  per  yard  of  width 
per  day,  or  counting  300  days  to  the  year,  67,680  tons  per  yard  of 
width  per  year. 

Engineer  J.  A.  Brodie  of  Liverpool,  who  has  carefully  recorded 
his  experience  with  the  different  types  of  road  surfaces,  places  the 
total  life  of  water  bonded  macadam  roads  at  120,000  tons,  which 
would  indicate  that  this  road  as  originally  built  and  under  the 
traffic  it  now  bears  should  not  have  been  expected  to  last  even  two 
years.  But  this  is  really  a  heavy  traffic  road  and  does  not  properly 
come  within  the  limits  of  this  discussion  except  for  comparison. 

The  next  road  out  on  Michigan  Avenue,  between  East  Lansing 
and  the  village  of  Okemos,  already  referred  to  as  having  a  traffic 
of  300  vehicles  per  day,  has  a  length  of  two  and  one-half  miles. 
The  westerly  mile  of  this  stretch  of  road  on  which  the  traffic  count 
was  taken,  was  built  in  1908  as  a  9-foot  gravel  road  at  a  cost  of 
$1800. 


DISCUSSION  1 67 

The  soil  composing  this  road  is  a  sandy  loam,  sufficiently  rolling 
for  good  drainage.  The  road  grade  was  built  20  feet  wide  between 
gutters  and  the  central  portion  of  the  road  was  surfaced  with  9 
feet  of  gravel  put  on  in  two  layers,  and  in  sufficient  quantity  to 
make  8  inches  of  compacted  depth.  Each  layer  was  harrowed  and 
rolled  separately.  The  gravel  was  of  good  quality,  the  pebbles  all 
being  fragments  of  the  harder  rocks.  The  surface  layer  was  coarse 
enough  so  that  from  60  to  70  per  cent  would  be  retained  on  a  No.  8 
screen.  No  extra  binding  material  was  added  and  although  the 
gravel  was  harrowed  and  rolled,  it  was  mostly  compacted  by  traffic. 
This  road  has  been  used  without  resurfacing  or  repairs,  except  in 
spots,  and  there  with  a  poorer  quality  of  gravel  than  was  used  in 
the  original  construction,  but  it  has  been  in  need  of  resurfacing  for 
about  two  years. 

The  road  above  referred  to  was  so  good  and  satisfactory  to  the 
users,  that  the  writer  has  been  asked  many  times  why  a  road  like 
this  was  not  built  between  Lansing  and  East  Lansing  instead  of 
the  macadam.  Of  course  these  parties  did  not  realize  the  differ- 
ence in  the  amount  of  traffic  on  the  two  roads. 

The  point  I  wish  to  emphasize  regarding  this  road  is  that  it  was 
built  of  local  gravels  and  was  very  low  in  first  cost,  but  served  the 
needs  of  the  community  perfectly  for  from  three  to  four  years  with 
but  very  little  expense  for  maintenance. 

While  I  have  no  data  from  other  sources  stating  how  many  tons 
of  traffic  such  a  road  should  carry  per  yard  of  width  during  its 
life,  this  road  has  carried  according  to  the  same  rating  as  used  above, 
175  tons  per  yard  of  width  per  day,  52,500  per  year,  or  during  the 
four  years  in  which  it  was  in  relatively  good  repair  at  small  cost, 
210,000  tons  per  yard  of  width,  or  one  and  three-fourths  times  as 
much  traffic  as  Mr.  Brodie  figures  for  a  water  bonded  macadam. 
Sixty-six  and  eight-tenths  per  cent  of  the  travel  on  this  road  has 
been  motor  vehicles. 

The  road  beyond  Okemos  on  which  the  count  was  taken  is  an 
ordinary  earth  road  and  will  not  be  further  considered. 

One  other  road  will  suffice  for  these  illustrations.  It  is  a  9-foot 
gravel  road  built  on  the  Grand  River  Road  in  Farmington  Town- 
ship, Oakland  County,  in  1910.  It  was  resurfaced  on  account  of 
becoming  a  part  of  the  trunk  line,  in  the  fall  of  1913,  although  it 
was  not  in  bad  condition  at  the  time  of  resurfacing.  The  traffic 
record  shows  this  road  to  have  carried  195  tons  per  yard  of  width 
per  day,  58,500  tons  per  yard  of  width  per  year,  or  during  the  three 
years,  175,500  tons  per  yard  of  width  in  the  three  years  before  it 
was  resurfaced.  This  again  is  nearly  one  and  one-half  times  as 
much  as  the  water  bound  macadam  was  rated  at  by  Mr.  Brodie. 
About  three-fourths  of  the  traffic  on  this  road  was  from  motor 
vehicles.  The  cost  of  building  it  was  reported  as  $2524  per  mile. 

I  have  not  given  these  illustrations  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
the  superiority  of  gravel  roads  over  macadam,  or  in  fact  over  any 


168  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

other  type  of  road,  for  Michigan  is  using  almost  every  kind  of  road 
building  material  available  and  is  especially  trying  to  make  the 
best  possible  use  of  the  materials  near  at  hand.  They  are  given, 
however,  to  show  that  well  built  gravel  roads  are  actually  standing 
up  under  a  mixed  traffic  of  farm  vehicles  and  automobiles  as  well, 
if  not  better,  than  we  could  hope  to  expect.  Further  the  cost  of 
these  roads  where  good  gravels  can  be  had  within  a  wagon  haul, 
is  very  reasonable,  and  since  the  total  cost  of  a  road  to  a  community 
is  its  first  cost  plus  maintenance,  the  total  cost  of  these  roads  is  not 
great. 

To  show  that  such  roads  are  not  exceptions,  but  that  they  actually 
are  being  built  in  Michigan  for  approximately  the  figures  given,  I 
am  taking  from  a  table  of  costs  which  will  be  printed  in  the  forth- 
coming report  of  the  Michigan  State  Highway  Department,  the 
average  cost  per  mile  of  9-foot  gravel  roads,  from  a  number  of  coun- 
ties representing  different  sections  of  the  State.  They  are  as  follows : 

Allegany  County $1,643 

Antrim  County 3,942 

In  this  county  the  grading  cost  is  rather  heavy  and  the  gravel 
was  all  screened. 

Barry  County $1,855 

Benzie  County 2,154 

Calhoun   County 1,805 

Clinton  County 1,983 

Eaton  County 1,725 

Genesee  County 2,577 

Gd.  Traverse  County 2,833 

Hillsdale  County 2,142 

Huron  County 1,961 

Kalamazoo  County 2,414 

Oakland  County 2,426 

Roscommon  County 2,091 

The  above  figures  are  sufficient  to  show  that  quite  generally  over 
Michigan,  we  are  building  roads  of  a  type  that  seems  to  satisfy 
the  needs  of  the  different  communities  at  a  cost  somewhat  within 
the  $2500  per  mile  limit  assumed  by  Mr.  Hooker  as  a  fair  figure  to 
expend  on  roads  carrying  a  light  volume  and  mixed  traffic.  In 
fact,  64  per  cent  of  all  the  roads  which  have  received  State  aid  in 
Michigan  are  of  gravel.  It  may  be  argued  that  these  9-foot  gravel 
roads  would  not  serve  the  needs  of  most  communities.  Michigan 
has  demonstrated  to  the  satisfaction  of  her  own  people  that  they 
do  in  most  cases.  In  making  inquiries  regarding  the  width  of  metal 
track  several  years  ago,  the  writer  asked  a  certain  highway  com- 
missioner in  Michigan  if  there  were  complaints  of  his  road  being 
too  narrow,  since  it  was  completed.  His  answer  was:  "It  is  a  good 
deal  like  this:  All  the  time  I  was  building  the  road  everybody  who 
came  along  said  it  was  too  narrow;  after  it  was  completed,  every- 
body who  came  along  said  it  was  too  short." 


DISCUSSION  169 

\Yhile  Michigan  is  building  many  roads  with  surfaces  wider  than 
10  feet  and  pays  extra  bounty  for  extra  width  of  metal  surface 
between  9  feet  and  16  feet,  the  greater  number  of  light  traveled  roads 
are  still  built  and  will  continue  to  be  built  with  the  metal  only  9 
feet  wide.  Experience  shows  that  where  the  travel  is  relatively 
small,  probably  less  than  100  vehicles  per  day,  the  shoulders  of  the 
road  soon  grass  over  up  to  the  edges  of  the  metal.  In  other  words 
the  turning  out  is  not  frequent  enough  to  keep  the  grass  worn  down 
on  the  shoulders  beyond  the  edges  of  the  9-foot  metal  track. 

So  long  as  the  cry  is  for  more  distance  rather  than  for  more  width, 
it  is  probable  that  Michigan  will  continue  to  reach  out  and  have 
for  its  slogan:  "Put  it  on  the  ends  rather  than  on  the  sides."  It 
is  clearly  the  duty  of  the  road  engineer  to  make  every  dollar  placed 
in  his  hands  for  road  building  purposes,  give  the  people  the  utmost 
value  in  actual  road  service.  If  a  gravel  road  which  serves  the  needs 
of  the  community  can  be  built  for  $2000  a  mile  and  can  be  main- 
tained, including  periodic  resurfacing  at  a  cost  of  $200  per  mile  a 
year,  thus  representing  to  the  community  a  perpetual  annual  rental 
cost  of  $300  a  mile,  money  being  worth  5  per  cent,  it  would  seem  to 
be  folly  to  build  the  more  expensive  road  unless  traffic  or  soil  con- 
ditions demand  it.  If  we  expend  $10,000  a  mile  on  a  road,  even  if 
there  were  no  maintenance  charge,  the  annual  rental  cost  of  such 
road  will  be  $500  per  mile.  But  the  expensive  roads  do  come  to 
repairs  sooner  or  later  and  these  repairs  are  likely  to  be  at  about 
the  same  ration  as  was  found  in  the  original  cost  of  the  two  roads — 
1  to  5. 

If  the  daily  traffic  over  these  roads  is  100  vehicles  a  day,  the  per- 
petual toll  cost  of  the  cheaper  road  will  be  one  cent  per  mile,  while 
on  the  more  expensive  road  it  will  be  1J  cents  per  mile,  plus  the 
maintenance  charge,  which  will  make  a  toll  charge  much  more  than 
double  that  on  the  cheaper  road,  the  volume  of  traffic  remaining 
the  same. 

But  as  already  said,  Michigan  is  not  tied  to  any  one  type  of  con- 
struction. This  is  clearly  shown  by  the  different  classes  of  roads 
already  built.  At  the  close  of  the  last  fiscal  year,  June  30,  1914, 
there  had  been  completed  2437  miles  of  State  rewarded  roads  in 
Michigan  representing  the  following  classes :  52^  miles  of  sand-clay 
or  thin  gravel  roads;  1,570J  miles  of  standard  gravel  roads;  77  miles 
of  macadam  base  and  gravel  top  roads;  23  miles  of  gravel  base 
and  macadam  top  roads ;  647  J  miles  of  macadam  roads,  mostly  plain 
and  water  bonded;  and  67  miles  of  concrete  roads.  It  will  be  noted 
that  most  of  these  roads  are  suited  only  to  light  volume  traffic  and 
when  it  is  considered  that  the  average  cost  of  all  classes  is  not  far 
from  $3000  a  mile,  it  must  be  admitted  that  Michigan  is  not  in 
danger  of  the  re-action  against  the  high  priced  road  mentioned  in 
Mr.  Hooker's  paper. 


170  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

November  11,  2  p.m. 
MR.  JAMES  H.  MACDONALD  IN  THE  CHAIR. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  convention  will  please  come  to  order.  I 
want  to  make  a  little  apology  for  sounding  the  gavel  26  minutes 
past  two,  when  the  meeting  was  supposed  to  be  called  to  order  at 
2  o'clock,  but  the  fact  is  there  was  no  one  here  just  promptly  at 
2  o'clock;  we  have  grown  into  the  habit  of  being  just  a  little  tardy 
and  while  the  machinery  is  helpful  in  the  highest  degree  in  road 
building,  in  my  judgment  these  sessions  are  more  important  than 
the  machinery  end  of  them.  I  find  myself,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
somewhat  embarrassed;  I  had  expected  to  deliver  a  talk  on  the 
past  and  present  and  future,  in  other  words,  yesterday,  today  and 
tomorrow  in  road  building,  but  I  had  not  learned  that  I  was  to  pre- 
side over  the  session.  So  it  rather  embarrasses  me,  having  sat 
sometimes  in  my  little  Me  at  a  banquet  where  I  was  a  speaker  and 
having  the  toastmaster  introduce  the  next  speaker  at  length  and 
then  interlard  or  extend  his  remarks;  that  was  a  very  uncomfortable 
placs.  At  the  same  time  1  feel  that  in  justice  to  the  delightful 
hospitality  which  has  been  extended  to  us  here,  that  I  ought  to  say 
something  in  appreciation.  To  me  this  is  a  singularly  pleasant 
opportunity  to  be  here  in  Atlanta.  Forty  years  ago  my  little  wife 
and  I  made  a  visit  here  and  as  we  looked  the  situation  over,  the 
streets  and  the  air  of  inactivity  on  every  side  with  practically  only 
three  streets  that  made  any  pretantion  to  being  streets,  Decatur, 
Marietta  and  Peachtree  Streets;  I  come  back  hers  after  40  years 
and  I  see  the  little  people  of  15,000  have  grown  to  a  multitude, 
200,000;  I  find  the  little  hamlet  of  houses  have  been  supplanted  and 
been  added  to,  not  only  the  delightful  homes  of  the  people  but  the 
magnificent  structures  on  evary  side.  I  have  travelled  at  home  and 
abroad  in  this  great  work.  I  have  never  seen  anything  to  equal 
the  growth  that  is  so  manifest  as  it  is  to  me  here  in  this  city  of 
Atlanta.  The  delightful  hospitality  extended  to  the  wife  and  myself 
will  always  remain  as  a  pleasant  memory  to  both  of  us.  So  it  is 
a  great  delight  to  come  back  here  and  to  go  through  the  scenes 
which  are  so  vividly  impressed  on  our  minds  as  the  sweetest  part 
of  our  lifetime,  the  early  memories,  and  live  over  again  those  days. 
I  am  happy  to  say  we  have  with  us  today  President  Harrison  of 
the  Southern  Railway  Company.  He  is  acceptably  filling  the  posi- 
tion occupied  by  Mr.  Finley,  he  is  on  the  Executive  Committee  of 
this  great  Association.  He  has  been  an  ardent  good  roads  man  for 
many,  many  years.  The  great  question  of  transportation  appeals 
to  him  very  closely  and  we  are  glad  to  have  him  with  us  today. 
He  is  destined  to  be,  if  I  may  prophesy  from  the  point  of  view  of 
intimate  personal  knowledge,  one  of  the  greatest  railroad  authorities 
we  have  in  this  country,  and  this  convention  is  highly  honored 
when  we  have  such  a  man  as  President  Harrison  to  speak  to  us  on 
this  great  question  today.  I  take  great  pleasure  of  introducing 
President  Fairfax  Harrison. 


SELECTING  ROADS  TO  BE  IMPROVED  171 

SELECTING  ROADS  TO  BE  IMPROVED 

BY  FAIRFAX  HARRISON 
President,  Southern  Railway  Company 

In  the  early  days  of  the  good  roads  movement,  a  meeting  such 
as  this  in  the  South  would  properly  have  devoted  its  time  largely 
to  emphasizing  the  advantages  of  good  roads,  but,  while  educational 
campaigns  to  teach  the  value  of  good  roads  are  no  longer  needed 
in  the  South,  the  holding  of  the  American  Road  Congress  in  Atlanta 
will  tend  to  stimulate  the  good  roads  movement  in  all  of  the  south- 
ern States.  As  soon  as  the  present  business  depression,  growing 
out  of  the  effect  of  the  European  war  on  the  market  for  cotton, 
has  passed  away,  as  it  surely  will,  and  when  the  onward  progress 
of  the  South  has  been  resumed,  one  of  the  ways  in  which  it  will 
be  manifested  will  be  in  greater  activity  in  road  building. 

When  road  improvement  is  taken  up  in  any  community,  it  is 
important  that  it  be  started  right,  and  I  shall  venture  to  speak  to 
you  briefly  on  what,  I  think,  is  one  of  the  most  important  matters 
that  must  be  decided  before  actual  work  can  be  commenced.  That 
is:  the  selection  of  the  roads  to  be  improved. 

It  is  almost  invariably  true  that  the  community  embarking  on 
a  policy  of  highway  improvement  is  not  financially  able  to  rebuild 
all  of  its  roads  at  one  time.  Those  in  charge  of  its  road  policy  must 
decide  which  of  the  roads  shall  be  improved  at  once  and  which  shall 
be  left  for  the  future.  The  answer  must  be  found  in  the  peculiar 
needs  of  each  community. 

There  is  a  glamour  about  the  mere  suggestion  of  a  great  through 
highway  traversing  several  States,  connecting  widely  separated  cities, 
and  traveled  by  tourists  from  distant  parts  of  the  country.  The 
very  history  of  such  roads  is  fascinating,  as,  for  example,  that  of 
the  Cumberland  road  or  the  national  highway  which  pierced  the 
West  in  the  early  days  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Under  modern 
conditions  such  a  road  may  benefit  the  owners  of  touring  cars,  and 
its  use  by  them  may  scatter  some  few  dollars  in  the  different  com- 
munities which  it  traverses,  but  it  will  benefit  relatively  few  farmers 
— only  those  who  live  along  its  line.  In  a  community  where  the 
principal  industry  is  conducting  hotels  for  tourists,  the  improve- 
ment of  roads  with  special  reference  to  attracting  automobile  travel 
may  be  desirable,  but,  generally  speaking,  I  doubt  whether  the  best 
use  that  can  be  made  of  a  limited  road  fund  will  be  in  the  construc- 
tion of  a  through  highway  of  this  kind. 

The  statesman  of  road  building  must  consider  what  permanent 
value  the  road  may  serve  in  developing  a  country,  and  under  our 
conditions  in  the  South  this  consideration  points  inevitably  to  the 
farmer  as  the  class  most  to  be  considered  in  road  planning. 

A  good  country  highway  is  helpful,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  all 
those  who  live  in  town  as  well  as  those  who  live  in  the  country, 


172  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

but  it  is  primarily  beneficial  to  the  farmer.  It  is  his  highway  to 
market.  He  and  his  family  must  use  it  in  all  of  the  social  inter- 
course of  the  neighborhood  and  in  church  and  school  attendance. 
It  is  over  the  country  road  that  the  rural  mail  carrier  brings  to  the 
farmer  his  letters  and  the  newspapers  which  keep  him  in  touch  with 
the  events  of  the  world.  While  it  is  not  generally  appreciated, 
because  few  farmers  keep  books  in  which  they  take  account  of  their 
own  time  and  that  of  their  teams  as  well  as  of  their  hired  men, 
statistics  prepared  by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture 
show  that  the  cost  of  hauling  farm  products  to  a  shipping  station 
is  a  very  large  percentage  of  the  total  cost  of  their  carriage  to  their 
final  markets  and  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  charges  made  for 
their  transportation  by  rail  or  water.  An  improved  road  reduces 
this  cost  and  has  the  effect  of  bringing  outlying  farms  nearer  to  the 
shipping  point  by  reducing  the  time  required  for  hauling,  and  it 
tends  to  advance  the  value  of  each  farm  that  it  passes. 

On  account  of  the  great  interest  of  the  farmer  in  good  roads,  I 
believe  that  those  responsible  for  the  road  policy  of  any  community 
should  endeavor  to  expend  such  funds  as  may  be  available  so  that 
the  largest  possible  number  of  farmers  may  be  benefited  and  that 
this  may  be  accomplished  by  improving  first  the  roads  that  radiate 
from  a  market  town  or  shipping  station. 

If  the  amount  of  money  available  is  quite  small,  it  may  be  neces- 
sary to  limit  expenditures,  for  a  time,  to  a  single  road,  but  where 
sufficient  money  can  be  obtained,  the  benefits  will  be  more  widely 
distributed  if  the  money  can  be  expended  on  several,  or  all,  of  the 
important  roads  radiating  from  the  town.  While  it  is  possible  that, 
on  a  given  road,  the  greatest  benefits  will  be  obtained  by  spending 
the  money  that  may  be  available  for  it  in  improving  some  par- 
ticularly bad  part  of  the  road  at  a  distance  from  the  town,  the  gen- 
eral policy,  I  believe,  should  be  the  improvement,  first,  of  that  part 
of  the  road  leading  out  from  the  town.  If  the  policy  of  dividing  the 
money  available  among  several  roads  rather  than  concentrating  it 
on  a  single  road  shall  be  adopted,  it  may  not  be  practicable  to 
improve  an  extended  mileage  on  any  one  of  the  roads.  This  will, 
however,  permit  the  largest  number  of  people  to  share  in  the  benefits, 
for  the  farmer  driving  into  town  from  any  direction,  even  though 
he  may  live  beyond  the  end  of  the  good  road,  will  have  an  improved 
highway  for  at  least  part  of  his  haul  to  town.  Then,  as  additional 
funds  become  available,  from  year  to  year,  each  of  these  roads  may 
be  extended  further  into  the  country,  until,  in  time,  they  form 
connections  with  similar  radiating  roads  constructed  by  other  com- 
munities, and  the  entire  locality  is  provided  with  a  network  of  good 
roads. 

While  a  system  of  radiating  roads  of  this  kind  will  benefit  the 
farmer  primarily,  it  will  also  be  helpful  to  the  town.  In  an  agri- 
cultural community,  without  substantial  manufacturing  enterprises, 
the  town  is  practically  supported  by  the  trade  of  the  farmers  of 


SELECTING    ROADS   TO    BE   IMPROVED  173 

the  surrounding  country.  A  good  road,  to  the  degree  that  it  may 
enable  a  farmer  to  market  to  better  advantage,  increases  his  pur- 
chasing power  to  the  benefit  of  the  merchants  in  the  town  where 
he  may  trade.  Improved  highways  radiating  from  a  town  widen 
the  area  from  within  which  the  farmer  may  profitably  market  his 
products  and  buy  his  supplies  in  the  town.  Good  roads  in  any 
community  are  also  an  important  factor  in  attracting  farm  settlers, 
who  will  bring  increased  trade  to  the  town. 

But  we  have  in  the  South  many  purely  industrial  towns  and  cities 
which  may  seem  not  to  depend  largely  on  any  back  country — towns 
in  which  the  trade  of  the  surrounding  farmers  is  relatively  of  little 
importance  in  the  total  volume  of  their  business.  Such  towns  are 
nevertheless  interested  in  developing  systems  of  radiating  roads  such 
as  I  have  suggested.  Even  in  the  largest  city,  a  certain  element  of 
the  population  is  concerned,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  trade  of 
the  surrounding  country  and  every  resident  is  almost  as  much  inter- 
ested in  building  up  nearby  sources  of  cheap  and  fresh  supplies  for 
his  produce  market  as  he  is  in  the  maintenance  of  good  schools. 
With  bad  roads  that  are  almost  impassable  during  certain  seasons 
of  the  year  the  area  within  which  milk,  and  perishable  articles  gen- 
erally, can  be  successfully  produced  for  the  city  market,  is  restricted. 
With  improved  roads  this  area  is  greatly  extended.  A  system  of 
good  roads  out  of  a  city  may  mean,  for  a  large  part  of  the  popula- 
tion, the  difference  between  fresh  food  and  the  cold  storage  warehouse. 

I  may  emphasize  the  point  I  am  endeavoring  to  make  by  citing 
the  concrete  example  of  Mecklenberg  County,  North  Carolina.  That 
county  was  one  of  the  first  in  the  State  systematically  to  take  up 
the  matter  of  road  improvement.  The  United  States  census  reports 
show  that  in  the  twenty  years  from  1890  to  1910,  the  population 
of  Mecklenberg  County  increased  57  per  cent,  as  compared  with 
an  increase  of  but  36  per  cent  for  the  State  of  North  Carolina  as 
a  whole,  and  the  population  of  Charlotte,  the  county  seat,  increased, 
in  the  same  period,  194  per  cent,  a  more  rapid  rate  of  growth  than 
was  shown  by  any  other  incorporated  place  of  relatively  the  same 
size  in  the  State.  The  value  of  all  farm  property  in  Mecklenberg 
County  in  1910,  as  reported  by  the  Census  Bureau,  was  greater 
than  in  any  other  county  in  the  State  with  the  exception  of  but 
one  county  with  one  and  three-fourth  times  the  area  of  Mecklenberg 
County,  and  the  value  of  farm  lands,  per  acre,  was  greater  than  in 
any  other  county  in  the  State  with  a  single  exception.  Other  fac- 
tors have  contributed  to  the  progress  of  Mecklenberg  County,  but 
we  may  fairly  attribute  part  of  its  growth  in  population  and  wealth 
to  its  enlightened  road  policy. 

Other  southern  counties  might  be  cited  showing  similar  progress 
following  the  construction  of  improved  country  highways  radiating 
from  a  central  market  town,  and  I  believe  that,  wherever  this  policy 
may  be  adopted,  its  wisdom  will  be  demonstrated  by  results. 


174  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

A  MEMBER:  We  have  with  us  this  afternoon  another  president 
of  a  great  railroad  system  who  has  taken  a  great  deal  of  interest  in 
good  roads  all  over  the  country;  I  refer  to  the  President  of  the  Nash- 
ville, Chattanooga  and  St.  Louis  Railway.  This  gentleman  is  known 
and  loved  and  trusted  by  the  people  of  the  South  and  I  feel  sure 
we  will  be  glad  to  have  a  few  words  from  Mr.  John  Howe  Peyton, 
President  of  the  Nashville,  Chattanooga  and  St.  Louis  Railway. 

MR.  PEYTON  :  I  feel  that  this  is  an  imposition  because  it  is  break- 
ing into  the  program  of  the  afternoon,  and  I  will  have  to  ask  to  be 
excused.  I  would  like  to  express  my  hearty  and  sincere  sympathy 
with  the  work  that  you  are  promoting  and  my  desire  to  assist  in 
pushing  it  forward.  I  feel  that  I  would  be  imposing  on  your  good 
nature  to  further  interrupt  the  program. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  No,  I  think  not;  come  right  up  and  we  will 
be  glad  to  hear  you. 

MR.  PEYTON  :  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  I  must  repeat  what 
I  have  just  said  from  the  floor,  I  am  afraid  I  am  imposing  upon 
you  in  thus  breaking  in  on  an  admirably  arranged  program. 

Since,  however,  you  have  been  so  good  as  to  insist  on  my  expressing 
my  views  as  to  the  work  you  have  in  hand,  I  am  glad  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  opportunity. 

My  enthusiastic  and  most  worthy  friend,  Mr.  Meyer,  of  Carthage, 
Tennessee,  is  doing  splendid  work  in  his  State  as  a  leader  in  mould- 
ing a  public  sentiment  favorable  to  the  construction  and  mainte- 
nance of  good  highways  in  Tennessee.  I  am  heartily  in  sympathy 
with  him  and  shall  try  to  hold  up  his  hands  and  assist  him  in  such 
efforts. 

Mr.  Harrison,  who  has  just  preceded  me,  and  has  read  a  most 
able  paper  in  your  hearing,  modestly  states  that  he  is  not  an  engi- 
neer or  constructor  and  therefore  not  in  position  to  discuss  details 
of  good  roads  either  as  to  construction  or  maintenance.  You  may 
be  interested  to  know  that  before  I  became  president  of  the  Nash- 
ville, Chattanooga  and  St.  Louis  Railway  I  had  been,  for  thirty- 
two  years,  in  the  active  practice  of  civil  engineering. 

I  am  therefore  not  only  deeply  interested  in  the  matters  that  you 
have  met  here  to  discuss  but  fairly  well  equipped  to  assist  you. 

I  am  persuaded  that  the  agricultural  interests  of  our  country  are 
paramount  in  importance,  but  that  successful  and  progressive  agri- 
cultural development  is  not  possible  without  adequate  provision  for 
transportation  by  means  of  good  highways  from  the  farms  to  the 
railroads  and  good  and  efficiently  managed  railroads  leading  thence 
to  the  markets. 

Being  thus  persuaded,  and  being  devoted  to  my  country,  I  am 
doing  all  in  my  power  to  promote  scientific  agriculture;  good  highway 
construction  and  maintenance,  and  good  railroad  construction  and 
operation. 


HEAVY   TRAFFIC   ROADS  175 

I  came  here  seeking  information  that  may  make  me  more  efficient 
in  furthering  the  highway  projects  in  my  State. 

I  thank  you  heartily  for  giving  me  this  opportunity  to  look  you 
in  the  face  and  now  I  am  going  to  listen  most  attentively  to  the 
papers  that  are  to  be  read  by  the  gentlemen  whom  you  have  selected 
as  most  competent  to  instruct  us. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  There  are  many  questions  that  come  up  for 
our  consideration  in  road  building,  but  there  are  no  questions  that 
have  come  up  to  disturb  the  commissioners  more  than  to  take  care 
of  this  great  question  of  the  heavy  traffic  roads.  Of  course  we 
know  that  the  macadam  road  will  wear  out  and  the  gravel  road  will 
wear  out,  the  brick  road  will  wear  out  and  indeed  the  great  presi- 
dents of  these  railroads  will  tell  you  that  they  have  never  been 
able  to  put  that  little  piece  of  rail  down  yet  but  what  they  had  to 
be  replaced.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  there  is  nothing  in 
this  world  but  what  will  wear  out  except  perhaps  it  might  be  the 
mercy  of  God,  and  that  is  sometimes  severely  tried.  One  of  our 
citizens  happened  to  go  through  Maryland,  and  we  are  pretty  proud 
of  our  roads  up  in  Connecticut  and  think  pretty  well  of  them  and  I 
want  to  tell  you  that  it  is  not  with  any  feeling  of  envy  or  jealousy 
that  I  relate  to  this  convention  what  he  said  to  me,  for  I  served 
Connecticut  18  years  as  commissioner.  He  said,  "  Mr.  MacDonald, 
I  never  rode  over  better  roads  since  I  have  been  on  that  car,  and 
it  has  been  a  good  many  years,  than  I  rode  over  in  Maryland." 
We  have  with  us  today  a  gentleman  who  assisted  materially  in 
bringing  about  that  condition  of  affairs,  Mr.  Henry  G.  Shirley,  and 
I  take  great  pleasure  in  introducing  him. 

HEAVY  TRAFFIC  ROADS 

BY  HENRY  G.  SHIRLEY 
Chief  Engineer,  State  Roads  Commission  of  Maryland 

The  rapid  change  that  has  taken  place,  and  which  is  daily  taking 
place  in  the  character  of  traffic  on  our  highways,  makes  the  selec- 
tion of  the  type  of  surface  more  difficult  each  day  for  the  highway 
engineer.  In  selecting  a  type  of  surfacing  for  any  particular  road, 
the  engineer  not  only  has  to  study  the  amount  and  kind  of  traffic 
that  daily  passes  over  the  road,  but  has  to  make  a  very  comprehen- 
sive study  of  the  amount  and  kind  of  traffic  that  will  probably  pass 
over  the  road  in  the  future,  by  virtue  of  the  development  of  the 
surrounding  territory  on  account  of  the  improved  road. 

The  writer  has  made  studies  of  roads  where  the  traffic,  before 
improvement,  consisted  of  light  vehicles  and  nothing  heavier  than 
two-horse  loads,  but  as  soon  as  the  road  was  reconstructed,  the 
amount  of  traffic  increased  from  50  to  300  per  cent,  and  the  loads 
from  light  two-ton  loads  to  ten  to  twelve-ton  motor  trucks,  and 


176  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

fourteen  to  eighteen-ton  tractors.  He  also  recalls  constructing  a 
section  of  road  through  a  very  sparsely  settled  section,  and  estimat- 
ing that  it  would  be  quite  a  long  time  before  the  adjacent  territory 
would  be  more  thickly  populated,  and  accordingly  selected  a  soft 
local  limestone  for  the  metal  surfacing,  but  which  had  sufficient 
strength  and  hardness  to  carry  the  traffic  that  was  passing  over  the 
road  at  that  time.  Scarcely  had  the  road  been  completed  when 
several  large  tracts  of  woodland,  not  a  great  distance  from  the  road, 
were  cut  down,  and  the  lumber  was  transported  on  wagons,  drawn 
by  large  traction  engines  with  cleats,  over  the  road  to  the  railroad 
station.  The  effect  of  this  heavy  traffic  on  the  soft  limestone  sur- 
face can  be  easily  surmised. 

Drainage  of  a  road-bed  that  is  required  to  carry  heavy  traffic, 
should  be  well  taken  care  of  by  tile  or  other  sub-surface  drains,  so 
as  to  render  the  sub-foundation  as  dry  and  firm  as  possible.  The 
maximum  grade  should  not  exceed  a  6  per  cent,  and  the  alignment 
should  be  as  straight  as  possible,  with  all  sharp  curves  and  bends 
eliminated.  The  width  of  the  roadway  and  the  width  and  thick- 
ness of  the  metal  surfacing  should  be  designed  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  present  as  well  as  the  future  traffic  which  it  will  have 
to  accommodate,  but  the  minimum  width  should  not  be  less  than 
30  feet,  nor  the  metal  surfacing  less  than  18  feet.  Broken  stone  or 
gravel  make  a  fair  foundation,  but  concrete  is  almost  as  cheap  and 
is 'more  preferable. 

The  thickness  of  macadam  and  gravel  should  not  be  less  than 
5  inches  after  rolling,  nor  more  than  10  inches,  while  concrete  should 
not  be  less  than  4  inches,  nor  more  than  8  inches,  depending  pri- 
marily, upon  the  character  of  the  soil  of  the  sub-base,  and  the  inten- 
sity and  character  of  traffic  it  will  have  to  sustain.  In  some  cases 
where  the  loads  are  very  heavy,  but  the  number  of  loads  small, 
it  has  been  found  economical  to  lay  a  strip  of  high-class  and  durable 
pavement  in  the  middle  of  the  road  for  a  width  of  9  to  14  feet,  with 
a  cheaper  and  less  durable  material  on  each  side. 

Before  selecting  the  type  of  pavement  to  be  used,  a  close  and 
accurate  census  of  the  different  kinds  of  traffic  should  be  taken,  a 
very  thorough  study  made  of  the  surrounding  section,  and  an  esti- 
mate made  as  to  the  possible  increase  of  the  different  kinds  of  traffic, 
or  the  decrease  of  one  kind  and  the  large  increase  of  the  other.  It  is 
the  opinion  of  the  writer  that  in  no  other  line  of  engineering  should 
there  be  a  larger  factor  of  safety  used  than  in  estimating  the  amount, 
intensity,  and  kind  of  motor  and  self-propelled  traffic  that  will  pass 
over  our  improved  roads  in  the  near  future.  The  great  change  in 
the  character  of  traffic  developed  in  the  past  five  years,  is  but  a 
small  index  to  what  can  be  expected  in  the  next  five  years  to  come. 

The  types  of  pavements  used  on  heavy  traffic  roads  should  be 
selected  as  to  their  fitness  to  stand  the  kind  and  intensity  of  the 
traffic  that  will  travel  them.  Roads  in  the  outlaying  districts,  where 
horse-drawn  traffic  comprises  the  larger  percentage  should  be  con- 
structed of  macadam  with  a  light  surface  treatment.  Concrete  will 


HEAVY   TRAFFIC    ROADS  177 

also  be  found  serviceable  and  desirable.  Where  motor  traffic  is  in 
the  majority,  bituminous  macadam  or  concrete  will  give  good  results. 
Near  the  centers  of  population,  where  the  traffic  is  mixed  and  heavy, 
concrete,  bituminous  concrete,  asphalt  or  vitrified  brick  will  prove 
the  most  economical.  Where  the  heavy  traffic  is  concentrated,  brick, 
asphalt  or  stone  block  are  the  most  suitable. 

There  can  be  given  no  hard  and  set  rule  for  selecting  the  type  of 
construction  that  should  be  used  on  a  given  section  of  road  to  carry 
a  known  traffic.  For  local  conditions,  the  availability  of  materials, 
etc.,  play  such  an  important  part  in  the  selection  of  the  type  of 
surfacing  in  any  locality,  that  each  individual  case  must  be  worked 
out  on  its  own  merits. 

The  following  method  of  selecting  a  type  of  surfacing  to  carry 
an  estimated  traffic,  however,  will  prove  fairly  accurate  where  a 
study  can  be  made  and  the  maintenance  cost  can  be  had  of  roads 
constructed  and  maintained  under  similar  conditions: 

Where  the  annual  cost  of  maintenance  of  a  less  durable  type  of 
road  surfacing  will  exceed  the  annual  cost  of  maintenance  of  a  more 
durable  type  of  surfacing,  plus  4  per  cent  on  the  excess  cost  of  the 
more  durable  type  over  the  less  durable  type,  the  more  durable 
type  should  be  used,  and  vice  versa. 

The  maintenance  on  heavy  traffic  roads  should  be  continuous  and 
thorough — never  allowing  the  surface  to  remain  broken  any  length 
of  time,  but  as  soon  as  the  slightest  defect  or  indication  of  failure 
appears,  it  should  be  speedily  repaired. 

The  writer  cannot  close  this  paper  on  "  Heavy  Traffic  Roads" 
without  calling  the  attention  of  the  Congress  to  the  great  necessity 
for  having  adequate  laws  to  regulate  the  heavy  loads  that  have  to 
be  borne  by  the  surface  of  the  many  hundreds  of  miles  of  roads  that 
have  been  and  are  daily  being  constructed.  The  manufacturers  of 
tractors,  motor  trucks,  and  other  hauling  engines,  have  given  but 
little  study  to  the  effect  and  injury  that  is  being  done  and  may  be 
done  by  the  heavy  loads  propelled  over  the  road  surface^  and  the 
strain  and  stress  caused  by  narrow  tires,  steel  cleats,  ribs,  and  other 
devices,  but  it  seems  that  the  greater  amount  of  their  energies  have 
been  to  develop  an  engine  or  motor  truck  that  will  haul  the  largest 
load  in  the  shortest  period  of  time,  using  the  least  amount  of  fuel — 
all  of  which  is  very  commendable,  but  it  is  the  duty,  as  well  as  to 
the  welfare  of  these  manufacturers,  to  devote  quite  as  much  energy 
and  brains  in  constructing  their  engines  and  motor  trucks  in  such 
a  way  that  the  least  amount  of  damage  will  be  done  to  the  surfacing 
in  passing  over  the  roads.  It  is  most  important  that  the  manu- 
facturers of  hauling  equipment  and  highway  engines  should  work 
together  in  framing  a  set  of  adequate  laws  controlling  the  use  of 
hauling  equipment  over  improved  roads,  as  well  as  developing  wheels 
and  other  devices  so  as  to  do  the  road  surfacing  the  least  amount  of 
damage.  By  cooperating  and  working  together,  large  sums  can  be 
annually  saved  on  maintenance,  which  will  greatly  benefit  all 
concerned. 


178  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  I  think  that  if  the  title  of  this  address  had  been 
changed  to  read  "What  is  the  Best  Material  to  Use  Upon  Heavy 
Traffic  Roads,"  that  quite  a  number  of  gentlemen  who  are  out  here 
selling  material  would  have  been  in  the  hall  and  would  have  filled 
it  up.  I  remember  one  time  hearing  a  man  say  that  if  people  would 
buy  one  of  his  grates  they  would  save  half  the  coal,  if  they  bought 
two  they  would  save  all  the  coal  and  if  they  bought  three  of  his 
grates  they  would  have  coal  to  sell.  We  are  going  to  have  this 
discussion  opened  by  a  gentleman  who  is  Superintendent  of  Public 
Works  of  Fulton  County,  Georgia,  Mr.  William  A.  Hansel,  Jr. 
Those  of  us  who  have  been  privileged  to  go  out  here  in  Fulton  County 
and  see  the  splendid  system  or  roads  that  he  has  developed  and 
know  that  this  has  all  taken  place  within  the  last  15  years — I  want 
to  tell  you  it  has  been  a  stupendous  operation,  and  under  the  con- 
dition which  he  had  to  contend  with,  this  red  mud  of  Georgia,  he 
has  solved  a  difficult  problem.  He  has  built  the  roads  not  only 
where  the  people  live  but  where  the  people  are  going  to  live  in  these 
little  isolated  places,  and  it  is  a  pretty  good  lesson  for  all  of  us 
commissioners  who  have  had  to  do  with  this  great  question  for  so 
many  years.  I  take  pleasure  in  introducing  Mr.  Hansel. 

MR.  HANSEL:  It  is  but  just  to  my  predecessor  in  office  to  state 
that  the  good  words  the  chairman  has  spoken  about  our  roads  are 
not  due  to  me;  I  have  only  been  with  the  county  a  few  months, 
while  my  predecessor  has  been  with  the  county  27  years  and  most 
of  the  good  work  is  his  and  not  mine.  However,  I  hope  to  continue 
the  work  he  has  started.  Mr.  Shirley  has  so  covered  the  subject 
that  I  shall  have  no  opportunity  to  bring  out  new  points  but  I  would 
like  to  particularly  emphasize  some  parts  of  his  paper.  The  first 
thing  is,  of  course,  to  make  as  thorough  a  study  of  the  traffic  condi- 
tions as  is  possible,  with  a  comprehensive  investigation  as  to  the 
materials  locally  available  and  the  ability  of  local  labor  to  use  these 
materials.  After  this  has  been  done  the  road  selected  must  be  the 
one  that  best  serves  its  purpose  and  whose  cost  stays  within  the 
money  appropriated  for  its  construction.  Quite  frequently  we  are 
obliged  to  put  down  what  we  know  is  not  best,  because  the  money 
for  the  proper  construction  is  not  available.  It  is  sometimes  possi- 
ble to  get  a  good  road  by  putting  a  narrow  strip  of  expensive  mate- 
rial in  the  center  and  paving  with  less  expensive  material  on  the 
sides.  It  is  much  better  to  have  12  feet  of  good  road  and  a  cheap 
gutter  than  a  cheap  road  the  full  width.  A  rubble  side  pavement 
costs  very  little  and  if  given  a  finish  of  cement  grout  makes  a  very 
good  substitute  for  an  expensive  road.  You  can  see  this  being  put 
in  on  the  concrete  road  now  under  construction  here.  A  plain 
macadam  road  is  a  fairly  good  road  and  if  given  a  surface  treat- 
ment of  road  oil  or  some  similar  coating  it  is  much  improved.  If 
the  road  indicated  is  macadam  it  does  not  cost  much  more  to  make 
a  penetration  bituminous  macadam  or  a  concrete  road  and  either 


DISCUSSION  179 

is  much  better.  If  you  have  more  money  to  spend,  a  mixed  method 
bituminous  macadam  is  still  better  or  using  a  concrete  base,  asphalt, 
brick,  wood  block  or  granite  block.  Where  the  money  to  be  in- 
vested is  little,  heavy  traffic  can  be  cared  for  by  sand-clay  and  top 
soil  roads  if  the  maintenance  is  continuous.  Where  a  pavement 
laid  on  a  concrete  base  is  indicated,  it  would  usually  be  cheaper  to 
make  the  entire  pavement  of  concrete  and  with  the  present  rich 
mixtures  very  satisfactory  results  are  obtained.  Whatever  the  road, 
it  is  very  necessary,  after  taking  care  of  drainage,  to  see  that  all 
ditches  are  properly  refilled  and  tamped  from  the  bottom  up.  Too 
frequently  an  otherwise  splendid  job  is  marred  by  the  sinking  in 
of  a  ditch  and  the  accompanying  bad  place  in  the  pavement.  It 
costs  little  to  fix  the  subgrade  properly  and  bring  a  rich  reward  in 
the  permanence  of  the  job.  The  foundation  of  the  roadway  should 
not  be  too  thin  or  if  of  concrete,  too  lean.  However  perfect  the 
studies  made,  the  conclusions  reached  as  to  type  of  pavement,  the 
specifications,  the  material  contracted  for  and  the  intentions  of  all 
parties  concerned  there  will  not  be  a  good  road  without  proper 
and  continuous  inspection.  Too  often  an  inspector  is  appointed 
because  he  can  control  so  many  votes  or  because  he  is  a  jolly  good 
fellow  or  because  he  needs  the  job  rather  than  because  he  is  com- 
petent. Hasten  the  day  when  an  inspector  is  appointed  solely 
because  he  knows  his  business  and  will  attend  to  it.  After  your 
proper  type  of  road  is  properly  constructed  comes  the  trying  time. 
If  a  top  soil  or  sand  clay  road,  keep  it  dragged;  if  macadam,  keep 
the  little  places  stopped;  if  surface  treated,  patch  the  little  bare 
places;  if  bituminous  macadam,  cut  out  the  little  breaks  and  refill 
them  and  so  on  down  the  line  but  never  lose  sight  of  the  three  rules 
for  good  roads,  (1)  maintain  them,  (2)  maintain  them,  (3)  maintain 
them.  Some  of  our  roadways  because  of  lack  of  maintenance  make 
me  think  of  George  Washington  Johnson,  colored,  the  leader  of  a 
church  choir.  His  rector  went  to  Boston  to  get  money  to  build 
a  new  Episcopal  Church  and  was  much  taken  with  the  "High 
Church"  forms  he  saw  there,  particularly  the  use  of  the  burning 
incense  carried  in  the  processional.  He  determined  to  try  it  at 
home  and  rigged  up  a  tin  can  with  some  brass  chain  of  limited 
length  so  that  it  kept  the  can  rather  near  the  hand  of  the  bearer. 
The  choir  was  duly  trained,  and  G.  W.  J.  chosen  the  bearer  of  the 
wondrous  innovation.  At  the  first  public  appearance  the  church 
was  packed  and  the  rector  led  his  forces  down  the  center  aisle  in 
great  glory.  When  he  reached  the  altar  and  turned  to  face  the 
procession  his  astonishment  was  unbounded  on  noting  the  absence 
of  the  incense  vessel.  He  was  too  game  to  show  his  surprise  openly, 
but  intoned,  "What  have  you  done  with  the  incense  pot?"  G.  W. 
J.  was  equally  game  and  answered,  "Dropped  it  on  the  floor  it  was 
so  blamed  hot."  Maintenance  is  "hot  stuff"  but  let  us  grit  our 
teeth  and  do  it  rather  than  letting  our  roads  go  to  pieces. 


180  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  will  continue  the  discussion  on  this  great 
question  by  asking  Mr.  Charles  Warner,  of  Wilmington,  Delaware, 
to  give  us  a  few  remarks. 

MR.  WARNER:  As  a  sincere  friend  and  firm  believer  in  concrete 
for  road  construction,  I  present  this  paper  touching  on  its  deficiencies 
and  lines  of  correction.  Most  engineers  and  contractors  have  over- 
looked important  principles  in  handling  concrete  for  this  purpose. 
H.  Purvis  Taylor,  Richard  K.  Meade,  Sanford  E.  Thompson,  E.  W. 
Lazell,  Ira  H.  Woolson,  Henry  S.  Spackman,  American  Society  for 
Testing  Materials,  Government  Bureau  of  Standards  and  other  prom- 
inent engineers  and  societies  have  called  attention  to  the  following 
important  principles  and  the  best  methods  of  making  concrete  meet 
these  desirable  points: 

First:  Homogenity  and  plasticity  with  a  minimum  of  segregation 
while  mixing  and  placing. 

Second:  Elimination  of  shrinkage  during  the  preliminary  harden- 
ing period. 

Third:  Minimizing  porosity  and  permeability  to  moisture  after 
hardening. 

Fourth:  Minimizing  expansion  and  contraction  due  to  moisture 
changes.  The  intermittent  stresses  produced  in  the  relatively  thin 
slabs  employed  in  concrete  roads  by  the  pressure  of  heavy  wheels 
and  by  the  exposure  to  the  weather  make  the  full  recognition  of  the 
above  principles  of  the  most  vital  importance. 

This  paper  will  summarize  the  conclusions  of  the  above  promi- 
nent engineers  and  societies  on  the  effect  of  hydrated  lime  in  con- 
crete mixtures  as  bearing  on  these  principles.  Hydrated  lime,  now 
regularly  manufactured  by  over  80  plants  in  the  United  States,  is 
a  soft,  dry,  bulky  material.  Portland  cement  is  comparatively 
coarse,  sandy,  heavy  and  dense.  When  mixed  with  sand,  stone 
and  water,  there  is  a  marked  tendency  to  segregation  of  the  cement. 
The  wetter  mixes  of  concrete  used  to  facilitate  its  placing  aggravate 
this  condition.  "  Stone  pockets"  are  commonly  observed  in  inspec- 
tion of  concrete  work.  The  reason  is  evident  on  watching  the  flow 
of  concrete  upon  placing.  The  direct  effect  of  hydrate  additions 
is  to  make  a  fat  unctuous  concrete,  which  will  flow  better  and  segre- 
gate less  in  transmission. 

Spackman  said  in  a  recent  address  before  an  engineering  society: 
"Durability  of  concrete  is  dependent  more  on  uniform  distribution 
of  the  cement  through  the  mass  than  on  the  actual  quantity  of 
cement  in  the  concrete." 

Edwards,  of  Edwards  and  Lazell,  engineers,  Portland,  Oregon,  in 
a  recent  pamphlet  said:  "The  properties  of  plasticity  and  homo- 
geneity which  small  percentages  of  hydrated  lime  give  to  concrete 
cannot  be  secured  in  any  other  way  at  so  little  added  expense  for 
the  material  used." 

For  these  reasons  several  of  these  engineers  claim  that  hydrated 


DISCUSSION  181 

lime  is  an  insurance  against  poor  workmanship  and  conveying 
methods  which  cause  segregation. 

The  question  of  shrinkage  during  preliminary  setting  has  been 
tested  extensively  by  the  Spackman  laboratories  of  Philadelphia 
during  the  past  two  years.  Spackman  has  proven  that  the  ordinary 
concrete  used  under  the  usual  road  conditions  shows  marked  shrink- 
age the  first  24  hours  before  hardening.  Spackman  further  reports 
that  the  best  methods  of  protecting  the  top  of  the  fresh  concrete 
only  partially  offset  seepage  of  the  gauging  water  through  the  sub- 
base.  This  seepage  naturally  produces  shrinkage  and  developsin- 
cipient  fractures  which  later  become  cracks  and  lines  of  weakness. 

In  test  slabs  of  concrete  with  hydrate  additions  made  coinci- 
dently,  the  result  during  this  tender  age  was  decidedly  different. 
In  Concrete  Cement  Age,  March,  1914,  Spackman  states  that,  "with 
the  draining  off  of  the  excess  gauging  water,  there  is  a  marked  shrink- 
age in  the  24-hour  period"  and  later  adds:  "The  addition  of  hydrated 
lime markedly  reduces  the  shrinkage  due  to  drain- 
ing off  of  the  surplus  gauging  water  and  also  reduces  the  extent  of 
the  movement  of  the  test  pieces  when  alternately  wet  and  dry," 
etc. 

The  direct  effect  of  permanent  waterproofing  of  concrete  slabs 
by  the  use  of  hydrated  lime  additions  was  discussed  thoroughly  in 
a  series  of  pamphlets  and  articles  issued  by  Lazell  several  years  ago. 
Lazell  first  analyzes  various  waterproofing  methods  and  concludes 
that  the  introduction  of  some  foreign  material  or  materials  into  the 
mixture  is  the  best  principle  to  work  upon.  He  then  analyzes  the 
characteristics  of  such  a  material,  stating  that: 

A  material  to  fully  meet  the  requirements  should  have  a  mineral  base  and 
should  be  composed  chiefly  of  lime  so  as  to  be  similar  to  cement  in  its  chemi- 
cal composition.  It  would  therefore  seem  that  hydrated  lime  would  be  a 
material  that  would  most  nearly  fill  the  requirements.  Clay  has  been  sug- 
gested as  a  suitable  material  but  its  use  in  practice  would  be  impractical  owing 
to  the  tendency  of  its  particles  to  adhere,  forming  balls.  These  balls  have 
little  adhesion  and  hence  would  injure  the  strength  of  the  concrete. 

Quoting  again  from  a  report  of  Committee  D-8  on  waterproofing 
materials  of  the  American  Society  for  Testing  Materials: 

In  general,  more  desirable  results  are  obtainable  from  inert  compounds 
acting  mechanically,  than  from  active  compounds  whose  efficiency  depends 
on  change  of  form  through  chemical  action  after  addition  to  concrete; 

Void-filling  substances  are  more  to  be  relied  upon  than  those  whose  value 
depends  on  repellant  action.  Assuming  average  quality  in  sizing  of  the 
aggregates  and  reasonably  good  workmanship  in  the  mixing  and  placing  of 
the  concretes,  the  addition  of  10  to  20  per  cent  of  very  finely  divided  void- 
filling  mineral  substances  may  be  expected  to  result  in  the  production  of 
concrete  which  under  ordinary  conditions  of  exposure  will  be  found  imper- 
meable, provided  the  work  joints  are  properly  bonded,  and  cracks  do  not 
develop  on  drying  or  through  change  in  volume  due  to  atmospheric  changes, 
or  by  settlement. 

On  the  point  of  endeavoring  to  secure  this  result  by  richer  cement 
mixtures  in  the  concrete,  this  same  report  says: 


182  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

It  has  been  suggested  that  impermeable  concretes  could  be  assured  by 
using  mixtures  considerably  richer  in  cement.  While  such  practice  would 
probably  result  in  an  immediate  impermeable  concrete,  it  is  believed  by  many 
that  the  advantage  is  only  temporary,  as  richer  concretes  are  more  subject 
to  check  cracking  and  are  less  constant  in  volume  under  changes  of  condi- 
tions of  temperature,  moisture,  etc.  Therefore,  the  use  of  more  cement  in 
mass  concrete  would  cause  increased  cracking,  unless  some  means  of  con- 
trolling the  expansion  and  contraction  be  discovered. 

The  Bureau  of  Standards  at  Washington  in  its  exhaustive  report 
on  waterproofing  cement  mortar  states: 

This  is  the  most  efficient  medium  and  results  in  an  almost  impermeable 
mortar  at  the  two  weeks'  test.  Its  value  is  probably  due  to  its  void  filling 
properties  and  the  same  results  could  be  expected  from  any  other  finely  ground 
inert  material,  such  as  sand,  clay,  etc. 

The  word  "this"  refers  to  hydrated  lime  used  in  these  tests. 

While  from  the  standpoint  of  producing  a  waterproof  concrete, 
the  various  substances  mentioned  other  than  hydrated  lime  might 
prove  equalty  effective,  their  use  as  a  substitute  for  hydrated  lime 
would  not  give  the  same  plasticity  to  the  mortars  or  concretes. 
It  would  seem  dangerous  in  view  of  the  well  known  bad  effect  on 
the  strength  of  concrete,  of  silt,  fine  sand  and  clay  matter  in  the 
sand,  to  add  such  material  to  concrete  roads,  whereas  in  adding 
hydrated  lime,  a  material  is  used  that  is  mildly  cementitious  in 
itself,  has  a  different  physical  action  and  no  risk  should  be  assumed. 

Spackman  in  a  recent  address  before  an  engineering  society  in 
Baltimore  stated: 

The  greater  plasticity  and  readiness  to  flow  into  place  observed  in  the  use 
of  hydrated  lime  in  concretes  is  probably  a  yoid-preventative  and  therefore 
aids  in  completing  the  void-filling  action  noticeable  by  the  use  of  small  pro- 
portions of  hydrated  lime. 

Both  Taylor  and  Thompson  during  the  past  eight  years  have 
exhaustively  tested  this  vital  principle  of  waterproofing  concrete 
so  particularly  essential  in  road  construction.  In  their  reports  made 
at  different  times  to  the  American  Society  for  Testing  Materials, 
they  show  most  conclusively  the  large  improvement  coming  from 
small  additions  of  hydrated  lime  in  producing  practically  water- 
proof results. 

One  run  of  tests  by  Thompson  illustrates :  A  1-3-5  concrete  under 
water  pressure  of  60  pounds  to  the  square  inch  had  its  flow  per 
hour  reduced  from  70.6  down  to  0.7  grams  by  the  addition  of  20 
per  cent  of  hydrated  lime.  In  this  important  series  of  tests,  Thomp- 
son brings  out  the  point  also  observed  by  Spackman  and  other 
engineers  that: 

The  cost  of  large  waterproof  concrete  structures  frequently  may  be  reduced 
by  employing  leaner  proportions  of  concrete  with  hydrated  lime  mixtures, 
and  small  structures,  such  as  tanks,  may  be  made  more  watertight. 


DISCUSSION  183 

This  observation  leads  to  the  special  problem  of  leanness  in  con- 
crete mixtures  and  its  resultant  economy.  As  referred  to  above  in 
the  report  of  Committee  D-8  of  the  American  Society  for  Testing 
Materials,  and  as  generally  known,  the  richer  a  cement  mixture, 
the  greater  the  expansion  and  contraction  under  moisture  changes. 
Spackman  illustrates  this  by  observing  that  neat  cement  moves 
approximately  four  times  that  of  a  1-3-5  concrete  and  that  a  1-2 
cement  mortar  will  move  approximately  50  per  cent  more  than  1-3 
cement  mortar  under  the  same  moisture  changes. 

A  neat  cement  mixture  would  move  upwards  of  4  inches  in  100 
feet  between  extreme  dry  and  wet  conditions.  The  effect  of  move- 
ment of  this  kind  in  road  slabs  is  evident  and  the  importance  of 
reducing  such  movement  to  the  absolute  minimum  for  the  purpose 
of  permanency  goes  without  saying.  Therefore,  the  use  of  the 
leanest  concrete  mixtures  consistent  with  the  desired  strength  becomes 
good  practice,  both  for  economy  and  permanency  of  construction. 

This  leads  to  the  question  of  toughness  and  strength  as  affected 
by  hydrate  additions.  The  extended  tests  made  by  many  of  these 
engineers  justify  the  following  general  conclusions: 

First:  By  substituting  10  per  cent  of  hydrated  lime  for  10  per 
cent  of  cement  slightly  lesser  strengths  are  noted  but  the  variations 
are  immaterial  as  compared  with  variations  due  to  other  factors 
in  concrete  work. 

Second:  By  the  addition  of  10  per  cent  of  hydrated  lime  to  the 
cement  ingredient  slightly  greater  strengths  are  secured.  (These 
substitutions  and  additions  are  by  weight. 

Spackman  further  made  tests  on  toughness  or,  more  properly, 
wearing  characteristics,  by  tumbler.  The  concrete  with  hydrated 
lime  addition  lost  0.6  per  cent  by  weight  as  against  a  loss  of  1.5 
per  cent  by  the  corresponding  sample  of  straight  concrete  under 
similar  conditions.  Spackman  attributes  the  improvement  to  the 
greater  homogeneity  and  uniformity  naturally  resulting  in  the  sample 
using  the  hydrated  addition. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  point  out  the  following: 

First:  That  hydrated  lime  is  now  manufactured  by  many  plants 
under  the  same  strict  chemical  control  as  used  in  the  best  cement 
mills  and  so  far  as  care  in  its  manufacture  is  concerned,  is  as  safe  a 
material  to  use  as  Portland  cement. 

Second:  The  American  Society  for  Testing  Materials  has  recog- 
nized the  position  of  this  material  and  is  standardizing  it.  Tentative 
specifications  have  already  been  adopted  as  a  guide  for  the  use  of 
engineers  to  assure  a  sound  and  reliable  hydrated  lime. 

Third :  Hydrated  lime  and  Portland  cement  are  neutral  and  there 
are  no  unknown  or  uncertain  chemical  actions  to  set  up.  There- 
fore, there  need  be  no  fear  or  concern  of  any  uncertain  chemical  or 
physical  action  in  the  use  of  hydrated  lime  in  any  concrete  or  cement 
mortar  work. 

Fourth :  Short  stretches  of  concrete,  say  100  feet  or  thereabouts 


184  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

will  not  demonstrate  the  average  improved  results  in  the  use  of 
hydrated  lime.  If  it  is  agreed  that  the  principles  set  forth  in  this 
paper  are  sound,  then  relatively  large  sections  of  permanent  roads 
under  construction,  say  500  to  1000  feet,  should  be  subjected  to 
hydrated  lime  addition  and  the  average  result  of  these  hydrated 
sections  should  be  compared  with  the  result  of  several  miles  of 
straight  concrete  sections  constructed  under  the  same  general  average 
conditions. 

For  these  various  reasons,  I  therefore  urge  as  most  important  the 
study  and  practical  development  of  hydrated  lime  in  concrete  for 
all  road  work.  If  the  conclusions  drawn  from  extensive  work  and 
study  of  the  prominent  engineers  referred  to  mean  anything,  they 
mean  that  much  better  concrete  results  from  the  judicious  use  of 
hydrated  lime. 

With  these  deficiencies  covered  in  a  practical  manner,  we  have 
in  concrete  a  road  material  of  great  value. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  The  discussion  will  be  continued  by  Mr.  Paul 
Hannagan,  Mayor  of  the  city  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts  and  also 
Commissioner  of  Engineering. 

MR.  HANNAGAN:  I  come  from  a  section  of  our  country  where 
granite  is  plenty ;  where  the  great  adamantine  ribs  of  the  earth  come 
near  the  surface  and  crop  out  into  giant  hills  and  puny  mountains. 

We  are  near  the  highest  point  of  land  in  the  northeastern  sec- 
tion of  our  country,  Mount  Washington,  which  towers  over  6000 
feet  above  the  sea. 

The  great  ice  floe  of  the  last  continental  glacial  epoch  of  ten 
thousand  or  a  hundred  thousand  years  ago,  as  you  may  please  to 
estimate  the  time,  passed  over  the  section  where  I  make  my  home. 
It  planed  down  the  mountains  and  filled  up  the  valleys. 

So  while  we  have  beautifully  wooded  hills  and  smiling  and  fertile 
valleys  the  highest  point  of  land  is  low  when  compared  with  the  lofty 
peaks  of  the  Rockies. 

The  ice  floe  did  a  good  work  not  only  in  levelling  things  up  tre- 
mendously but  in  scraping  off  the  softer  rocks  which  may  have 
formed  on  top  of  the  earlier  formation,  leaving  vast  stretches  of  the 
bare  granite  rock  bleaching  under  our  torrid  summer's  sun  or  sub- 
jected to  great  contraction  stresses  in  our  frigid  New  England 
winters. 

So  we  naturally  turn  to  this  material,  lying  at  our  very  doors,  for 
much  of  our  paving  material.  It  is  ideal  in  many  ways  and  we  think 
we  are  especially  fortunate  in  this  respect.  Other  sections  of  the 
country,  I  know,  are  as  fortunate  as  we  are. 

I  have  read  of  the  old  Roman  roads.  Of  that  wonderful  Appian 
Way,  running  out  from  imperial  Rome  for  an  unbroken  stretch  of 
350  miles,  begun  more  than  300  years  before  the  Christian  era.  How 
after  a  lapse  of  nearly  1000  years  it  was  reported  to  still  be  in  per- 
fect condition,  and  that  even  now  parts  of  it  are  still  in  use. 


DISCUSSION  185 

It  was  built  'generally  .3  jfeet  deep  of  stones  laid  in  mortar,  with 
a  wearing  surface  of  flat  stones  of  irregular  shape  carefully  fitted 
together.  An  undertaking  which  in  our  day  would  be  prohibitive 
on  account  of  its  expense.  It  was  not  more  than  18  feet  wide  in 
its  greatest  width,  and  I  think  I  have  seen  it  estimated  that  such 
construction  would  cost  some  $250,000  a  mile  today. 

I  have  read  too  of  the  old  Roman  roads  built  by  that  great  people 
in  their  conquered  province  of  Britain.  How  they  ran  north  and 
south,  and  east  and  west,  giving  access  to  all  parts  of  the  province 
for  use  in  keeping  the  native  people  in  subjugation. 

In  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  these  roads  had  been  entirely  neglected 
and  many  of  them  were  impassable.  In  fact  at  that  time  England 
had  no  good  roads.  About  London  they  were  said  to  be  fair,  but 
sandy.  In  the  country  districts  the  traveller  floundered  through 
mud  and  tumbled  over  boulders.  The  roads  were  practically  im- 
passable to  vehicles,  in  fact,  none  could  be  had  for  hire  outside  of 
London.  Travel  was  almost  entirely  on  horseback.  There  were  few 
bridges  and  what  there  were  were  generally  the  gift  of  the  church 
or  individuals.  For  the  most  part  streams  had  to  be  forded.  The 
foot  traveller,  if  the  stream  were  narrow,  passed  over  perhaps  on 
a  timber  which  had  been  felled  across,  and  he  was  lucky  if  a  hand 
rail  had  been  provided  for  his  safety. 

All  down  through  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  little  improve- 
ment, and  it  was  not  until  MacAdam  and  Telford  began  their  work 
that  street  building  became  in  any  way  a  science. 

Every  road  builder  is  familiar  with  their  methods,  and  every  city 
in  this  country  where  any  stone  is  to  be  had  has  miles  and  miles  of 
water  bound  macadam.  So  common  is  it  that  we  even  spell  the 
name  with  a  little  "m." 

The  natural  resources  of  New  England  furnish  some  of  the  best 
materials  for  this  method  of  construction.  We  have  plenty  of  the 
hard  rocks  suitable  for  macadam,  and  until  the  automobile  came 
it  was  in  many  ways  the  best  form  of  construction  for  country  roads 
and  also  for  city  streets  of  light  traffic. 

Large  areas  of  Massachusetts  furnish  field  stone  in  quantities. 
They  were  the  foot  balls,  the  marbles,  of  the  great  continental 
glacier.  They  have  been  rolled  about,  rubbed  down  and  sand- 
papered by  nature's  titantic  forces  for  ages  and  ages.  Much  that 
was  soft  has  been  ground  into  sand  and  dust.  We  have  great  hills 
of  perfect  mortar  sand,  sharp  and  bright.  The  larger  part  of  the 
boulders  that  are  left  are  hard  and  furnish  a  fair  road  material  if 
the  softer  ones  are  carefully  culled  out. 

The  old  race  which  first  settled  our  section  piled  up  these  stones 
into  walls  for  dividing  the  land.  They  climb  over  hills  too  barren 
even  for  a  sheep  pasture,  and  run  down  into  valleys  and  swamps 
where  the  land  seems  hardly  worth  dividing  up. 

These  walls  have  been  a  mine  of  modest  wealth  in  the  vicinity 
of  every  city,  furnishing  an  easily  accessible  source  for  stone  for 


186  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

foundations  and  later  for  crushing,  particularly  for  concrete.  If 
considered  too  soft  for  a  wearing  surface  for  macadam  they  are  at 
least  hard  enough  for  the  foundation  courses. 

Under  automobile  traffic,  macadam,  in  all  the  more  heavily  traveled 
roads,  is  proving  unsatisfactory.  It  is  so  in  my  section  of  the  country, 
and  I  think  it  is  the  general  opinion  everywhere. 

Because  of  the  proximity  of  my  city  to  the  great  source,  the  great 
quarries  of  granite,  I  have  turned  my  attention  particularly  to  the 
development  of  granite  pavements.  We  are  told  that  the  great 
items  to  be  considered  in  street  pavements  are  cost,  smoothness, 
noiselessness,  durability,  sanitary  conditions,  maintenance,  ease  of 
traction,  non-slipperiness,  ease  of  cleaning,  etc.  The  granite  pave- 
ment as  I  lay  it  meets  most  of  these  conditions  perfectly. 

Originally  many  of  our  cities  had  cobble  pavements.  The  city 
of  Lawrence  was  fortunate  in  having  only  one  street  of  that  mate- 
rial, and  that  street  disappeared  so  long  ago  that  few  remember  we 
ever  had  one. 

Granite  blocks  laid  in  the  old  way  with  sand  joints  became  in 
a  few  years  under  the  wear  of  the  traffic  but  little  better  than  cobbles. 
The  joints  rounded  off  in  a  surprisingly  rapid  way  and  teams  bumped 
along  making  a  frightful  noise  and  producing  most  uncomfortable 
sensations  to  those  riding. 

The  only  way  this  particular  character  of  wear  can  be  prevented 
is  by  filling  the  joints  with  a  material  about  as  hard  as  the  stone 
itself.  We  luckily  now  have  a  cement  far  superior  to  any  which 
could  be  procured  in  any  preceding  age.  So  hard  is  it  when  properly 
mixed  and  used  that  it  is  almost  as  indestructible  as  the  block  itself. 

While  first  cost  counts  to  quite  an  extent  in  determining  the 
character  of  a  city  pavement,  I  have  noticed  that  it  is  soon  forgotten 
if  the  pavement  proves  acceptable.  It  is  so  with  all  great  public 
improvements.  While  granite  block  may  perhaps  approach  the  high- 
est in  point  of  first  cost,  it  is  really  cheaper,  in  the  long  run,  as  no 
repairs  are  required.  The  pavement  has  become  so  universally 
acceptable  in  my  city  that  no  opposition  has  developed  against  laying 
it  in  large  quantities,  even  to  spending  25  per  cent  of  the  total  city 
disbursement  on  this  character  of  work  in  this  present  year.  Where 
a  few  years  ago  people  said  they  knew  when  they  struck  Lawrence 
by  the  bad  condition  of  the  roads,  now  they  know  Lawrence  by 
coming  onto  streets  nearly  as  smooth  as  a  polished  floor. 

The  durability  of  granite  block  can  hardly  be  questioned,  at  least 
its  durability  as  compared  with  other  popular  pavements.  It  has 
one  peculiarity.  Where  most  pavements  begin  to  deteriorate  imme- 
diately on  their  being  subjected  to  traffic,  granite  block,  for  several 
years,  continually  improves.  This  may  be  a  surprising  statement, 
but  it  is  absolutely  true.  Not  only  does  the  pavement  become 
smoother,  but  less  slippery. 

All  granite  blocks  are  more  or  less  uneven.  We  expect  the  irregu- 
larities will  not  exceed  one-quarter  of  an  inch,  but  even  this  irregu- 


DISCUSSION  187 

larity  is  noticeable  particularly  with  iron  tires  on  an  ordinary  wagon, 
and  the  speed  of  an  automobile  seems  to  accentuate  them. 

The  cement  grout,  while  it  evens  up  the  surface  to  some  extent, 
is  not  intended  to  be  left  in  any  appreciable  thickness  on  the  pave- 
ment, so  much  of  the  original  irregularity  of  the  granite  block  remains 
when  the  street  is  first  opened.  But  under  the  traffic  these  irregu- 
larities gradually  disappear,  they  are  ironed  out  in  a  way.  So 
monolithic  is  the  pavement  that  the  hammering  of  heavy  vehicles 
does  not  affect  it  in  the  least. 

A  large  part  of  the  stone  we  use,  preferably  the  quality  we  use, 
is  the  mica  granite  rather  than  the  hornblende  granite.  Instead  of 
wearing  glassy  with  a  somewhat  gritty  surface  so  that  the  footing 
for  horses,  except  under  exceptional  conditions  of  ice  or  slime,  im- 
proves as  time  goes  by. 

In  maintenance  granite  is  superior  to  all  pavements.  The  great 
drawback  in  a  pavement  with  us  is  the  cutting  of  trenches  through 
it  for  various  purposes.  Sometimes  it  seems  as  though  the  pave- 
ment was  hardly  down  before  some  individual  discovers  they  must 
dig  it  up  for  some  purpose.  The  objection  against  digging  up  the 
pavement  seems  to  increase  their  desire  to  do  it. 

In  a  small  city  where  we  know  so  many  by  their  given  name, 
where  we  are  almost  like  members  of  one  family,  it  is  exceedingly 
difficult  to  stop  this  digging  up  of  a  new  pavement.  In  the  case  of 
a  State  or  national  highway  the  impersonal  condition  of  the  con- 
trolling factor  makes  it  easy  to  forbid  much  that  a  government  of  a 
small  city  finds  it  hard  to  do.  However,  I  can  repair  one  of  my 
granite  pavements  so  that  the  patch  can  hardly  be  discovered,  much 
less  noticed. 

Long  longitudinal  joints  in  all  kinds  of  pavement,  that  is  joints 
which  from  their  location  in  the  street  can  come  under  the  direct 
line  of  the  travel,  must  be  avoided,  for  any  kind  of  pavement  will 
wear  into  ruts  if  wheels  can  travel  along  a  joint.  So  if  repairs  are 
made  where  trenches  are  cut  the  pavement  must  be  toothed  out, 
no  matter  how  hard  the  material  or  what  the  character  of  the  joint 
filler.  It  makes  no  difference. 

In  ease  of  traction  I  cannot  see  why  smooth  granite  pavements 
will  not  stand  as  good  a  test  as  any  other  kind.  I  believe  tables 
of  resistance  to  traction  of  the  various  road  surfaces  place  granite 
some  distance  below  the  top.  It  seems  to  me  that  these  tests  must 
have  been  made  on  worn  pavements  with  sand  joints  or  at  least  with 
joints  filled  with  an  elastic  yielding  material.  With  smoother  granite 
pavements  traction  resistance  will  decrease  with  the  age  of  the  pave- 
ment, while  with  other  pavements  traction  resistance  continually 
increases. 

In  ease  of  cleaning  these  granite  pavements  can  hardly  have  a 
superior.  They  can  be  almost  as  easily  swept  as  a  hardwood  floor, 
far  more  easily  than  a  tar  concrete  sidewalk. 

They  can  be  flushed  without  the  least  injury,  even  with  positive 


188  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

benefit.  They  respond  perfectly  to  all  kinds  of  mechanical  cleaning. 
In  themselves  they  are  practically  dustless.  Their  wear  is  almost 
infinitesimal. 

In  the  matter  of  noise  there  is  less  perhaps  to  be  said  in  their 
favor.  But  they  are  less  noisy  than  granite  block  having  any  other 
kind  of  filler  and  their  merit  is  so  great  in  every  other  particular 
that  the  question  of  noise  can  perhaps  be  put  to  one  side  for  a  time 
until  the  use  of  the  auto  in  practically  all  of  the  municipal  activities 
which  call  for  transportation  eliminates  this  question  entirely,  and 
then  smooth  granite  pavements  will  be  regarded  as  nearly  ideal  as 
anything  material  can  be,  until  we  pass  on  to  the  streets  of  gold 
in  the  Eternal  City. 

I  lay  my  pavement  on  a  sand  base.  Only  exceptional  condi- 
tions will  demand  a  concrete  foundation.  The  blocks  are  deep, 
from  7  to  8  inches.  In  width  they  run  from  3J  to  4J  inches  and  in 
length  up  to  12  or  13  inches.  We  estimate  they  will  lay  about  24 
to  the  square  yard.  All  our  contracts  for  blocks  are  by  the  square 
yard  measured  after  laying.  We  excavate  by  contract  by  the  cubic 
yard.  We  haul  the  blocks  by  contract  by  the  square  yard,  and 
we  lay  the  blocks  and  finish  the  pavement  with  our  own  help  by 
day  labor. 

I  have  never  seen  a  granite  pavement  fail  because  of  the  character 
of  the  blocks.  Its  very  life  depends  on  the  treatment  of  the  joints. 
Under  my  instruction  and  direction  the  men  employed  in  doing  the 
grouting  on  our  Lawrence  pavements  have  become  adepts  in  the  line. 
The  grout  is  mixed  one  to  one  in  special  boxes  by  hand.  Because  the 
joint  filling  is  so  vital,  and  makes  or  breaks  the  pavement,  I  have 
given  this  particular  part  of  the  work  my  most  careful  attention 
and  have  prepared  a  set  of  specifications  which  in  my  opinion  will 
meet  all  requirements. 

The  Massachusetts  State  Highway  Commission  were  the  pioneers 
in  State  road  construction.  They  experiment  with  every  known 
pavement  and  keep  abreast  and  ahead  of  the  grand  procession  of 
road  builders.  This  season,  in  Lawrence,  they  authorized  me  to 
build  the  only  piece  of  road  they  have  in  our  city,  with  granite  blocks 
laid  hi  the  manner  described  in  this  paper. 

Within  10  years  I  believe  the  Massachusetts  State  Highway  Com- 
mission will  adopt  granite  block  pavement  for  most  of  the  State 
highways,  and  will  lead  the  world  in  this  method  of  construction. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  see  Brother  Blair  getting  up  to  talk  about 
bricks,  but  before  listening  to  him  we  will  have  a  few  words  from 
Mr.  W.  A.  Aiken,  an  engineer  from  New  York  City. 

MR.  AIKEN:  The  "test  of  time,"  that  of  service  endurance,  is 
undoubtedly  most  valuable  to  determine  the  permanent  effectiveness 
of  any  roadway  material  for  constructive  purposes. 

Anticipating  this,  preliminary  information  can  be  acquired  through 


DISCUSSION  189 

the  application  of  certain  accelerated  mechanical  tests,  which  from 
time  to  time  have  been  standardized  by  their  adoption  by  recognized 
authority  and  promulgated  as  specification  tests.  Several  years  ago 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  published  a  series  of 
test  results  upon  a  number  of  roadway  materials,  among  them  slag. 
Some  of  the  tests  used  in  this  investigation,  have  been  formally 
adopted  and  issued  as  standard  by  the  American  Society  for  Testing 
Materials,  upon  the  recommendation  of  Committee  D-4.  It  should 
be  noted,  that  no  detailed  information,  within  the  writer's  knowledge, 
was  given  at  the  time  of  publishing  these  test  results  as  to  the  origi- 
nal chemical  composition  or  method  of  commercial  preparation  of 
the  slag  reported  on,  though  from  the  number  of  samples  tested  it 
is  to  be  assumed  they  probably  came  from  widely  different  sections 
of  the  country.  While  blast  furnace  slag  in  the  same  district,  arising 
from  the  use  of  practically  the  same  raw  materials  in  the  process 
whence  it  is  derived  should  be  comparatively  uniform  chemically 
and  physically,  there  will  be  considerable  variation  found  if  com- 
parison be  instituted  between  this  product,  from  different  manu- 
facturing districts  and  there  certainly  must  be  greater  differences 
between  slags  even  from  the  same  district,  prepared  differently  for 
commercial  purposes.  So  that  it  must  be  understood  that  when 
blast  furnace  slag  is  herein  referred  to,  material  of  limited  chemical 
composition  and  properly  handled  in  its  storage  and  preparation  for 
market  is  intended  whether  its  use  be  for  macadam,  waterbound  or 
bituminous  bound,  or  concrete  construction.  The  government  test 
results  above  referred  to,  have  been  in  a  more  recent  publication 
noted  as  having  been  brought  down  to  1912.  These  reveal  com- 
paratively more  or  less  fully  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  differ- 
ent materials  examined,  covering  percentage  of  loss  through  abrasion, 
degree  of  hardness  and  toughness,  tendency  to  absorb  water,  com- 
pressive  or  tensile  strength,  specific  gravity  and  cementing  value. 
Upon  an  arbitrary  scale  all  results  are  measured  so  that  within 
certain  maximum  and  minimum  limits,  the  materials  are  graded  as 
low  or  soft,  medium  or  fair,  good  or  hard.  It  must  be  realized  that 
a  high  rating  in  one  characteristic,  while  theoretically  tending  to 
recommend  the  material,  might  practically  materially  impair  its 
average  value  if  radically  influencing  any  other  characteristics.  One 
material  might  be  so  hard  and  tough  as  to  show  such  slight  loss 
in  abrasion  with  consequent  low  cementing  value,  that  its  use  in 
actual  service  would  necessitate  the  addition  of  some  extraneous 
binder.  This  of  course  would  apply  more  particularly  in  the  con- 
sideration of  materials  for  waterbound  macadam  construction  and 
not  be  of  such  moment  in  bituminous  bound  or  surface  treated 
construction.  But  it  will  be  recognized  that  the  best  material  for 
general  roadway  purposes,  unless  special  conditions  are  to  be  met, 
is  that,  wherein  is  combined  in  as  high  a  degree  as  possible  as  many 
of  the  desirable  physical  characteristics  of  the  ideal  material,  well 
balanced.  As  the  theoretically  ideal  roadway  is  of  monolithic  con- 


190  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

struction,  the  distinction  previously  drawn,  showing  the  importance 
of  good  cementing  value  in  any  material,  however  otherwise  desir- 
able, will  be  recognized  as  an  important  one.  It  is  this  property  of 
one  of  the  components  of  concrete,  that  gives  great  value  to  this 
material  for  roadway  purposes. 

Examination  of  the  test  records  show  that  some  slag — and  mark 
the  author's  insistence  on  quality  which  can  be  guaranteed — meets 
all  the  test  requirements  with  a  particularly  high  cementing  value. 
This  was  to  have  been  anticipated  since  this  material  closely  approxi- 
mates in  chemical  composition  as  it  does  on  a  small  scale,  in  mode 
of  production,  natural  puzzolanic  material,  whose  cementitious  value 
has  been  utilized  for  thousands  of  years.  The  necessary  degree  of 
hardness  of  any  material  proposed  for  structural  use  must  not  be 
sacrificed  merely  on  account  of  good  cementing  value,  but  that  blast 
furnace  slag  is  sufficiently  hard  to  comply  with  roadway  specifica- 
tion requirements,  has  been  developed  to  the  writer's  complete  satis- 
faction by  a  series  of  tests  on  concrete  specimens,  where  comparison 
was  instituted  between  broken  stone,  trap  and  limestone  and  slag 
used  severally  as  coarse  aggregate  with  identical  cement  and  fine 
aggregate.  These  tests,  showing  average  results  for  each  period 
from  28  days  at  3  month  intervals  up  to  1  year,  embodied  probably 
the  greatest  number  of  individual  specimens  ever  similarly  investi- 
gated. These  were  submitted  last  June  to  the  convention  of  the 
American  Society  for  Testing  Materials  at  Atlantic  City.  The  speci- 
mens were  6-inch  cubes  of  \-2-A  concrete  and  the  strength  values 
obtained  from  the  slag  concrete  at  all  periods,  compared  perfectly 
with  the  average  values  in  the  author's  experience  of  similarly  pro- 
portioned concrete  irrespective  of  difference  in  character  of  the 
coarse  aggregate.  The  marked  porous,  sponge  like  structure  of  the 
slag,  characteristic  of  the  output  from  modern  furnaces  and  quite 
different  from  the  old  style  glassy,  hard,  brittle  material,  aided 
greatly  to  produce  a  monolithic  character  in  the  concrete.  The 
specimens  upon  crushing  presented  a  markedly  different  appear- 
ance to  those  where  the  coarse  aggregate  was  broken  stone  and  this 
is  equally  noticeable  where  sections  of  macadam  work  are  examined 
for  fracture  appearance:  different  materials  showing  very  differently, 
that  from  slag  on  account  of  its  porous  structure  and  high  cementing 
value,  showing  a  much  more  monolithic  type  than  the  general  run 
of  materials. 

These  tests  all  emphasize  the  cementitious  value  of  the  material 
as  a  specially  important  factor  in  determining  its  possible  selection 
over  other  materials.  There  are  some  practical  advantages  in  the 
use  of  slag  which  are  not  developed  by  the  above  laboratory  tests — 
which  do  appear  when  the  material  is  put  to  a  practical  use  in  road 
building.  Through  sections  of  the  country  where  natural  drainage 
is  poor,  this  very  adverse  circumstance  tends  to  accentuate  the 
value  of  the  slag  as  base  material.  This  must  not  be  interpreted 
of  course,  to  imply  that  where  practicable,  proper  drainage  is  not 


DISCUSSION  191 

to  be  provided  for  but  only  to  show  that  slag  shows  to  advantage 
where  other  materials  would  naturally  fail  under  similar  use.  Again, 
with  most  road  materials  used  in  the  base,  the  necessity  often  exists 
for  bringing  in  special  top  dressing.  It  is  the  experience  of  every- 
one who  has  used  blast  furnace  slag  for  roadway  construction,  that 
the  ordinary  side  ditch  material  furnishes,  in  combination  with  the 
slag  base,  a  finish  that,  in  a  very  short  time  is  surprisingly  satis- 
factory, one  which  withstands  traffic  in  a  manner  entirely  its  own 
and  with  use  of  such  side  ditch  material  on  ordinary  base  material, 
the  function  of  the  ditch  material  simply  being  to  hold  the  slag  in 
place  until  the  monolithic  character  of  the  road  is  fully  developed. 

Experience,  the  "test  of  time"  has  generally  corroborated  pre- 
liminary conclusions  based  on  mechanical  tests  furnishing  relative 
values  of  different  materials.  A  number  of  years  ago,  in  the  infancy 
of  the  awakening  thought  for  better  roads,  it  was  authoritatively 
stated  that  nearly  one-half  of  this  country  was  very  illy  provided 
with  materials  suitable  for  roadway  construction.  Much  of  the 
extreme  South  was  undoubtedly  referred  to  in  this  statement  and 
the  appreciation  of  slag  as  better  material  than  much  locally  found, 
is  shown  by  its  widely  growing  use  in  the  Gulf  States.  Natural 
puzzolanic  material,  wherever  available,  was  used  by  the  Romans, 
the  greatest  road  builders  in  the  world  and  the  most  highly  techni- 
cally educated  nations  of  modern  Europe  have  long  recognized  the 
value  of  that  other  similar  material,  slag.  In  this  country,  except 
by  management  of  the  large  iron  and  steel  industries  and  by  com- 
munities adjacent  to  their  plants,  little  thought,  except  sporadically, 
has  been  given,  until  comparatively  recent,  to  conservation,  through 
the  utilization  of  the  millions  of  tons  of  this  waste  material  suitable 
for  roadway  construction.  Continued  and  increasing  recognition  of 
the  material's  worth  is  sure  to  follow  each  new  successful  experience 
in  its  application. 

MR.  BLAIR:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  not  going  to  detain  you  but  a 
moment  and  I  may  surprise  you  by  what  I  am  going  to  say,  in  view 
of  what  the  Honorable  Chairman  has  suggested  that  I  might  possibly 
say.  I  was  particularly  refreshed  by  the  statements  made  by  the 
Mayor  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  in  all  he  did  say  and  I  believe 
that  the  lesson  suggested  by  what  he  said,  was  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able given  to  this  convention.  I  am  unacquainted  with  the  writer 
of  that  paper,  I  know  but  little  about  the  pavements  of  Lawrence, 
Massachusetts,  made  of  granite,  but  I  do  subscribe  to  what  he  says 
based  upon  his  description  of  the  manner  and  method  in  which 
his  pavements  are  built,  and  therein  to  me  lies  the  most  valuable 
suggestion  in  all  of  the  papers  that  have  been  read  and  the  greatest 
lesson  to  be  drawn  from  them.  It  is  the  manner  and  method  of 
building  a  pavement  rather  than  the  type  from  which  you  get  the 
greatest  efficiency.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  of  suggestions  for 
maintenance;  we  have  said  to  build  the  roads  and  maintain  them 


192  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

and  maintain  them  and  maintain  them,  but  here  we  have  a  witness 
coming  before  us  who  says  the  pavements  that  he  builds  do  not 
require  repairs,  and  he  says  it  is  a  hard  thing  to  believe,  so  that 
his  suggestion  comes  with  a  little  doubt  in  his  own  mind  as 
whether  he  ought  to  make  the  suggestion.  Now  I  want  to  emphasize 
and  support  what  he  has  said  by  one  little  statement  in  reference 
to  a  particular  experience.  In  1901  in  the  city  of  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
a  medina  block  pavement  was  laid,  as  he  describes,  around  the  south- 
west corner  of  the  square.  It  has  borne  as  heavy  traffic  as  that 
city  affords  upon  any  of  its  streets,  and  every  hour  and  every  minute 
since  that  time  it  has  grown  better  without  one  single  cent  for  main- 
tenance, and  it  will  continue,  in  my  judgment,  to  grow  better  for 
years  to  come.  Now  then,  out  of  the  same  material  precisely  on 
another  and  an  adjoining  street,  with  traffic  not  so  heavy,  a  pave- 
ment has  been  built,  which  is  a  miserable  dirty,  filthy,  unsanitary7 
pavement,  not  fit  to  live  upon  or  walk  upon  or  use,  and  it  has  been 
so  since  it  was  built.  I  have  sometimes  heard  it  said  that  in  com- 
pelling a  team  to  draw  a  load  over  that  pavement  the  team  is  com- 
pelled to  lift  the  load  one-fourth  that  distance  at  an  angle  of  45 
degrees.  It  is  the  manner  and  methods  in  which  the  pavements 
are  built,  and  we  must  not  hide  behind  the  fact,  we  engineers  of  the 
country,  that  the  construction  is  badly  supervised,  that  we  have 
inefficient  inspectors.  It  is  upon  us  to  assert  ourselves  and  see  that 
the  roads  are  built  exactly  in  accordance  with  the  specifications  and 
built  at  their  best.  I  am  sometimes  heard  to  say,  and  I  am  only 
going  to  speak  a  word  with  reference  to  brick  pavements,  that  the 
brick  pavements  of  this  country  ought  to  be  built  and  are  built, 
so  that  they  will  grow  better  for  years  to  come  instead  of  depre- 
ciating from  the  hour  that  they  are  built,  and  it  is  so  and  I  am 
glad  to  be  supported  by  this  paper.  I  am  glad  that  this  paper  has 
been  read.  I  myself  have  built  like  pavements  30  years  ago.  The 
time  will  come,  although  it  may  come  slow,  when  we  will  under- 
stand that  we  can  build  hard  pavements  out  of  stone  and  granite 
and  brick  that  are  the  most  sanitary  in  the  world. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  There  is  an  old  saying  and  a  true  one  that  the 
common  people  heard  the  Lord  gladly;  He  talked  to  them  in  their 
own  way  and  from  the  point  of  view  that  they  would  understand. 
We  have  gone  after  the  country  road  and  the  intertown  road  into 
the  cities  where  these  strong,  able  pavements  are  a  matter  of  course. 
The  curse  of  the  cities  of  our  country  has  been  that  the  choice  of 
the  pavement  has  been  left  to  the  selection  of  abutting  owners  and 
not  as  we  have  them  today,  under  the  supervision  of  our  highway 
commissioners.  An  illustration  of  how  people's  minds  change  is 
best  shown  in  a  pavement  that  was  laid  in  New  York  City  in  1874. 
One  of  those  pavements  was  called  the  Gada  pavement,  a  granite 
pavement,  and  it  remained  there  until  1894,  and  I  presume  that 
that  pavement  had  about  as  much  traffic  as  the  Appian  Way  had 


MAINTENANCE  OF  EARTH  ROADS  193 

from  the  day  it  was  laid  till  the  present  time,  and  yet  it  was  cov- 
ered over  afterwards,  because  it  was  noiseless,  by  an  asphalt. 

We  now  come  down  to  the  people's  highway,  the  roads  the  farmers 
built  in  this  country,  2,200,000  miles  of  road,  and  they  built  them 
themselves  without  any  assistance.  Now  there's  a  whole  lot  of 
people  who  want  to  know  what  we  are  going  to  do  with  this  great 
question  of  over  2,200,000  miles  of  earth  roads  that  are  still  not 
under  anybody's  care  and  have  not  been  improved.  Only  10  per 
cent  of  the  roads  of  this  country  are  improved,  and  I  am  glad  my 
friend  Cooley  is  to  talk  to  you  this  afternoon  on  this  great  question. 
I  take  great  pleasure  in  introducing  Mr.  Cooley. 

MAINTENANCE  OF  EARTH  ROADS 

BY  GEORGE  W.  COOLEY 
State  Highway  Engineer  of  Minnesota 

I  beg  permission  of  the  Program  Committee  and  the  delegates 
present,  to  change  the  title  of  my  paper  from  "Maintenance  Methods 
and  Relations  to  Traffic"  to  "The  Maintenance  of  Earth  Roads." 
This  change  is  made  for  various  reasons: 

First,  we  all  know,  either  through  our  own  experience  or  from  the 
experience  of  other  investigators,  that  the  economic  value  of  a  high- 
way depends  to  a  great  extent  on  its  surfacing,  and  the  care  with 
which  that  surfacing  is  kept  up.  The  nature  of  the  material  used 
for  surfacing,  its  value  as  to  hardness,  toughness  and  its  recementing 
quality  is  generally  determined  from  the  conditions  of  each  individual 
case,  but  one  factor  remains  forever  the  same,  one  rule  must  be  con- 
tinually in  force,  and  that  is  a  continuous  and  thorough  system  of 
repairs  and  maintenance.  Without  the  careful  carrying  out  of 
such  a  rule,  the  best  of  roads  will  deteriorate,  the  cost  of  transpor- 
tation will  become  greater  with  each  day's  neglect,  and  our  road  will 
become  a  liability  instead  of  an  asset.  By  far  the  greater  proportion 
of  our  roads,  especially  those  in  States  having  a  large  mileage  and  a 
moderate  road  fund,  are  the  common  ordinary  earth  roads  either 
built  entirely  from  the  material  at  hand  or  covered  when  permissible, 
with  a  surfacing  of  gravel,  sand,  stone  or  clay,  as  necessities  warrant, 
or  conditions  permit. 

In  the  consideration  of  this  subject,  it  is  presumed  that  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  road  construction  have  been  followed,  i.e.,  that 
an  ample  drainage  system  has  been  provided,  and  that  the  sub- 
grade  or  foundation  has  been  built  up  without  the  use  of  perishable 
material.  Unless  our  road  has  been  so  primarily  constructed,  weak 
spots  will  develop  when  the  drainage  is  imperfect  or  where  sods  or 
vegetable  matter  has  been  used  in  its  construction,  and  the  cost  of 
proper  maintenance  will  become  excessive. 

In  the  construction  of  a  new  earth  road  made  in  an  open  level  or 
rolling  country,  the  use  of  an  elevating  grader  is  quite  common  and 


194  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

under  suitable  conditions  its  use  is  justified  by  economy  in  con- 
struction work,  but  its  value  as  a  road  builder  is  lessened  if  the  two 
frequent  result  is  obtained  of  casting  the  sods  into  the  road  bed, 
and  depending  on  the  regular  traffic  to  thoroughly  consolidate  the 
mass  so  built  up.  This  can  be  avoided  by  the  use  of  a  tractor  in 
hauling  the  grader,  which  thoroughly  pulverizes  and  packs  the 
material  cast  in  by  the  grader. 

We  may  safely  take  it  for  granted  then  that  in  any  road  bed 
carelessly  constructed  with  a  large  percentage  of  vegetable  matter, 
the  future  bills  for  repairs  and  maintenance  will  be  governed  largely 
by  the  quantity  of  unsuitable  construction  material  used,  and  in 
case  of  a  lax  system  of  construction,  a  more  elaborate  system  of 
maintenance  must  be  adopted. 

I  quote  the  following  from  Mr.  L.  W.  Page,  director  of  the  office  of 
public  roads: 

Overtopping  all  other  road  problems  in  its  importance  is  that  of  mainte- 
nance. The  destructive  agencies  of  traffic  and  the  elements  are  unceasing  in 
their  activities,  and  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  permanent  roads  any  more  than  to 
speak  of  a  house,  a  fence  or  railroad  ties  as  permanent.  The  public  roads  to- 
day, by  reason  of  the  exceptionally  obstructive  traffic  conditions,  are  more 
costly  in  construction  and  this  cost  is  continually  increasing  with  the  ad- 
vance in  the  prices  of  labor  and  material.  It  is  criminally  wasteful,  therefor; 
to  invest  large  sums  of  public  money  in  building  the  highways  demanded  by 
traffic,  unless  the  investment  is  conserved  by  adequate  maintenance. 

We  conclude,  therefore,  that  continuous  maintenance  being  such 
an  important  factor  in  the  general  scheme,  especial  effort  must  be 
made  to  install  a  satisfactory  and  economical  system  as  soon  as  a 
road  is  opened  to  travel.  In  some  of  our  western  States,  the  plan 
has  been  suggested  of  requiring  contractors  on  surfaced  roads  to 
provide  for  maintenance  as  soon  as  any  section  is  completed,  and 
continue  the  same  for  at  least  thirty  days  after  the  work  is  ac- 
cepted, thus  giving  time  for  the  engineering  department  to  provide 
for  the  organization  of  a  maintenance  crew  without  overlapping 
or  interfering  with  the  work  of  construction:  and  in  Minnesota  the 
plan  has  been  adopted  in  the  construction  of  earth  roads  to  require 
the  continual  use  of  a  drag  or  planer  on  grade  building.  This  latter 
plan  has  been  found  very  efficient  and  renders  future  work  on  the 
surface  less  expensive,  besides  tending  to  produce  a  more  compact 
road  bed.  The  tool  found  most  satisfactory  in  this  work  is  that 
known  as  the  ''Minnesota  Road  Planer"  which  consists  of  the  two 
blades  of  an  ordinary  road  drag,  fixed  between  a  pair  of  runners  about 
14  feet  long,  the  blades  set  at  an  angle  of  about  sixty  degrees  to  the 
runner  and  made  rigid  or  adjustable  as  may  be  deemed  best.  The 
planer  is  hauled  on  a  line  parallel  with  the  axis  of  the  road  and  its 
operation  is  similar  to  that  of  the  ordinary  drag,  with  the  additional 
advantage  of  making  a  smoother  surface.  The  old  style  drag  with- 
out runners  has  a  tendency,  especially  on  new  work,  to  increase  the 
"waves"  or  undulations  frequently  occurring  on  road  construction, 
while  the  planer  eliminates  these  faults,  and  as  a  general  mainte- 
nance tool  has  proven  the  most  satisfactory. 


MAINTENANCE  OF  EARTH  ROADS  195 

An  important  feature  of  maintenance  is  prevention  of  the  growth 
of  sod  and  weeds  along  the  travelled  track.  When  sod  is  allowed  to 
form  along  the  highway,  it  has  a  tendency  to  catch  the  dust  and  wash 
from  the  road  surface,  and  soon  becomes  a  high  tough  shoulder, 
preventing  drainage.  The  use  of  a  spring  tooth  harrow  along  the 
roadside  two  or  three  times  a  year  will  prevent  this  growth. 

The  State  of  Minnesota  has  given  special  attention  to  the  matter 
of  maintenance  and  in  the  present  road  laws  have  made  adequate 
provision  for  the  care  of  all  roads.  Township  and  county  roads 
constitute  approximately  90  per  cent  of  the  road  mileage  of  the 
State,  and  of  these  roads,  about  90  per  cent  are  earth  roads.  To 
care  for  the  town  and  county  roads,  a  one  mill  tax  is  levied  on  all 
property  in  the  town  the  proceeds  of  which  constitutes  the  town 
dragging  furd.  This  fund  is  expended  under  the  direction  of  an 
overseer,  appointed  by  the  town  board,  for  the  purchase  of  drags, 
and  in  dragging  all  roads  of  the  town,  excepting  State  roads.  This 
appears  to  be  the  most  satisfactory  method  of  caring  for  the  earth 
roads  under  control  of  the  local  authorities,  but  there  should  be  a 
provision  in  such  cases,  for  general  supervision  of  the  work  by  the 
county  highway  engineer. 

For  the  care  of  State  roads  in  Minnesota,  20  per  cent  of  the 
State  road  funds,  with  a  due  proportion  of  county  funds,  are  set 
aside  and  may  not  be  used  for  any  other  purpose  than  maintenance 
of  State  roads.  As  the  State  roads  include  all  types  of  construction, 
different  systems  of  maintenance  have  been  required  in  the  different 
localities.  In  general,  three  systems  have  been  established:  The 
patrol  system  on  macadam  and  well  built  gravel  roads,  and  the 
maintenance  section  system,  and  road  drag  system  on  other  roads,  all 
being  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  district  highway  engineer. 

Under  the  patrol  system,  one  man  is  assigned  a  section  of  from 
5  to  7  miles  of  road  and  works  with  hand  tools.  It  has  been  found 
necessary  to  supplement  this  work  with  the  occasional  use  of  a  team 
and  in  that  manner  it  has  proven  satisfactory  on  macadam  and 
gravel  roads. 

Under  the  maintenance  section  system,  one  man  is  given  charge 
of  a  section  of  from  20  to  30  miles  of  road  and  is  employed  continu- 
ously with  his  team  on  the  care  of  his  section.  He  is  given  authority 
to  employ  additional  help,  both  teams  and  men,  and  usually  has 
two  teams  and  four  or  five  men  at  work.  Contracts  are  also  entered 
into  by  the  section  foreman  with  residents  along  the  road,  for  the 
dragging  of  same  after  each  rain,  or  when  ordered  to  do  so  by  him. 
The  section  crew  takes  care  of  all  minor  items  of  construction,  such 
as  placing  culverts,  etc.,  and  we  have  found  that  the  work  when 
properly  done,  is  really  of  a  constructive  nature.  This  system  is 
without  doubt  the  most  effective,  and  is  being  adopted  generally 
throughout  the  State. 

The  dragging  system  requires  the  employment  of  a  superintendent 
of  maintenance,  who  for  convenience  should  be  one  of  the  engineer's 
assistants,  whose  duty  is  to  contract  or  make  arrangements  for  the 


196  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

dragging  of  all  roads  under  his  charge,  and  to  see  that  the  work  is 
done  at  proper  times.  This  system  is  suitable  for  slightly  undulating 
prairie  country,  where  most  of  the  roads  are  of  earth,  and  to  get 
best  results,  the  superintendent  should  have  at  his  disposal  light 
graders  to  reshape  the  road  bed  at  least  at  the  beginning  of  each 
season. 

On  earth  or  gravel  roads,  no  maintenance  system  is  complete  which 
does  not  contemplate  the  use  of  planers  or  similar  devices,  and 
a  combination  of  work  as  outlined  under  the  section  system  is 
recommended. 

I  have  been  asked  to  state  something  about  our  plan  of  raising 
funds.  We  have  a  law  by  which  we  levy  a  tax  of  one  mill  on  the 
total  assessible  property  of  the  State.  That  gives  us  $1,500,000 
every  year,  which  we  distribute  in  such  a  way  that  no  county  shall 
receive  less  than  1  or  more  than  3  per  cent.  That  money  is  allotted 
to  the  counties  in  the  office  of  the  State  engineer  under  a  plan  whereby 
the  county  having  a  valuation  of  $5,000,000  pays  20  per  cent  and 
the  State  80  per  cent;  a  county  having  between  $5,000,000  and 
$10,000,000  pays  30  per  cent  and  the  State  70  per  cent;  a  county 
having  a  valuation  between  $10,000,000  and  $15,000,000  pays  40 
per  cent  and  the  State  60  per  cent,  and  in  all  other  counties,  the  State 
pays  half  and  the  county  pays  half.  We  have  a  district  engineer 
in  every  county  in  the  State  who  has  a  supervisory  control  of  all 
work  done  in  the  county.  Before  payment  is  made  on  any  work, 
it  must  be  approved  by  the  district  engineer. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  Diehl  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions 
desires  to  make  an  announcement. 

MR.  DIEHL:  I  would  like  to  say,  gentlemen,  that  the  Committee 
on  Resolutions  met  this  morning  and  afternoon  and  will  hold  another 
meeting  this  evening.  They  desire  to  present  their  report  at  to- 
morrow's session  and  therefore  request  all  delegates  who  so  desire 
to  present  their  resolutions  in  order  that  they  may  be  considered 
at  the  Committee  meeting  this  evening. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  the  "Earth  Roads"  will  be 
continued  by  Mr.  H.  R.  Carter,  who  is  the  State  Highway  Engineer 
of  Arkansas.  That  State  has  made  a  recent  appropriation  of 
$1,250,000  which  has  been  placed  in  his  charge.  The  State  has 
some  36,000  miles  of  roads  and  they  have  improved  about  1000 
miles  as  I  understand  it,  sand-clay  roads.  We  will  be  very  glad  to 
hear  from  Mr.  Carter  in  regard  to  this  great  question. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  Unfortunately,  I  did  not  arrive  as 
early  as  I  should  have  and  as  a  result  I  have  been  unable  to  secure 
a  copy  of  Mr.  Cooley's  paper,  however,  if  I  had  secured  it  I  am  sure 
I  could  not  have  found  many  more  points  to  discuss  because  he  has 
covered  his  subject  thoroughly. 


DISCUSSION  1 97 

In  Arkansas  our  problem  is  now  and  will  be  for  some  time  in  the 
future,  a  problem  of  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  earth  roads. 
I  might  say  though,  as  the  chairman  has  told  you,  that  we  now  have 
approximately  1000  miles  of  improved  roads,  I  mean  by  improved 
roads,  gravel,  water  bound  macadam,  tarvia,  bituminous  macadam, 
and  concrete  roads.  I  merely  mention  these  facts  in  order  that 
you  may  become  more  conversant  with  conditions  that  exist  in  our 
State.  We  built  the  best  possible  roads  with  the  money  available. 

The  speaker  does  not  desire  in  any  way  to  criticise  Mr.  Cooley's 
paper,  but  there  is  one  point,  although  a  small  one,  that  I  would 
like  to  discuss  for  a  short  time,  that  is,  the  use  of  the  road  drag. 
Mr.  Cooley  mentions  in  his  paper  that  in  Minnesota  a  road  planer 
is  used  which  replaces  the  old  road  drag,  his  reasons  being  that  the 
planer  eliminates  waves.  In  other  words,  the  Minnesota  planer  is 
used  for  a  cutting  tool  as  well  as  for  a  drag.  I  do  not  think  exces- 
sive waves  will  form  if  the  road  is  properly  constructed,  I  mean 
by  this  that  if  weeds  or  other  perishable  matter  is  eliminated,  drain- 
age properly  cared  for  and  the  road  thoroughly  dragged  as  often 
as  is  necessary. 

Mr.  King  the  father  of  the  split  log  drag  has  said  that  his  drag 
is  based  on  the  principle  that  the  top  surface  puddles  in  successive 
layers  and  that  the  action  of  the  sun  as  result  of  this  puddling  pro- 
duces a  baked  surface  or  a  sort  of  a  sun-brick,  which  sheds  the  sur- 
face water.  The  strength  of  this  crust  increases  in  proportion  to 
the  use  of  the  drag.  If  these  are  facts  the  use  of  a  planer  or  a  cutting 
tool,  it  occurs  to  me,  would  destroy  just  the  results  we  desire,  i.e., 
the  sun-baked  surface.  I  wish  to  here  state  that  we  have  never 
used  the  Minnesota  planer  in  Arkansas  and  it  is  for  this  reason  I 
have  raised  this  point  hoping  that  it  will  be  discussed  by  others 
present. 

In  conclusion,  I  desire  to  congratulate  Mr.  Cooley  on  his  paper 
and  hope  we  will  meet  again. 

MR.  COOLEY:  Referring  to  the  use  of  the  split  log  drag,  I  am 
willing  to  concede  that  the  split  log  drag  will  do  almost  everything, 
but  I  know  this,  that  nearly  all  of  our  country  roads  are  soft,  con- 
structed of  soft  material.  Now  you  cannot  throw  Up  a  country 
road  of  the  material  we  have  in  the  western  country  and  find  it 
uniformly  homogeneous  all  the  way  through,  there's  bound  to  be 
some  places  softer  than  others,  and  those  are  the  places  that  make 
chuck  holes  to  a  certain  extent.  Of  course  if  a  road  is  properly 
constructed,  it  might  not  do  so,  but  under  ordinary  conditions  there 
will  be  chuck  holes  every  once  in  a  while.  If  you  put  an  ordinary 
split  log  drag  on  that  road  you  will  find  that  the  ends  of  the  drag 
will  dip  down  in  some  of  those  holes  and  won't  be  as  effective  as  if 
the  drag  is  encased  in  a  frame  about  14  feet  long,  because  it  will 
shave  off  the  highest  point  and  deposit  the  material  in  the  lowest. 
I  have  been  using  those  drags  for  14  years  and  the  best  ones  I  found 


198  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

were  made  of  2  x  4.  I  find  that  the  planer  was  quite  satisfactory  in 
every  respect  and  I  would  be  glad  to  demonstrate  it  by  the  picture 
of  the  machine  which  will  convince  anybody  of  its  merit.  It  i» 
really  a  very  satisfactory  machine.  There  is  no  patent  on  it. 

MR.  BLAIR  :    Please  tell  us  how  you  drain  the  roads  in  Minnesota? 

MR.  COOLEY:  It  is  all  surface  drainage  except  that  in  some  of 
our  roads  we  have  put  in  catch  basins  on  the  side,  the  same  as  here, 
and  the  water  is  carried  across  the  road  instead  of  over,  but  nearly 
all  our  drainage  is  surface  drainage.  We  make  our  roads  about 
30  feet  wide,  30  feet  from  the  foot  of  one  slope  to  the  foot  of  the 
opposite  slope,  with  a  wearing  surface  of  about  14,  18  or  20  feet 
and  two  ditches  about  5  feet  wide. 

MR.  BURGESS  (of  Illinois):  In  defence  of  Mr.  Cooley's  paper, 
I  have  got  one  to  stick  into  the  road  drag.  Up  in  our  country— 
I  live  in  central  Illinois,  and  I  might  as  well  say  that  I  am  a  farmer, 
a  stock  man;  as  I  said  at  one  of  our  State  meetings,  I  live  in  the 
country  4  miles  when  the  roads  are  good  and  20  miles  when  they 
are  bad.  I  started  into  the  road  business  because  our  commissioner 
had  turned  down  a  mile  of  macadam  road  at  no  expense  to  the  com- 
munity and  the  people  thrust  the  job  on  me.  We  spend  $5000  for 
road  work  in  our  township,  6  by  8  miles  square,  every  year,  and  the 
roads  were  no  better  than  they  were  20  years  before.  I  bought  a 
gas  tractor,  used  some  horse  graders  we  had  on  hand  and  wore  out 
an  old  leveler  made  right  in  the  neighborhood,  and  finally  bought 
a  heavier  machine.  I  put  up  my  grades  so  we  had  a  good  crown, 
good  gutters  on  each  side  that  carried  the  water  to  lateral  ditches. 
Our  county  is  underlaid  with  big  dredge  ditches  and  smaller  laterals 
to  them,  so  the  only  drainage  we  need  is  surface  drainage.  I  made 
an  average  crown  of  2  feet  to  the  gutter,  so  that  water,  when  it 
falls  runs  off  into  the  gutters  and  is  carried  to  the  ditches.  We 
leave  the  ditches  open.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  tile,  but  because 
of  our  black  mud  the  ditches  become  puddled  and  the  water  must 
be  carried  off  by  surface  drainage.  With  tile  you  have  to  dig  catch 
basins  to  let  the  water  down,  but  it  is  not  necessary  with  us  when 
we  get  our  roads  up,  the  water  runs  down  to  the  gutters.  In  our 
part  of  the  country  the  drag  is  a  complete  failure.  Mr.  Johnson 
pur  State  Engineer  for  several  years — came  there  and  put  up  some 
improved  roads,  in  fact  he  put  me  on  to  how  to  build  these  roads. 
After  we  got  them  up  he  said,  "Now  I  want  you  to  drag  them; 
drag  them,"  and  fixed  me  up  three  different  kinds  of  drags.  The 
drag  was  a  failure,  because  we  never  could  get  them  wet  enough 
and  they  would  roll  up  under  the  drag.  We  could  go  out  and  drag 
in  a  rain  but  it  would  still  roll  up.  There  are  two  periods  we  can 
drag,  when  they  are  frozen  and  will  thaw  down  an  inch  or  so  and 
just  before  freezing  it  will  do  all  right.  Instead  of  using  that  sort 


DISCUSSION  199 

of  drag,  we  have  a  machine  that  we  call  a  Monroe  leveler.  I  have 
no  connection  with  the  Monroe  people;  Monroe  is  a  farmer  and  this 
machine  is  built  with  I-beams  and  carried  on  four  wheels.  The 
I-beams  are  about  30  feet  long  and  are  fitted  with  cutting  edges. 
After  you  put  the  grade  up  once,  they  will  go  clear  to  the  gutters 
and  bring  in  the  dirt  gradually.  Then  we  use  what  we  call  a  pul- 
verizer behind  that.  That  spreads  the  dirt  instead  of  leaving  it  in 
a  potato  ridge,  as  we  call  it.  Everybody  has  this  machine  and  we 
use  a  heavy  block  behind  this  that  spreads  it  out,  grinds  up  all  the 
little  clods  and  leaves  the  top  pleasant  to  travel  on.  I  have  found 
that  the  important  thing  in  building  a  road  is  to  fix  the  top,  the 
center,  so  that  the  traffic  will  stay  on  it  when  it  is  muddy.  Our 
grades  are  brought  up  with  a  good  slope  so  that  you  cannot  travel 
the  sides  when  it  is  muddy.  Mr.  Johnson  said,  "  After  you  have  a 
good  heavy  rain,  'phone  me  and  I  will  come  up  and  show  you  how 
to  do  this;"  when  I  'phoned  he  came  up  and  said,  "I  have  heard 
there  was  soil  you  couldn't  drag  and  you  have  it."  This  Monroe 
leveler  is  the  only  thing  we  can  use;  with  it  we  can  cut  off  the  little 
knobs  and  level  it  down  and  work  it  just  as  quick  as  we  can  get  an 
engine  over  it.  We  work  the  roads  every  day  they  are  fit  to  work, 
and  if  you  come  through  our  township,  no  matter  which  way  you 
go  though  it,  you  know  it  is  Bement  Township  by  the  roads.  We 
have  the  best  roads  in  the  state;  we  maintain  them  every  day,  and 
if  you  don't  do  that,  you  can't  have  a  good  dirt  road. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  glad  the  last  speaker  brought  that  up. 
I  always  felt  that  we  never  devoted  enough  time  to  the  question 
of  earth  roads.  The  commissioners  that  come  from  the  East  and 
New  England  where  this  great  movement  started,  with  them  it  is 
a  question  of  refinement  in  road  building — here  this  great  country 
is  lying  in  the  mud.  We  ought  to  have  more  time  for  drainage  and 
more  time  for  earth  roads.  I  am  very  glad  to  know  that  we  have 
with  us  today  one  of  the  pioneers  in  road  building.  We  have  all 
gone  to  Massachusetts,  the  dear  old  State,  when  we  want  to  learn 
something.  They  always  receive  us  pleasantly  and  give  us  all  the 
information  at  their  disposal.  I  know  of  no  State  in  the  Union  that 
has  assisted  more  in  the  development  of  road  improvement  than 
Massachusetts.  We  have  with  us  today  Colonel  William  D.  Sohier, 
Chairman  of  the  Massachusetts  Highway  Commission,  who  will 
tell  us  how  to  take  care  of  these  great  highways  and  what  they 
have  done  with  surfacing. 


200  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

ROAD  MAINTENANCE 

THE  MAINTENANCE  OF  SURFACED  ROADS  OUTSIDE  OF  CITY  PAVED 
STREETS  AND  NOT  INCLUDING  CITY  PAVEMENTS 

BY  COL.  WM.  D.  SOHIER 
Chairman  Massachusetts  Highway  Commission 

The  absolutely  essential  prerequisite  to  a  good  road  is  proper 
drainage.  If  the  road  has  not  proper  ditches  and  proper  drains  to 
carry  the  water  away  from  the  road  at  all  times,  it  will  soon  become 
either  a  bog  or  a  ditch.  The  second  absolutely  necessary  condition 
is  drainage.  If  the  road  has  not  the  proper  foundation  properly 
drained  to  carry  off  the  water  into  the  ditch  or  drain  the  water 
away  from  the  road,  the  road  will  soon  become  worn  out,  rutted, 
and  a  bog-hole.  The  third  absolute  necessity  is  drainage.  If  the 
road  does  not  have  a  surface  properly  constructed  and  at  all  times 
proper  maintenance  so  that  it  will  carry  the  water  off  of  the  road 
surface  at  all  times,  holes  will  soon  develop  and  then  ruts,  and  the 
road  will  be  rapidly  disintegrated  and  worn  out. 

And  that  brings  me  to  the  absolute  necessity  of  constant  mainte- 
nance at  all  times  in  order  that  the  road  surface  may  at  all  times 
carry  off  the  water  and  contain  no  holes  or  ruts  which  can  hold  water. 

If  the  road  is  to  be  properly  maintained,  it  must  in  the  first  in- 
stance be  properly  constructed. 

The  materials  and  methods  used  must  be  adequate  to  withstand 
the  traffic  that  goes  over  the  road  without  serious  deterioration  in 
a  few  months  or  even  a  year  or  two.  This  means  that  the  road 
surface  as  much  as  the  bridge  and  the  road  foundation  as  much  as 
the  bridge  foundation  must  be  able  to  stand  without  being  destroyed 
the  heaviest  moving  load  that  is  going  over  it. 

I  am  giving  a  number  of  tables  showing  the  cost  of  maintenance 
in  France  and  England  and  Massachusetts,  with  some  tables  on 
traffic  that  will  illustrate  this  point.  We  can  well  learn  something 
from  the  experience  of  other  countries  where  road  building  has  been 
a  science  for  nearly  70  years  in  France  and  for  the  last  25  or  30  years 
in  England. 

.       MAINTENANCE    OF   FRENCH   ROADS 

They  established  their  French  road  system  beginning  in  1826,  and 
constructed  their  total  road  system  of  371,000  miles  in  about  the 
next  25  years. 

Their  roads,  practically  uniform  except  as  to  width,  have  been 
built  almost  entirely  of  local  macadam  originally,  6  or  8  inches 
deep  on  a  proper  foundation.  In  resurfacing  some  of  the  main 
roads  in  later  years  they  have  used  a  harder  stone  and  Welsh  or 
Belgium  granite.  The  macadam  surface  of  the  road  on  the  Routes 
Nationales  is  24  feet;  Routes  Departmentales,  18  feet,  and  the  roads 


ROAD    MAINTENANCE  201 

de  grande  communication  and  d'interest  coinmun,  15  feet.  The 
yearly  cost  of  maintenance  has  been  $273  a  mile  on  the  Routes 
Nationales,  this  maintenance  cost  varying  to  $78  a  mile  on  the 
184,000  miles  of  ordinary  country  road  of  only  local  interest. 

The  French  engineers  last  spring  estimated  that  some  8000  miles 
of  road  ought  to  be  resurfaced,  using  a  tar  macadam,  because  of  the 
large  increase  in  automobile  travel  around  the  cities,  Vhich  travel 
was  rapidly  destroying  their  macadam  roads,  and  they  requested  the 
government  to  furnish  $60,000,000  for  that  purpose,  about  $7500 
a  mile. 

Their  greatest  problem  for  over  50  years  has  been  maintenance. 
The  roads  are  maintained  practically  by  a  central  organization. 
The  whole  country  is  divided  into  86  departments,  and  all  of  the 
county  and  rural  roads  within  the  department  are  managed  by 
the  prefect  of  that  department,  and  the  expenditures  appropriated 
by  the  council. 

Direct  charge  is  in  the  hands  of  a  centralized  body  of  competent 
engineers,  about  half  of  whom  are  graduates  of  the  National  School. 

Each  department  is  divided  into  four  or  five  political  districts, 
each  district  being  called  an  arrondissement,  and  the  roads  are  in 
charge  of  a  district  engineer,  who  is  under  the  direction  of  the  chief 
engineer. 

Each  arrondissement  is  again  divided  into  districts  or  cantons, 
and  an  assistant  road  engineer  under  the  direction  of  the  district 
road  engineer  looks  after  all  the  county  and  rural  roads  within  the 
canton. 

Then  comes  the  final  subdivision,  where  the  roads  are  divided  into 
sections  of  a  few  miles  long,  taken  care  of  by  patrolmen.  All  of  these 
are  under  civil  service  and  the  men  are  promoted  from  time  to  time 
according  to  their  ability. 

The  table  shown  below  gives  the  approximate  cost  of  maintenance 
on  the  French  roads,  annually: 

Total  Per 

Miles  Expanse  Mile 

Routes  Nationales ......  23,800  $6,500,000  $273 

Routes  Departmental 8,100]  1,500,000  185 

Chemins  Vicinaux  \  115,400 

De  grande  communication 107,300  J  16,900,000  157 

d'interest  commun 47,500  6,000,000  126 

ordinaires 184,700  14,500,000  78 

Five  or  six  patrolmen  are  under  a  foreman  who  is  also  a  patrol- 
man. When  any  resurfacing  or  reconstruction  is  to  be  done  they 
use  machinery,  rollers,  etc.,  belonging  to  the  department  and  col- 
lect together  enough  of  the  patrolmen,  with  a  section  foreman,  to 
reconstruct  the  road  under  the  supervision  of  the  district  engineer. 
This  provides  them  with  men  who  are  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
work. 

You  will  note  that  the  French  engineers  state  that  on  the  main 
roads  near  the  cities  the  $273  a  mile  a  year  for  maintenance  is  not 


202  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

keeping  the  roads  up;  that  they  need  $60,000,000  to  resurface  with 
tar  macadam  3000  miles  of  these  roads  at  a  cost  of  about  $7500  a 
mile;  that  is,  practically  one-third  of  their  main  roads  should  be  of 
tar  macadam.  If  this  expenditure  is  made  in  say  a  five-year  period, 
or  $12,000,000  a  year,  it  will  increase  the  cost  of  maintenance  on  their 
23,800  miles  of  national  roads  about  $500  a  mile  a  year  for  resur- 
facing on  the  average,  and  will  make  their  total  maintenance  charge 
on  their  main  roads  $770  a  mile  in  place  of  the  present  cost  of  $273 
a  mile.  Of  course,  if  spread  over  a  ten-year  period  it  would  only 
increase  the  cost  half  as  much,  the  present  roads  would  be  practically 
impassable.  This  is  in  accordance  with  our  Massachusetts  experi- 
ence on  our  State  highways  where  our  expenses  per  mile  including 
resurfacing  averaged  over  $850  in  1913. 

MAINTENANCE  OF  ENGLISH  ROADS 

Originally  there  was  no  road  system  in  England.  Everyone  made 
his  own  road.  Then  came  "statue  labor"  which  was  required  by 
a  general  act  passed  in  1555.  This  practice  was  not  superseded  by 
Highway  Rates  until  1835.  The  roads  were  cared  for  by  the  parishes, 
and  a  little  later  several  parishes  were  combined  in  a  highway  district. 

In  1663  England  began  to  pass  "Turnpike  Acts,"  authorizing  the 
creation  of  a  corporation  with  trustees,  who  were  to  build  roads, 
maintain  toll  gates  and  charge  tolls. 

By  1833  Parliament  had  passed  3800  Turnpike  Acts,  and  created 
in  England  and  Wales  1116  Turnpike  trusts,  controlling  22,000  miles 
of  road.  They  almost  all  failed  and  in  the  22  years  after  1864  the 
number  of  Turnpike  trusts  was  reduced  from  1048  controlling  20,589 
miles  of  road  to  20  trusts  with  700  miles  of  road. 

In  1878  the  cost  of  these  main  roads  which  had  been  dist urn  piked 
was  placed  upon  the  counties.  In  order  to  even  up  the  expense 
more  or  less  the  English  government  made  appropriations  to  aid  in 
the  maintenance  of  these  main  roads,  beginning  in  1882  with  an 
appropriation  of  about  $800,000.  In  1888  about  $2,500,000  was 
appropriated,  and  now  the  Road  Board  has  something  over  $6,000,- 
000  annually  which  can  be  spent  in  improving  the  main  roads. 

They  have  now  a  combination  of  the  county  taking  care  of  the 
urban  and  rural  main  roads,  with  the  parish  and  local  authorities 
taking  care  of  the  rural  roads.  The  main  roads  are  something  over 
20  per  cent  of  all  the  mileage,  leaving  out  London. 

In  almost  all  of  the  counties  they  have  sections  of  road  in  charge 
of  regular  maintenance  men.  They  have  almost  universally  been 
obliged  to  give  up  the  old  system  of  patching  the  roads  by  putting  in 
loose  broken  stone  from  the  roadside  because  of  the  large  number 
of  automobiles  that  threw  it  out  so  rapidly,  and  they  have  substi- 
tuted patches  made  of  either  tarred  stone  or  tarred  slag,  or  the 
patches  are  made  by  a  painting  method  using  stone  chips  and  dust. 

Most  of  the  main  roads  in  England  outside  of  Metropolitan  London 


ROAD   MAINTENANCE 


203 


and  the  other  large  cities,  are  maintained  by  the  use  of  tar.  Some 
40,000  miles  of  road  were  tarred  in  England  last  year,  and  some 
6500  miles  were  built  of  tarred  macadam.  Their  system  of  main- 
tenance now  is  not  only  to  keep  the  roads  constantly  patched,  but 
every  year  or  twice  a  year  on  their  macadam  roads  they  usually  flush 
them  and  roll  them  filling  the  holes  and  depressions  first  and  adding 
a  small  quantity  of  chips  and  stone  dust.  On  the  tarred  roads  a 
section  man  keeps  them  constantly  patched.  They  usually  require 
a  fifth  or  a  sixth  of  a  gallon  of  tar  per  square  yard  which  is  sprayed 
on  once  a  year,  and  this  is  covered  with  pea  stone  or  gravel  and 
kept  covered  so  it  won't  pick  up.  The  tar  is  usually  sprayed  on 
under  pressure. 

Where  they  have  heavy  traffic  they  are  resurfacing  their  roads 
with  tarred  Welsh  granite  which  is  like  our  Trap  Rock  or  with 
tarmac  which  is  a  tarred  iron  slag.  They  also  build  a  road  of  three- 
inch  stone,  rolled  hard,  and  grout  it  with  a  mixture  of  hot  sand  and 
hot  tar,  equal  volume,  poured  into  the  road  until  it  flushes  it,  and 
roll  in  1^-inch  stone  and  smaller  stone  with  a  surface  coat  of  tar  and 
sand.  They  find  their  macadam  roads  with  a  tarred  surface  require 
re-treatment  every  year.  This  costs  about  2J  to  3  cents  a  square 
yard  a  year.  On  the  tar-mix  roads  they  require  a  new  coat  of  a 
fifth  of  a  gallon  of  tar  applied  on  the  surface  every  two  years. 

I  am  giving  you  in  a  table  the  cost  of  maintenance  on  the  various 
classes  of  road  in  England,  in  which  you  will  see  that  the  average 
cost  is  $1100  a  mile  a  year  to  maintain  the  county  urban  main  roads, 
and  the  county  rural  roads  $431  a  mile  a  year,  while  the  rural  roads 
which  are  merely  of  local  interest  cost  about  $122  a  mile  a  year  to 
maintain. 


MILES 

MAINTENANCE 

AUTHORITIES, 
COUNTY 

ENGINEERS 

YEARLY 
MAINTENANCE 
PER  MILE 

County  Councils: 
Urban  Main  Roads  

4,189 

$4,601,790 

61 

$1100 

Rural  Main  Roads             .... 

23,565 

10,177,740 

431 

County  Boroughs       

27,754 
9,366 

14,779,530 
6,437,380 

28 

685 

London  Authorities  

2,192 

3,691,355 

2 

1680 

Urban  Roads           

11,558 
11,411 

10,128,735 
4,848,020 

30 
Road 
Authorities 
1733 

425 

Urban  Roads 

4,871 

2,701,710 

555 

Rural  Roads  

95,077 

11,562,920 

122 

111,359 

19,112,650 

Totals 

150,671 

$44,020,915 

1898 

290 

The  total  expenditures  per  year,  including  improvements  and  interest,  $75,990,000. 


204  AMERICAN    ROAD    CONGRESS 

CONSTANT   MAINTENANCE 

In  both  France  and  England  they  keep  the  roads  constantly 
patched.  But  in  France  near  the  large  cities  where  there  is  a  large 
amount  of  automobile  travel,  they  have  been  unable  to  keep  their 
water-bound  macadam  roads  in  good  condition.  Many  of  them  are 
rough  with  a  large  number  of  pot-holes.  Around  Paris  they  have 
replaced  the  water-bound  macadam  with  a  tar  macadam  top  3 
inches  in  depth  on  many  of  the  roads  that  were  undoubtedly  worn 
out  and  rough  and  impassable  five  years  ago. 

In  both  countries  on  the  main  roads  they  keep  section  men  con- 
stantly patching  the  roads.  They  add  a  little  additional  stone, 
flush  them  out  and  roll  them  every  year.  On  the  main  roads  where 
there  is  much  automobile  travel  they  are  using  tar  in  making  their 
patches,  as  they  found  that  the  old  method  of  putting  on  loose  broken 
stone  and  letting  the  traffic  roll  it  down  is  of  no  use  because  the 
automobiles  throw  the  stones  out  over  the  road. 

They  are  patching  by  two  methods,  more  commonly  using  a  tarred 
stone  or  tarred  slag  with  tarred  chips,  cutting  a  square  edge  if  there 
is  a  pot-hole  and  tamping  the  tarred  material  in.  The  largest  stone 
used  are  at  least  three-quarters  of  the  depth  of  the  hole.  In  other 
places  they  are  merely  painting  the  little  place  where  the  tar  fails 
and  covering  with  pea  stone  or  pea  gravel. 

In  resurfacing  in  both  countries  they  are  using  a  large  stone  about 
the  3-inch  size.  In  France  where  there  is  not  a  great  deal  of 
tarred  macadam  they  are  using  a  hard  Belgium  granite  on  the  main 
roads,  doing  one-half  the  width  at  once. 

In  England  they  are  using  the  same  large  size  stone  coated  with 
tar  or  a  tarmac  (tar-coated  iron  slag).  Most  of  their  engineers  use 
very  little  small  stone  with  it.  They  use  practically  all  large  size 
with  tarmac  as  it  compacts  under  the  roller.  Some  of  the  county 
engineers  use  10  per  cent  of  the  fine  material.  They  also  do  one-half 
the  road  at  once.  The  engineers  state  that  they  have  been  forced 
to  use  this  larger  stone  in  resurfacing  because  of  the  motor  trucks  and 
the  large  number  of  traction  engines  with  trailers.  Our  practice  in 
Massachusetts  is  the  same,  except  that  we  are  very  often  on  heavy 
traffic  roads  using  asphalt  or  some  asphaltic  bitumen  rather  than 
tar  because  our  experience  leads  us  to  believe  that  it  is  worth  the 
additional  cost  for  the  material. 

We  are  also  in  Massachusetts — somewhat  experimentally  as  yet 
as  we  have  only  done  three  or  four  miles — resurfacing  with  the  tar 
and  sand  mixture  grouted  into  the  three-inch  stone  described  above. 

In  England,  France,  and  Massachusetts  we  have  found  it  neces- 
sary and  economical  with  the  change  and  increase  in  traffic  to  very 
much  diminish  the  crown  of  our  macadam  roads. 

Formerly  with  macadam  surfaces  15  feet  in  width  we  used  a  crown 
of  three-quarters  of  an  inch  to  the  foot.  We  now  try  to  secure  about 
a  quarter  of  an  inch  to  the  foot  on  our  bituminous  macadam  roads, 
and  in  resurfacing  the  old  roads  we  are  widening  the  macadam  sur- 


ROAD    MAINTENANCE  205 

face  to  18  feet  in  place  of  15,  as  our  experience  shows  that  traffic 
otherwise  will  spread  over  the  edge  of  the  road  and  rapidly  sheer 
down  into  the  macadam  and  narrow  the  road  up. 

In  England  they  have  been  forced  to  do  the  same;  to  wit,  widen 
the  road  and  diminish  the  crown,  because  they  found  that  the  trac- 
tion engine  with  trailers,  of  which  they  use  large  numbers,  would 
shear  down  into  the  macadam,  thus  rapidly  destroying  their  older 
roads.  They  now  universally  use  a  crown  that  does  not  exceed  one 
inch  to  the  yard. 

The  result  of  this  in  England  and  Massachusetts  has  been  that 
the  traffic  has  spread  all  over  the  road,  that  no  rut  has  developed 
and  no  horse  track,  a  tremendous  change  from  a  few  years  ago  when 
the  center  of  the  road  as  a  horse  track  wore  down  quicker  than  the 
sides. 

In  traveling  over  2,000  miles  of  road  in  England  this  year  and  last, 
I  didn't  see  a  single  rut  and  practically  not  a  single  pot-hole. 

MAINTENANCE   OF   STATE   HIGHWAYS   IN   MASSACHUSETTS 

Our  Commission  began  building  roads  in  1894.  The  earlier  roads 
were  almost  entirely  macadam  with  a  few  miles  of  gravel  or  graded 
road.  The  standard  road  with  necessary  foundation  and  proper 
drainage  wherever  necessary  was  15  feet  in  width,  water-bound 
macadam  either  of  trap  or  local  stone,  6  inches  deep  in  the  center 
and  4  inches  on  the  sides,  with  a  3 -foot  gravel  shoulder  on  each 
side  and  with  a  three-quarter-inch  crown  to  the  foot. 

The  ordinary  cost  of  maintenance  I  am  giving  in  a  table,  but  up 
to  1907  when  some  of  the  roads  were  12  years  old,  the  cost  of  ordinary 
maintenance  was  substantially  $100  a  mile  a  year.  Ordinary  main- 
tenance with  us  consisted  merely  of  keeping  the  gutters,  catch  basins, 
and  drainage,  open  and  clean,  cutting  out  the  grass  and  brush  on  the 
roadsides,  keeping  the  shoulders  in  proper  condition,  spreading  a 
little  gravel  or  sand  on  the  road  surface  from  time  to  time  and  filling 
the  few  holes  or  ruts  that  might  occur,  with  broken  stone  or  gravel. 
Very  few  miles  of  road  had  been  actually  resurfaced  prior  to  1907. 

In  1906  the  automobiles  began  to  come.  Our  roads  were  some 
of  them  13  years  old  and  only  half  the  original  depth  of  stone  was 
left.  We  soon  found  that  automobile  travel,  especially  at  high  speed, 
disintegrated  or  tore  up  the  macadam  or  gravel  roads,  especially 
on  the  curves,  as  soon  as  there  were  any  considerable  number,  say 
50  or  more  in  a  day.  The  traffic,  of  course,  increased  tremendously 
in  the  number  of  vehicles,  because  of  the  large  mileage  of  the  auto- 
mobiles. What  had  been  country  roads  developed,  between  that 
year  and  the  present  year,  into  main  through  routes  carrying  often- 
times away  out  in  the  country  on  a  main  route  over  1000  cars  a  day. 

TRAFFIC  AND  COST  OF  MAINTENANCE 

In  connection  with  maintenance,  of  vital  consideration  is  traffic. 
I,  therefore,  am  submitting  a  table  showing  the  average  traffic  on 
the  Massachusetts  State  Highways  in  1909  and  1912. 


206 


AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 


Increases  and  Changes  in  Traffic  from  1909  to  1912 

In  Massachusetts  the  traffic  using  our  roads  is  constantly  increas- 
ing, but  it  is  changing  much  more  rapidly  than  it  is  increasing.  This 
is  conclusively  shown  by  the  following  table. 


1909  CENSUS, 
238.5  STATIONS 

1912  CENSUS,  156.5  STATIONS 

KIND  OF  VEHICLE 

* 

0   jj 

"1 

1 
6 

i 

SJf 

! 

i 

T3 

Sfc? 

1-t 

Z'z 

fc 

OT) 

&  a 

«3 

*•  ffl 

"05 

•  03 

•8-1 

£  1 

^a 

-5"° 

^ 

«ia 

^ 

c  S 

Motors: 

Runabouts    

4,958  5 

20  8 

8  5 

5  819  0 

37  2 

11 

+79 

Touring  cars  

17,950.5 

75  3 

30.5 

27,178  5 

173.5 

49 

+130 

Trucks  

1  800  0 

11  5 

3 

Total  motors  

22,909.0 

96  1 

39  0 

34,797  5 

222.2 

63 

+131 

Horse-drawn  vehicles: 

1-horse,  light  .  .  . 

17,033.0 

71  5 

29  0 

8  380  0 

53  5 

15 

-25 

1-horse,  heavy  

11,762.5 

49.3 

20.0 

7,458.0 

47.6 

14 

-3 

2  or  more  horses,  light 

1,006  0 

4  2 

2  0 

656  0 

3.6 

1 

-14 

2  or  more  horses,  heavy  

6,205.5 

26.0 

10.0 

3,870.5 

24.7 

7 

-5 

Total  horse-drawn 

36,007  0 

151  0 

61  0 

20  264  5 

129  4 

37 

-14 

Totals  of  all  kinds    

247.1 

351.6 

+42 

Also,  a  table  showing  the  traffic  on  certain  roads  at  night. 
We  had  a  count  made  for  24  hours  a  day  at  a  few  points,  and 
the  result  may  be  interesting,  so  I  print  a  short  table. 

Day  and  Night,  12  hours  each — October,  1912 


AUTOMOBILES 

VEHICLES  (ALL  KINDS) 

TOTAL 
VEHICLES 

PERCTQS. 
AT  NIGHT 

Day 

Night 

Day 

Night 

Lexington  

302 
373 
103 
266 
358 

59 
72 
10 
70 
69 

438 
671 
358 
689 
513 

104 
141 
53 
231 
94 

542 
812 
411 

920 
607 

19 
17 

13 
25 
15 

Watertown 

Chelsea    

Somerville 

Boston  

I  computed  several  night  and  day  counts  for  the  two  years  to  get 
and  average,  and  found  that  on  the  average  the  night  traffic  consti- 
tuted about  18  per  cent  of  the  total  traffic;  consequently,  one  should 
add  about  22  per  cent  to  the  14-hour  day  count  to  ascertain  the 
total  number  of  vehicles. 

And  the  traffic  in  some  of  the  parks  around  Boston. 

Pleasure  Traffic  Around  Boston 

The  census  near  Boston  in  the  parks  may  be  interesting,  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  it  is,  in  many  instances,  light  pleasure 
traffic.  The  following  figures  relate  to  the  census  taken  in  August, 
1912. 


ROAD   MAINTENANCE 


207 


Metropolitan  Parks 

( Mostly  Pleasure  Vehicles) 


LOCATION 

TOTAL  OF   ALL 
VEHICLES 

MOTOR  VEHICLEfe 

%  MOTOR  TO 
TOTAL  TRAFFIC 

Lynn,  Prescott  PI.  &  Shore  Res  
Revere,  Saugus  River  Bridge  

1,530 

1,872 

1,411 

1,808 

92 

97 

Somerville,  Alewife  Bridge  
Medford,  Parkway  and  Main  street 

491 
515 

474 
492 

97 
95 

*Bomerville,  Wellington  Bridge  

2,526 

2,174 

86 

*Milton,  Mattapan  Bridge 

2,383 

1,717 

72 

Medford,  Maiden  River  Bridge  

1,884 

1,848 

98 

Boston  Parks 
(All  Classes  of  Vehicles) 


Prince  St.,  Jamaica  Plain       

1,934 

1,715 

89 

Commonwealth   Ave.,   a   city  residential 
street       

3,009 

2,634 

88 

Washington  St.,  a  suburban  city  avenue.  .  . 

1,109 

671 

60 

*  All  classes  of  vehicles. 

At  the  last  two  points  there  were  daily  247  and  296  heavy  teams. 
I  am  also  giving  a  table  showing  the  cost  of  construction,  repair, 
and  maintenance  of  State  highways  in  Massachusetts  for  19  years. 

Cost  for  Construction,  Repair  and  Maintenance  of  State  Highways,  from 

1894  to  191S 


REPAIR  AND  MAINTENANCE 

STATE  HIGHWAYS 

Year 

Cost 

Miles 

Av.  cost  per 
mile  per  year 

Miles  laid  out 

Cost  of 
Construction 

1894 

39.88 

1895 

50.03 

$637,847 

1896 

$4,727 

89.10 

$53.05 

37.02 

458,581 

1897 

13,267 

126.01 

105.28 

53.25 

482,076 

1898 

20,661 

179.26 

115.26 

42.68 

499,783 

1899 

24,538 

221.94 

110.56 

44.56                       407,309 

1900 

33,562 

266.50 

125.93 

49.40 

396,459 

1901 

31,061 

315.90 

98.32 

61.68 

453,826 

1902 

59,943 

377.58 

158.75 

53.32                      466,743 

1903 

55,083 

430.90 

127.83 

74.17                      443,972 

1904 

61,896 

505  03 

102.76 

60.85                      44o,745 

1905 

57,456 

565.88 

101.53 

56.55                      509,007 

1906 

68,382                        622.45 

109.86 

47.92                      444,655 

1907 

106,189                       670.37 

158.40 

39.33                      467,944 

1908 

147,037                       709.70 

323.47 

38.40                      564,719 

82,628* 

1909 

247,985 

748  27 

537.39 

36.53 

431,814 

154,131* 

1910 

214,561 

784.80 

642.28 

52.80 

462,165 

289,498* 

1911 

213,476 

837.59 

632.86 

42.00 

412,542 

316,603* 

1912 

208,687 

879.59 

708.39 

40.72 

366,424 

414,407* 

1913 

203,762 

920.31 

868.13 

60.06 

909,063 

595,183* 

980.88 

9,262,674 

Average  cost  of  Repair  and  Maintenance,  1895  to  1907,  inclusive,  $105  per 
mile  per  year. 

Average  cost  of  Repair  and  Maintenance,  1908  to  1913,  inclusive,  $619  per 
mile  per  year. 

Average  cost  of  Repair  and  Maintenance,  1895  to  1913,  inclusive,  $267  per 
mile  per  year. 

*  Motor  Vehicle  Fees  Fund. 


208 


AMERICAN    ROAD    CONGRESS 


In  this  connection  I  am  giving  a  table  showing  the  number  of  motor 
cars  registered  in  Massachusetts  from  1906  to  1914  inclusive.  You 
will  note  that  the  number  of  automobiles  registered  has  increased 
from  about  7300  in  1906  to  over  84,000  in  1914,  and  fully  one-third 
of  the  traffic  on  our  main  roads  consists  of  automobiles  from  other 
States. 

You  will  note  also  that  there  were  less  than  1000  trucks  registered 
in  1909  and  five  years  later  in  1914  there  were  8000 — 8  times  as 
many. 

Statement  Showing  the  Number  of  Motor  Cars  Registered  and  Licenses  Issued 

1906  to  1914 


1906 

1907 

1908 

1909 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

Autos  (pleasure) 

6,572 
755 

7,733 
455 

18,066 
1,905 

23,011 
2,455 
960 

29,792 
3,305 
1,568 

36,284 
4,920 
2,623 

46,096 
6,301 
4,036 

56,712 
7,462 
5,948 

68,100 
7,898 
8,053 

Dealers'  autos.  
Trucks          .          

Operator  and  chauf  

7.327J      8,188 
10,083i     10  698 

19,971 
13,170 

26,426 
18,251 

34,665 
41,259 

43,827 
51,950 

56,433 
66,645 

70,122 
81,034 

84,051 
95,577 

Total  Receipts  

$33,085!  $92,096 

$121,488 

$169,973 

$374,789 

$477,417 

$616,245 

$764,153 

$914,119 

Prior  to  1907,  certificates  of  registration  did  not  expire  annually. 

Prior  to  1909,  trucks  were  not  classified. 

Between  1903  and  1907,  all  automobile  registration  fees  were 
$2. 

In  1907  the  automobile  registration  fee  was  increased  from  $2  to 
$5.  In  that  year  9006  cars,  registered  at  $2,  were  re-registered  in 
the  same  year  at  $5. 

Beginning  January  1,  1910,  the  automobile  registration  fees  were 
based  on  the  horse-powers  of  the  vehicles,  the  fees  varying  from  $5 
to  $25.  The  fee  for  registration  of  a  truck,  however,  was  $5  regard- 
less of  the  horse-power. 

Prior  to  1910,  operators'  licenses  did  not  expire  annually,  but  con- 
tinued in  force  indefinitely.  Since  1910  all  licenses  have  expired 
annually. 

Increase  in  Maintenance  Cost 

Starting  in  1907  you  will  note  that  our  cost  for  maintenance  has 
risen  by  leaps  and  bounds  from  $158  a  mile  a  year  in  1907  to  over 
$850  a  mile  a  year  in  1913,  and  it  is  still  higher  in  1914. 

•Our  roads  were  rapidly  going  to  pieces.  We  needed  some  money. 
We  got  the  Legislature  to  double  its  appropriation  of  $100,000  a 
year  and  make  it  $250,000  for  one  year  and  $200,000  a  year  since. 
We  secured  an  increase  in  the  automobile  fees,  and  had  four-fifths 
of  that  money  available  for  the  maintenance  of  State  highways,  and 
the  other  one-fifth  for  the  improvement  or  maintenance  of  through 
routes  in  the  towns. 

We  found  that  our  old  roads  were  being  destroyed  by  the  rapidly 


ROAD   MAINTENANCE  209 

increasing  amount  of  automobile  travel.  The  traffic  on  the  roads 
had  increased  from  10  to  40  times  in  volume. 

Our  roads,  both  gravel  and  macadam,  were  rapidly  being  torn  up 
by  the  automobiles  and  deposited  in  dust  over  the  country.  They 
were  rutted,  pot-holes  developed,  and,  as  you  see,  we  had  to  increase 
our  maintenance  cost.  The  question  was,  how  to  best  preserve  our 
old  roads. 

In  1907  we  began  to  use  a  bituminous  material  as  a  surface  coat. 
We  used  refined  tar  and  a  heavy  cold  asphaltic  oil,  applying  about 
one-half  gallon  to  the  square  yard. 

Proper  Methods  for  Economical  Maintenance 

In  passing  let  me  say  as  a  result  of  our  experience  in  the  use  of 
bituminous  binders  on  road  surfaces,  that  we  invariably  true  up  the 
surface  and  patch  the  holes  and  ruts  first.  We  invariably  thoroughly 
brush  and  clean  the  road  down  to  the  stone  or  hard  gravel.  We 
invariably  spread  our  bitumen,  whether  tar  or  asphaltic  oil,  evenly 
and  under  pressure.  We  invariably  cover  it  and  keep  it  covered  so 
that  it  will  not  pick  up,  brushing  the  cover  back  from  time  to  time 
when  necessary.  We  cover  it  with  pea-stone  and  dust,  unless  we  can 
secure  a  good  pea-stone  in  sand  or  gravel,  or  we  coat  it  when  the 
other  method  is  too  expensive  and  traffic  is  light,  with  a  coarse  sharp 
sand.  Thereafter,  constantly  and  eternally,  we  keep  the  road  and 
road  surface  patched,  using  in  patching  substantially  the  same  bitum- 
inous material  that  was  used  for  the  surface  coat. 

We  used  one-half  gallon  per  square  yard  of  heavy  asphaltic  oil 
that  had  to  be  heated  to  250°  spread  upon  the  road.  We  used  the 
same  quantity  of  the  heaviest  oil  that  could  be  spread  cold.  Where 
we  had  only  money  enough  for  a  dust  layer,  we  used  one-fifth  to  one- 
quarter  of  a  gallon  of  light  asphaltic  oil  per  square  yard,  this  oil 
sometimes  being  called  a  40  per  cent  oil.  We  used  one-half  gallon 
of  hot  refined  tar,  and  we  have  used  after  the  first  application  one- 
quarter  of  a  gallon  of  the  same  tar  yearly.  We  have  used  water-gas 
tar  and  various  proprietary  materials  of  a  bituminous  nature  known 
by  various  trade  names.  In  every  instance  that  has  succeeded  the 
road  has  always  been  properly  cleaned  and  patched  beforehand,  and 
has  always  been  covered  and  kept  sufficiently  covered  to  prevent 
its  picking  up.  It  has  been  constantly  patched. 

Surface  Coatings  of  Asphaltic  Oils,  Tars,  etc. 

Today  nine-tenths  of  all  our  State  highways  that  have  not  been 
resurfaced  have  been  coated  and  kept  coated  with  some  bituminous 
material  and  have  been  kept  constantly  patched.  Where  the  heavy 
hot  oil  was  used,  it  has  lasted  in  some  instances  for  five  years,  carrying 
a  large  amount  of  automobile  travel  but  a  small  amount  of  heavy 
teaming.  Under  many  heavy  teams  it  has  failed  in  a  month  or  two. 
We  have  then  used  a  light  oil  to  lay  the  dust  and  prevent  the  auto- 
mobiles from  tearing  the  road  up,  and  have  left  the  stone  to  carry 
the  travel  until  we  could  resurface  the  road. 


210 


AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 


Because  of  the  automobile  traffic  on  many  main  routes,  we  are 
now  using  in  our  resurfacing  a  bituminous  top  two  to  three  inches 
deep.  We  have  used  refined  tars  by  both  the  mixing  and  grouting 
method.  We  have  used  asphalts  with  the  same  methods,  and  we 
believe  that  use  is  economical  and  necessary  on  any  roads  that  have 
more  than  50  automobiles  a  day  and  where  there  are  more  than  50 
loaded  teams. 

I  am  giving  a  table  showing  the  class  and  character  of  surfaced 
roads  that  we  believe  will  stand  traffic  of  a  certain  class,  kind,  and 
character — we  believe  it  will  prove  economical  and  satisfactory  with 
the  traffic. 

1914 — AVERAGE  DAILY  TRAFFIC 

Table  showing  results  of  observations  of  traffic  on  different  types  of  road  surfaces 
in  Massachusetts — Standard  Road,  15  feet  in  width,  gravel  or  waterbound  mac* 
adam  6  to  6  inches  in  thickness,  with  adequate  drainage  and  proper  foundation, 
with  3-foot  gravel  shoulder  on  each  side. 


(u 

SB 

£« 

111 

H^S 

K§ 

Eja 

AUTOMOBILES 

|sS 

$s 

$88 

2  ° 
a 

p 

H<M 

1 

A  good  gravel  road  will  wear  reasonably  well  and  be  eco- 

nomical  with 

50-75 

25-30 

10-15 

50  to  75 

Needs  to  be  oiled  with               

50-75 

25-30 

10-15 

over  75 

Oiled  gravel,  fairly  good  heavy  cold  oil,  $  gal.  to  the  sq. 
yd.,  applied  annually  with  

75-100 

30-50 

20 

500  to  700  or  more 

^^ater-bound  macadam  will  stand  with                   .          .  . 

175-200 

175-200 

60-80 

not    over    50    at 

high  speed 

Cold  oil  or  tar  will  prove  serviceable  on  such  macadam 

with 

175-200 

175-200 

60-80 

50-500 

Macadam  will  then  stand  but  the  stone  wears,  of  course, 

with 

175-200 

175-200 

60-80 

500  or  more 

Water-bound  macadam  with  hot  asphaltio  oil  blanket 

will  be  economical  with 

100-150 

50-75 

25-30 

1500    and    more 

with  f  e  wei 

teams 

And  stand  at  least 

50  trucks 

But  will  crumble  and  perhaps  fail  with  over  

150 

75 

30 

(on  narrow  tires,  ice,  farm  and  wood  teams,  etc.)... 

Water-bound  macadam  with  a  good  surface  coating  of  tar 
($  gal.  to  the  sq    yd.)  will  stand  with 

100-150 

60-75 

25-30 

1500  or  more 

but  requires  to  be  recoated  annually  with  J  gal.  of  tar 

per  sq.  yd. 

It  is  assumed  that  all  road  surfaces  are  kept  constantly  patched,  that  be- 
fore applying  bitumen  the  road  surface  is  cleaned  and  patched,  and  the  bitu- 
men covered  with  pea  stone  and  sand  or  gravel  and  kept  covered  so  that  it 
never  picks  up. 

Of  course,  in  connection  with  this  table  it  is  absolutely  essential 
that  the  drainage  and  foundation  are  sufficient  and  the  material 
used  is  strong  enough  to  carry  the  heaviest  load  which  goes  over  the 
road  without  the  road's  being  rapidly  destroyed. 

Materials  That  Have  Not  Failed 

The  foregoing  table  has  been  somewhat  changed  as  the  result  of 
our  experience  since  1912  when  I  first  published  a  like  table. 

It  expresses  the  consensus  of  opinion  of  our  chief  engineer  and  four 
division  engineers  and  my  own  beet  judgment. 


ROAD  MAINTENANCE  211 

The  results  have  all  been  obtained  on  many  miles  of  road  where 
we  have  used  a  good  grade  of  asphaltic  oil,  either  hot  or  cold,  heavy 
or  light,  or  a  good  grade  of  refined  tar. 

We  have  had  many  failures  on  short  sections  of  road  where  a  non- 
asphaltic  oil  was  used  or  a  poor  grade  of  oil  or  tar,  and  many  pro- 
prietary so-called  dust-layers  have  failed.  Roads  that  failed  have 
been  resurfaced  or  retreated,  but  the  results  are  not  tabulated  in 
the  above  table. 

The  table  relates  merely  to  the  maintenance  of  gravel  or  water- 
bound  macadam  roads,  not  to  bituminous  macadam. 

It  represents  our  average  experience  on  many  miles  of  road  at 
over  150  observation  points. 

Certain  exceptions  should  be  noted. 

Army  manoeuvers,  especially  large  bodies  of  cavalry  and  artillery, 
will  rapidly  destroy  any  bituminous  blanket  surface. 

A  blanket  coat  of  hot  oil  on  macadam  will  carry  a  much  larger 
number  of  teams  if  there  is  a  ratio  of  two  to  three  automobiles  on 
pneumatic  tires  to  each  team  to  keep  the  bituminous  surface  con- 
stantly rolled  down  when  the  horses  and  teams  pick  it  up. 

But  note  that  a  very  few  teams  on  narrow  tires,  or  a  few  very  heavy 
teams  every  day,  will  destroy  the  surface  if  the  load  is  heavy  enough 
to  shear  down  entirely  through  the  surface  to  the  stone. 

If  this  process  is  repeated  once  or  twice  a  day,  a  rut  soon  develops 
and  the  road  becomes  muddy  and  the  bituminous  surface  rapidly 
disintegrated. 

light  oil  or  cold  tar  will  then  be  more  serviceable,  laying  the  dust 
while  the  stone  takes  the  wear. 

We  have  maintained  a  few  miles  of  road  in  reasonably  satisfactory 
condition  with  annual  applications  of  a  cold  tar  or  water  gas  tar. 
They  have  required  one-half  gallon  per  square  yard  annually,  and 
the  results  have  been  about  the  same  and  certainly  no  better  than 
where  we  have  applied  two  quarter  gallon  coats  per  square  yard  off 
light  asphaltic  oil  the  first  year  and  one  quarter  gallon  per  square 
yard  each  succeeding  year. 

The  cost  for  the  cold  tar  has  been  more. 

Invariably  we  clean  and  patch  the  road  first  and  cover  the  bitumi- 
nous material  sufficiently  to  prevent  its  picking  up. 

We  have  sometimes  tried  dispensing  with  the  cleaning  and  cover- 
ing but  shall  not  repeat  that  expensive  experiment. 

We  can  usually  have  the  light  asphaltic  oil  sprayed  onto  the  roads 
by  motor  trucks  for  1.2  cents  to  1.5  cents  per  square  yard,  using 
one-fifth  to  one-quarter  gallon  per  square  yard. 

The  cleaning,  patching,  and  covering  costs  about  the  same. 

Maintenance  Methods 

On  gravel  roads  we  have  found  it  necessary  to  keep  them  constantly 
shaped  and  patched.  We  drag  some  of  our  roads  once  a  week  where 
there  are  150  or  more  automobiles  a  day.  We  have  found  on  the 


212  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

hills  that  have  rutted  with  that  traffic  that  it  was  more  economical 
to  use  a  quarter  of  a  gallon  per  square  yard,  of  light  asphaltic  oil, 
using  the  first  year  two  applications  and  in  subsequent  years  one, 
keeping  it  properly  covered.  Roads  of  this  character  have  been 
extremely  satisfactory  with  the  traffic  of  a  very  large  number  of 
automobiles,  certainly  500  a  day,  but  they  will  not  stand  a  large 
amount  of  heavy  horse-drawn  vehicles  and  probably  will  not  stand 
many  loaded  trucks. 

As  you  will  note  from  the  table  given  before,  our  ordinary  main- 
tenance which  has  consisted  of  keeping  the  drainage  open,  shoulders 
cut  back,  and  the  road  sanded,  with  slight  patching,  has  averaged 
about  $100  a  mile  a  year.  Where  the  road  can  be  maintained  with 
light  oil,  the  additional  cost  is  about  $250  a  mile  a  year,  or  $350  a 
mile  a  year  in  all.  The  cost  of  heavy  oil  or  tar  on  the  surface  where 
it  is  suitable  to  use  it  because  it  will  stand  the  traffic,  is  about  twice 
the  cost  of  the  light  oil  in  the  first  instance,  and  with  the  patching 
and  all  that  is  necessary  it  will  cost  about  the  same  figure,  or  about 
$250  to  $500  a  mile  a  year,  this  being  on  a  five-year  basis. 

In  resurfacing  our  roads  with  two  to  three-inch  bituminous  mac- 
adam top,  the  cost  has  varied  from  about  50  cents  a  square  yard  for 
a  one  and  one-half  inch  top  no  stone  being  larger  than  an  inch  and 
a  quarter,  and  a  gallon  and  a  quarter  of  tar  sprayed  into  it,  to  $1.10 
a  square  yard  for  a  three-inch  top,  made  of  two  and  one-half-inch 
stone,  either  mixed  or  grouted  with  a  good  grade  of  asphalt.  The 
tar-sand  grouted  macadam  has  cost  from  90  cents  to  a  dollar  per 
square  yard.  We  believe  that  the  roads  of  this  character  will  have 
a  very  small  maintenance  cost  outside  of  the  ordinary  maintenance 
for  a  period  of  from  eight  to  twelve  years.  I  am  inserting  some 
tables  showing  the  maintenance  cost  on  certain  roads  compared  with 
the  maintenance  cost  in  England  on  roads  of  the  same  character; 
to  wit,  water-bound  macadam,  giving  the  cost  per  mile  and  the  cost 
per  ton  per  mile  for  each  vehicle  that  is  going  over  them.  This 
figured  upon  the  following  formula,  which  is  substantially  the  same 
in  England  and  France: 

Assumed  Average  Weight  of  Vehicles  in  tons 

{Runabouts  ....................................  1  .43 
Touring  Cars  .................................  2.23 
Trucks  .......................................  6.25 


Light  Vehicles  \        .         .............  0  .36 

Drawn  Vehicles  I  Heavy  Vehicles  J  °  se 


Horse  Drawn  Vehicles    Heav    Vehicles  J  .............  1.12 


The  cost  in  Massachusetts  per  vehicle  per  mile  as  shown  by  our 
maintenance  cost  and  traffic  census  taken  in  three-year  periods  has 
been  substantially  one  cent  a  vehicle  per  mile  until  we  began  to  use 
bituminous  binders.  It  now  figures  about  eight-tenths  of  a  cent  a 
vehicle  a  mile. 


ROAD    MAINTENANCE 


213 


Traffic  and  Maintenance 

Quantity  and  character  of  traffic. 
Economical  maintenance  and  cost  thereof. 

Materials  and  methods  to  be  adapted  to  the  traffic  that  the  road 
has  to  bear. 

ENGLISH   ROADS 

There  is  a  very  interesting  and  useful  paper  on  construction  and 
maintenance  published  in  connection  with  the  International  Road 
Congress  in  1913,  this  paper  giving  the  experience  of  five  of  the  most 
competent  road  engineers  in  England. 

I  am  printing  a  table  showing  the  weight  in  traffic  in  tons  carried 
one  mile  for  one  cent  of  maintenance  cost. 

(All  waterbound  macadam  with  or  without  surface  tar} 


WEIGHT  0 
IN  T 

P  TRAFFIC 
ONS 

AVERAGE 
COST 

WEIGHT  IN 
TONS 

COST  OF 

MAINTE- 
NANCE IN 

Per  day 

Per 
Annum 

Per  mile 
per  annum 

MILE  FOR 
ONE  CENT 

CENTS  PER 
TRAFFIC 
TON-MILE 

Norfolk  
Warwick  

39 
96 
185 

14,200 
35,000 
67,500 

$206.25 
80.00 
430  00 

.70 
4.50 

1  60 

1.42 
22 

62 

*Kent... 

239 
242 
348 

87,200 
88,300 
126  700 

635.00 
430.00 
1,495  00 

1.45 
2.15 
85 

68 
46 
118 

Norfolk 

359 

131  000 

366  25 

3  70 

26 

Warwick 

385 
390 
451 

140,500 
142,300 
164  600 

281.25 
275.00 
635  00 

5.20 
5.35 
2  70 

192 
186 
36 

Norfolk    ..  

504 

184*000 

251  25 

7  55 

132 

Kent 

528 

192  100 

1  740  00 

1  10 

90 

Warwick  

609 

222  000 

1,345  00 

1  70 

58 

•Kent  

734 
736 
796 

268,000 
268,600 
289  800 

2,095.00 
670.00 
960  00 

1.35 
3.95 
3  15 

74 
254 
32 

E.  Sussex... 

984 

359,000 

1,665.00 

2  20 

44 

Norfolk  
'Kent    .. 

1,057 
3,030 

386,000 
1,102  810 

1,090.00 
10  500  00 

3.65 
1  05 

26 
94 

'Surrey  

3,030 
5  694 

1,102,810 
2,078,300 

8,960.00 
5  160  00 

1.25 
4  20 

80 
24 

5,694 

2,078,300 

3,020.00 

7.15 

14 

Comparison  with  two  Massachusetts  Roads 


Beverly 

2,898 

1  058  430 

o  257 

oo 

5 

50 

37 

Weston 

1  920 

699  924 

1  993 

oo 

7 

02 

28 

*  Surface  tarred. 
Period  of  14  years. 

I  have  used  the  English  long-ton  but  have  changed  the  pennies 
to  cents.  This  table  shows  that  the  cost  on  water-bound  macadam 
roads  to  carry  one  ton  one  mile  over  the  road,  varies  from  about 
a  quarter  of  a  cent  to  one  and  one-half  cents  for  the  maintenance. 
This  illustrates  very  well,  I  think,  the  necessity  of  the  traffic  census 
showing  the  class  and  character  of  the  vehicles  which  use  the  road 
rather  than  any  formula  which  merely  uses  as  assumed  weight  for 
each  class  of  vehicle. 


214 


AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 


Massachusetts  Experience 

We  have  found  on  our  roads  in  Massachusetts  that  the  largest 
cost  of  up-keep  on  macadam  roads  could  come  from  two  causes; 
first,  automobile  travel,  which  would  disintegrate  a  plain  gravel  or 
macadam  road  in  a  month  if  there  were  many  automobiles.  This 
could  be  prevented  by  the  use  of  some  bituminous  material  on  the 
surface,  provided  the  team  traffic  was  not  so  heavy  that  it  would 
quickly  wear  the  binder  out.  A  large  number  of  heavily-laden  teams, 
of  say  three  tons  or  more,  would  wear  the  binder  out  in  a  very  short 
time.  Also,  a  very  large  number  of  heavy  loads  carried  on  narrow 
tires  would  wear  a  macadam  road  out  relatively  quickly.  Some  of 
the  roads  that  I  am  showing  would  be  worn  from  a  half  inch  to  an 
inch  a  year  if  of  macadam,  whereas  when  a  bituminous  macadam 
road  with  a  three-inch  top  was  constructed  amount  of  wear  was 
very  much  reduced. 

The  necessity  for  knowing  the  kind  of  travel  is  well  shown  by  the 
English  tables.  On  one  road  in  one  of  the  counties  it  cost  one  and 
four-tenth  cents  to  carry  a  ton  a  mile,  and  on  another  macadam 
road  in  the  same  county  it  cost  twelve-hundredths  of  a  cent.  It 
appears  from  the  English  figures  that  when  the  cost  of  maintenance 
exceeded  two-thirds  of  a  cent  a  ton  a  mile,  it  was  more  economical 
to  use  granite  block  on  a  concrete  base.  The  cost  for  annual  main- 
tenance of  a  six-inch  block  on  a  concrete  base  near  the  docks  in 
Liverpool  has  been  fifty-eight  one-thousandths  of  a  cent  a  ton  a 
mile. 

I  am  enclosing  a  table  of  some  of  the  costs  of  different  kinds  of 
street  surfaces  and  pavements  in  Liverpool. 

Table  giving  particulars  of  experience  obtained  in  Liverpool  with  different  classes 

of  surface  pavement — including  life-tonnage  and  ton  miles 

per  yard  width  per  cent  of  cost 


E 

• 

H 

'  b  '  <j 

P 

K  H 

I 

E 

3§ 

1*1 

• 

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P 

°  B 

P2 

%  2sg 

si 

OB 

§a 

•<  H 

Cf  p 

r^     P;     gp     ft< 

S    M 

2  S 

PAVEMENT 

gf 

aj 

S5  g 

m  « 

§  g  •< 

ft-    p4 

H 

^  55 

p*  55 

3 

55  £ 

Kg 

«g  JO 

W  fc 

0  o 

n 

H 

H 

O 

*g 

l^lgfl 

M      * 

2  i 

§& 

g 

g  Ji 

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55  2  0  H  H 

g£ 

a  H 

i 

2 

5 

g 

0 

6-inch  Belgium  Block  
4-inch  Belgium  Block  
Hardwood    

524,000 
150,000 
162,000 

18 
50 
17 

9,432,000 
7,500,000 
2,754,000 

$2.50 
1.87 
3.37 

•:g 

.25 

17 
12 
3.7 

.058 
.08 
.272 

Softwood 

204,000 

18 

3  672  000 

2  12 

15 

7  7 

128 

4-inch  Pitch  Macadam  
7-inch  Water-bound  Macadam 

120,000 
120,000 

11 

1,320;000 
120,000 

.75 

.066 
.18 

10.3 
3.8 

.096 
.264 

7-inch  Water-bound  Macadam 

Tar  sprayed                  

120,000 

2 

240,000 

.25 

.12 

5.7 

.18 

Tonnages  on  Roads  Board  basis,  except  on  exceptionally  heavy  traffic  when  it  is  based  on  esti- 
mated total  actual  weights. 
English  Ton  -  2240  pounds. 


ROAD    MAINTENANCE 


215 


II 


II 


IB 

I! 


Nil 

^  a  >>a 


ill! 

_P   rt   t4  <-} 


ooooooooo 


)OOOOCCO5CO»-H^' 
I  ^H  (M  O  O  J5  M  «3  rt  1 


ooooooo 


ooo 
-*—  icoor 


i-l  rt  CO  »•<  »-(  i 


. 


216  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

Explanation  of  Table 

The  above  represents  actual  facts  in  Massachusetts.  It  illus- 
trates the  misleadingness  of  statistics  if  read  without  adequate 
knowledge  of  actual  conditions. 

The  variation  in  the  costs  shown  are  due  to  various  causes,  traffic 
and  weight,  toughness  of  stone,  whether  road  has  been  resurfaced 
or  not,  good  and  bad  bituminous  materials,  and  proper  and  improper 
use  of  materials. 

A  study  of  each  road  will  prove  profitable. 

Ashby,  with  high  cost  of  maintenance,  small  traffic,  can  be  com- 
pared with  Hamilton,  with  more  traffic  and  a  small  cost  for  main- 
tenance, per  ton. 

Ashby,  built  of  local  stone,  comparatively  soft,  was  resurfaced 
with  the  same  local  stone  when  the  road  was  about  12  years  old, 
30  tons  being  used  to  each  100  feet  of  road.  It  is  a  country  road. 
It  had  an  application  of  cold  asphaltic  oil  in  1913,  one-quarter  gallon 
being  used  to  the  square  yard  of  road.  Practically,  the  stone  had 
worn  down  one-quarter  of  an  inch  a  year. 

Hamilton  was  built  of  trap  rock  macadam  and  it  is  on  a  main 
through  route.  When  the  road  was  eight  years  old  the  stone  had 
worn  down  about  three  inches,  and  the  road  needed  resurfacing. 
Automobiles  had  arrived. 

In  1907,  one-half  gallon  of  the  heaviest  asphaltic  oil  that  can  be 
applied  cold  was  spread  upon  the  road  and  properly  covered  with 
pea  stone  and  gravel.  This  treatment  was  repeated  for  two  years. 
Then  one-quarter  gallon  of  heavy  hot  asphaltic  oil  was  sprayed 
upon  the  road  and  properly  covered;  this  treatment  has  been  re- 
peated once.  The  road  has  been  constantly  kept  patched  and  sanded 
when  necessary.  It  is  in  better  condition  today  than  in  1907. 

Beverly,  with  a  high  cost  of  maintenance  per  ton  mile,  can  be 
compared  with  Lynn,  with  a  small  cost  per  ton  mile.  Both  roads 
are  on  main  routes.  Both  were  trap  rock  macadam. 

Beverly  has  a  large  number  of  heavy  ice  teams  on  three-inch  tires. 
It  was  resurfaced  with  trap  rock  when  the  road  was  eight  or  nine 
years  old,  30  tons  of  stone  being  used  to  each  100  feet  of  road.  The 
trap  rock  had  worn  down  one-third  of  an  inch  a  year.  In  1910  it 
was  coated  with  one-half  gallon  of  hot  asphaltic  oil  per  square  yard, 
properly  covered  with  pea  stone  and  dust.  This  failed  in  one  month 
under  the  heavy  ice  teaming,  though  the  same  material  and  methods 
were  used  on  the  next  20  miles  of  road  on  the  same  route,  and  the 
surface  has  stood  ever  since  with  constant  patching  and  one-quarter 
of  a  gallon  per  square  yard  of  the  same  oil  sprayed  onto  the  centre 
of  the  road,  eight  feet  in  width. 

For  the  next  four  years  the  Beverly  road  was  maintained  (except 
where  it  was  resurfaced)  by  the  use  of  one-quarter  of  a  gallon  of 
cold  oil  per  square  yard,  two  applications  being  used  the  first  year, 
one  each  year  since. 


ROAD    MAINTENANCE  217 

One-third  of  the  road  was  resurfaced  in  1913  with  an  asphaltic 
macadam  two  inches  in  depth,  at  a  cost  of  $1.20  per  square  yard, 
two  and  one-half-inch  stone  being  used  because  of  the  heavy  teams 
and  trucks. 

Lynn,  trap  rock  macadam,  connects  with  Parkway  where  only 
pleasure  vehicles  are  admitted,  except  on  local  business. 

In  1907,  one-half  gallon  of  hot  refined  tar  was  sprayed  upon  the 
road,  and  covered  and  kept  covered  with  pea  stone  and  dust.  It 
was  constantly  patched,  with  tar  and  chips.  It  has  been  recoated 
twice  with  hot  refined  tar  sprayed  upon  the  road  and  covered  as 
before.  " 

It  is  in  excellent  condition,  but  note — 90  per  cent  of  the  travel  is 
motor  vehicles;  it  has  few  teams  and  fewer  heavy  teams. 

Medford-Somerville,  a  trap  rock  macadam,  built  with  the  two  and 
one-half  inch  stone  on  top.  A  road  28  feet  in  width,  with  heavy 
city  teaming.  A  stone  quarry  on  the  side  crushing  100  to  300  tons 
of  stone  a  day. 

This  road  has  never  been  in  good  condition  since  it  was  two  years 
old.  It  always  has  some  depressions,  although  it  has  been  con- 
stantly patched  and  all  depressions  filled  with  trap  rock.  Constantly 
means  daily.  It  has  always  been  muddy. 

A  part  of  it  was  resurfaced  with  asphalt  macadam  this  year,  the 
portion  beyond  the  stone  quarries.  The  whole  road  needs  it.  It 
has  been  treated  with  tar.  A  part  of  it  has  been  coated  with  heavy 
tar.  A  portion  had  three  coats  of  one-quarter  gallon  each  of  hot 
refined  tar,  covered  with  pea  stone,  in  one  year.  It  failed,  was 
never  in  good  condition,  and  we  are  in  doubt  whether  to  reconstruct 
with  granite  block  on  a  concrete  base,  with  concrete,  or  to  try  an 
asphaltic  macadam. 

Milton  is  a  road  of  the  same  character  with  many  heavy  granite 
teams  going  over  it. 

The  cost  has  been  high  because  the  trap  rock  wore  out  so  rapidly 
under  the  heavy  concentrated  loads  on  iron  tires. 

Saugus.  Trap  rock  macadam  on  a  through  route  with  a  great 
deal  of  heavy  teaming,  both  teams  and  trucks. 

The  stone  wore  out  over  one-half-inch  a  year.  It  needed  constant 
patching  with  additional  stone,  was  never  in  excellent  condition 
except  when  recently  resurfaced. 

It  had  two  to  three  inches  of  new  stone  every  four  or  five  years. 
In  1910  it  was  resurfaced  with  three  inches  of  asphaltic  macadam 
at  a  cost  of  about  $1  per  square  yard. 

This  has  stood  ever  since  but  has  needed  some  patching.  A  por- 
tion was  built  in  the  fall  when  it  was  cold  and  this  portion  failed. 
No  bituminous  work  should  be  done  in  cold  weather  and  a  tempera- 
ture of  over  60  degrees  is  vastly  better  than  one  of  under  40. 

Shrewsbury.  A  through  route — too  much  heavy  hot  oil  was  used 
on  it  before  we  understood  how  to  use  oil.  One-half  gallon  per 
square  yard  was  applied  on  two  successive  years. 


218  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

It  rolled,  rutted  and  was  always  in  bad  condition.  It  has  cost 
a  good  deal  to  remove  surplus  oil,  smooth  off  the  bunches  and  rolls 
and  keep  it  patched. 

Thuro.  A  country  road,  with  little  traffic.  Built  12  feet  wide 
of  four  inches  of  broken  stone  on  sand,  the  stone  being  bound  with 
clay.  An  experiment  but  a  failure. 

The  road  was  constantly  ravelling  and  needed  more  stone.  It 
was  widened  to  16  feet.  New  stone  was  added  and  rolled  in  and 
it  was  coated  with  light  oil  in  1912  and  1913  and  is  now  in  good 
condition. 

Weston.  A  macadam  road  on  a  through  route.  Refined  tar  ap- 
plied in  1907-^-oiled  with  hot  oil  on  surface  in  1909  and  1910— 
maintained  with  patching  until  1912  when  a  portion  of  the  road 
was  resurfaced  with  a  two-inch  bituminous  macadam. 

Two  and  one-half-inch  stones  of  trap  rock  were  rolled  hard  and 
about  one  and  three-quarters  to  two  gallons  to  the  square  yard  of 
a  good  grade  of  asphalt  being  sprayed  in  under  pressure.  This  was 
covered  with  the  smaller  stone,  rolled,  and  on  some  portions  of  the 
road  a  surface  application  was  sprayed  of  one-third  to  one-half  gallon 
per  square  yard,  properly  covered  with  pea-stone  and  rolled.  This 
cost  from  90  cents  to  $1  per  square  yard.  The  road  is  in  most 
excellent  condition  and  we  expect  to  have  it  wear  10  to  15  years 
with  practically  no  patching,  although  we  may  have  to  renew  the 
surface  coating  by  spraying  every  three  to  five  years.  We  have 
one  road  of  this  kind  six  years  old,  that  hasn't  needed  a  single  patch 
as  yet. 

Motor  Trucks  and  the  Cost  of  Road  Maintenance 

Mr.  H.  T.  Wakeland,  engineer  of  the  county  of  Middlesex  which 
is  just  out  of  London  and  has  a  very  large  amount  of  traffic  over 
its  roads,  has  given  some  very  careful  figures  showing  damage  caused 
to  roads  by  motor  omnibuses  weighing  about  six  tons  each  when 
laden.  He  took  certain  roads  which  had  heavy  traffic  and  gave  the 
cost  of  maintenance  (not  including  watering  or  cleaning)  for  macadam 
roads  for  three  years  previous  to  the  motor  bus  traffic,  and  the  cost 
per  square  yard  for  the  year  1912-13.  I  insert  a  table: 

Average  cost  per  yard  super  Cost  per  yard  super  for 
per  annum  for  three  years  1910-1S  since  the 

Road  previous   to   motor  advent  of  motor 

omnibus  traffic  omnibuses 

(cents)  (cents) 

A  13.5  25.8 

B  11.2  33.1 

C  14.1  41.9 

D  15.6  16.9 

E  9.1  15.4 

F  8.7  15.1 

G  5.9  16.8 

H  5.1  11.1 

I  21.5  36.4 

J  16.9  42.9 

Average  12.3  25.6 


ROAD  MAINTENANCE  219 

This  shows  that  the  average  cost  of  maintenance  for  three  years 
before  the  motor  bus  came  in  was  about  12  cents  a  square  yard  a 
year.  Since  the  motor  bus  was  put  on  the  cost  has  increased  to 
over  25  cents  a  square  yard  a  year.  The  maintenance  cost  to  carry 
one  ton  one  mile  in  1911-12  was  1.2  cents.  When  the  motor  bus 
was  put  on  the  maintenance  cost  was  raised  to  1.8  cents  per  ton 
per  mile.  Mr.  Wakeland's  opinion  is  that  this  increase  was  prac- 
tically all  due  to  the  motor  bus.  The  increased  cost  of  the  road 
up-keep  has  been  found  to  be  about  four  cents  per  car  per  mile, 
or  two-thirds  of  a  cent  per  ton  per  mile  in  the  case  of  a  motor  bus 
on  rubber  tires.  In  many  cases  the  macadam  surface  has  been 
practically  destroyed  by  motor  bus  traffic  on  hard  rubber  tires. 
These  were  macadam  roads  in  good  standard  condition  prior  to  the 
inauguration  of  the  motor  bus  traffic  and  more  than  sufficient  to 
carry  the  ordinary  traffic.  The  road  authorities  should  be  author- 
ized to  direct  which  roads  shall  and  which  roads  shall  not  be  used 
by  motor  vehicles  and  motor  buses,  and  Mr.  Wakeland  states,  as 
do  the  other  county  engineers  in  England,  that  a  license  fee  of  $50 
a  year  for  motor  trucks  is  entirely  insufficient  to  pay  for  the  in- 
creased cost  of  maintenance  caused  by  the  use  of  the  trucks  on  the 
roads. 

CONCLUSION 

A  road  means  a  highway  that  can  be  traveled  over  with  reason- 
able convenience  and  with  reasonable  effort  by  ordinary  vehicles. 
Two  ruts  and  a  horse  track  with  six  inches  of  mud  and  large  pot- 
holes scattered  frequently  over  its  surface  do  not  constitute  a  road. 

A  road  to  be  a  road  worthy  of  the  name  must  be  constructed  and 
maintained  so  that  it  will  at  all  times  satisfactorily  and  economically 
bear  the  traffic  which  passes  over  it. 

Good  drainage,  foundation  whenever  necessary,  and  a  top  sur- 
face always  maintained  so  that  it  will  shed  water,  are  necessary 
prerequisites.  If  any  one  of  them  is  missing  you  do  not  have  a 
good  road.  Constant  maintenance  is  eternally  necessary;  drainage 
must  be  always  open,  and  road  surfaces  must  always  be  maintained. 
The  most  economical  way  to  maintain  a  road  is  by  constant  main- 
tenance. 

With  modern  Massachusetts  motor  vehicle  travel,  a  newly-built 
macadam  road  without  any  bituminous  materials  having  been  used 
on  it,  will  easily  be  destroyed  in  one  month,  so  far  as  its  surface  is 
concerned,  and  will  be  damaged  so  that  it  will  require  15  to  25  cents 
a  square  yard  to  put  it  back  into  condition  so  that  some  bituminous 
material  can  be  used. 

Roads  and  road  surfaces  must  bear  the  traffic  that  goes  over  them. 
The  tables  I  have  printed  show  conclusively  how  expensive  it  is 
if  materials  are  not  used  and  methods  are  not  used  with  those 
materials,  so  that  the  road  can  withstand  the  traffic  which  goes 
over  it. 


220  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

I  think  by  a  study  of  the  tables  and  our  experience,  you  can 
gather,  knowing  the  traffic  on  your  road,  what  will  probably  be  the 
most  economical  way  to  construct  or  reconstruct  your  road. 

With  a  certain  volume  and  weight  of  traffic,  granite  block  on  a 
concrete  base  will  perhaps  be  the  most  economical,  especially  for 
heavy  concentrated  loads.  Thirty-ton  loads  on  four  wheels  are 
very  common  near  the  docks  in  Liverpool,  where  six-inch  granite 
block  on  a  concrete  base  has  worn  18  years. 

In  figuring  costs  you  must  figure  what  the  road  has  to  bear  in 
tons  or  otherwise.  Speaking  in  round  numbers,  you  will  find  on 
figuring  the  English  roads  and  American  roads  that  it  costs  about 
a  cent  a  vehicle  a  mile  per  year  to  maintain  the  roads.  It  would 
not  surprise  me  if  the  same  were  true  on  dirt  roads.  Dirt  roads,  of 
course,  will  not  stand  very  much  heavy  teaming,  no  matter  if  they 
are  kept  constantly  patched. 

This  money  you  must  have  and  it  must  be  properly  expended  if 
your  original  cost  of  construction  is  not  to  be  lost  and  you  are  not 
to  find  yourself  saddled  with  a  debt  on  which  you  are  constantly 
paying  interest  years  after  the  road  has  passed  away  in  dust. 

But  you  must  go  further  than  that  and  figure  what  are  the  proper 
methods,  proper  materials,  and  the  best  and  most  economical  sur- 
faces. As  I  have  shown,  for  merely  automobile  travel,  cars  on 
pneumatic  tires,  you  can  economically  and  satisfactorily  maintain 
a  gravel  or  macadam  road  in  the  summer  season  by  the  proper  use 
of  a  good  bitumen  and  constant  maintenance  and  patching. 

You  can  maintain  a  water-bound  macadam  road,  if  the  traffic  is 
not  too  heavy  and  by  too  heavy  I  mean  too  much  teaming,  by  the 
same  methods. 

You  can  maintain  a  bituminous  macadam  road  more  economically 
than  either  of  the  above  roads  when  the  traffic  in  teams  or  trucks 
is  so  heavy  that  neither  of  the  other  roads  are  economical.  With 
heavy  concentrated  roads  that  will  crush  or  wear  a  trap-rock  mac- 
adam say  at  the  rate  of  from  one-half-inch  to  an  inch  a  year,  water- 
bound  macadam  is  not  economical,  either  with  or  without  a  bitumi- 
nous surface.  Bituminous  macadam  will  be  much  cheaper  in  the 
end.  That  is,  of  course,  provided  bituminous  macadam  can  with- 
stand the  traffic  that  goes  over  it. 

With  a  certain  volume  of  traffic  it  is  more  economical  to  construct 
a  pavement  probably  on  a  concrete  base  or  possibly  in  some  places 
a  concrete  road. 

You  will  note  that  the  increased  cost  on  many  water-bound  mac- 
adam roads  in  England  when  the  motor  bus  service  was  put  on  was 
substantially  four  cents  a  mile  for  every  mile  that  the  buses,  which 
weighed  six  tons  including  their  load,  went  over  the  road.  Propor- 
tionately a  small  runabout  would  probably  cost  about  a  quarter  of 
a  cent;  a  large  touring  car  from  one  to  two  cents,  and  probably  a 
heavy  horse-drawn  vehicle  with  a  three-ton  load  would  cost  about 
the  same. 


DISCUSSION  221 

Constant  maintenance  costs  money.  Our  labor  costs  are  much 
in  excess  of  those  in  France  and  England.  Our  materials  probably 
average  the  same,  though  in  Massachusetts  our  stone  is  cheaper  than 
the  French  or  English  imported  Belgium  or  Welsh  granite,  which 
is  practically  a  hard  trap-rock. 

You  will  note  that  all  the  French  roads,  even  little  country  roads, 
cost  over  $100  a  mile  a  year  on  the  average  to  maintain.  You 
will  note  that  even  the  little  country  roads  in  England  have  cost 
more.  You  will  note  that  the  French  engineers  practically  state 
that  they  need  $770  a  mile  for  many  miles  of  road  on  their  main 
roads  to  adequately  maintain  them;  that  the  English  county  engi- 
neers spent  $1100  a  mile  on  the  average  on  their  main  county  roads, 
and  that  we  in  Massachusetts  are  spending  $850  a  mile. 

These  figures,  of  course,  include  not  only  ordinary  maintenance 
but  resurfacing  when  say  one-half  of  the  original  road  surface  has 
worn  off. 

The  people  must  be  made  to  realize  that  if  the  original  invest- 
ment in  roads  is  not  to  be  lost,  adequate  provision  must  be  made 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  roads,  and  the  money  secured  from 
some  source. 

Remember  that  while 

The  Knights  are  dust 

Their  swords  are  rust 
Their  souls  are  with 

The  saints  we  trust 

the  bonds  will  be  presented  on  Resurrection  Day. 

MR.  SUGGS:  It  was  not  pertaining  to  the  subject  but  I  just  want 
to  know  what  is  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  this  expenditure  and 
what  you  get  from  your  streets  and  what  benefit  they  are  in  the  State 
by  reason  of  having  these  good  roads?  I  have  heard  some  great 
stories  about  the  tourists  leaving  money  in  New  England  by  reason 
of  these  good  roads. 

MR.  SOHIER:  Don't  come  into  our  State  and  think  you  will  get 
away  with  any  of  your  money.  The  tourists  leave  there,  according 
to  whether  they  stay  at  the  Touraine  in  Boston  or  at  Magnolia  in 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  or  some  of  the  country  hotels,  $2.50  to  $10  a  day, 
and  they  pay  for  their  gasoline  and  $1.00  to  $1.50  a  day  for  their 
car.  Unfortunately  we  don't  get  that  money  for  the  roads.  If 
we  did,  we  would  keep  good  roads  all  over  the  State.  We,  in  New 
England,  have  got  the  best  summer  industry  that  anybody  has  got 
in  any  part  of  the  United  States  except  in  some  parts  of  California, 
and  we  are  glad  they  are  all  coming  up  there  wearing  our  roads 
out  and  leaving  us  their  money.  There  is  a  little  country  town  in 
western  Massachusetts  that  had  a  valuation  of  $300,000.  Our 
towns  include  the  whole  township  and  the  town  takes  care  of  all 
the  roads  inside  that  township  and  collects  both  the  State  and  county 


222  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

tax  as  a  part  of  the  town  tax.  It  is  not  a  borough  inside  of  a  town- 
ship, the  roads  are  not  maintained  by  the  county;  the  county  does 
not  collect  the  tax  except  through  the  town.  We  maintain  our 
own  State  highways.  They  started  ten  years  ago  improving  their 
roads  in  that  town.  They  borrowed  the  money;  they  put  in  at 
least  $500  and  sometimes  $1000  a  year  and  we  have  matched  it  under 
the  State  Aid  Law  and  in  the  beginning  we  gave  them  all  we  could 
under  the  State  Aid  Law  and  with  that  money  they  got  10  miles  of 
town  highway  built  of  gravel  on  a  foundation  where  it  was  neces- 
sary. When  they  started  the  valuation  of  that  town  was  $300,000. 
A  few  men  who  had  come  into  that  town  increased  their  valuation 
to  nearly  $750,000;  they  have  doubled  the  value  of  every  acre  of  land 
on  the  main  street  and  that  town  is  appropriating  some  years  50 
per  cent  of  its  taxes  for  road  improvement  because  they  say  if  we  only 
can  improve  the  roads  and  so  increase  the  valuation  that  the  schools 
can  wait  and  they  will  have  twice  as  much  money  for  our  schools 
in  five  years.  We  in  Massachusetts  have  had  town  after  town  that 
has  doubled  its  valuation  within  five  years  after  the  time  the  road 
was  built.  We  have  just  opened  up  a  road  over  the  Mohawk  Trail 
between  Greenfield  and  North  Adams  and  when  some  of  the  gentle- 
men telegraph  and  say,  "  What  does  it  cost  to  build  a  macadam  road 
per  mile?"  they'd  better  ask  Brother  MacDonald  than  myself. 
That  road  is  nothing  but  a  graded  dirt  road,  poor  dirt,  some  of  it, 
and  it  is  going  to  be  maintained  with  a  log  drag.  It  is  16  miles  long 
over  a  new  location  and  it  has  cost  us  about  $350,000  for  16  miles, 
without  any  improved  surface  whatever;  and  it  is  built  in  three 
towns  where  the  total  valuation  of  the  three  towns  is  less  than 
$1,000,000;  in  other  words  we  spent  33  per  cent  of  all  the  valuation 
of  those  three  towns  to  get  a  through  road  east  and  west  in  the 
northern  part  of  Massachusetts,  and  there  comes  where  I  am  wil- 
ling to  make  a  bet;  I  will  make  a  bet  that  five  years  from  now  the 
valuation  of  the  towns  in  that  neighborhood,  or  on  the  line  of  that 
road,  will  have  increased  four  times  the  cost  of  the  road. 

MR.  G.  L.  BURGESS:  So  you  are  not  burdened  with  the  thought 
of  losing  money  by  building  these  good  roads? 

MR.  SOHIER:  Our  Legislature  sometimes  has  made  a  special  ap- 
propriation directing  us  to  build  roads  that  we  think  we  ought  nol 
to  build. 

MR.  BURGESS:    How  much  does  this  dirt  road  cost  per  mile? 

MR.  SOHIER:  The  cost  on  one-quarter  mile  section  was  at  the 
rate  of  $60,000  a  mile  for  grading.  There  were  100,000  yards  cf 
earth  that  came  down  during  slides  last  winter.  There's  75,000 
yards  of  rock  excavation  on  one  side  of  the  mountain;  we  did  that 
at  a  cost  of  $1.50  a  yard. 


DISCUSSION  223 

MR.  BURGESS:  Our  country  is  just  a  level  country;  we  put  up 
about  a  mile  a  day  for  about  $8  a  day. 

MR.  SOHIER:    You  are  very  fortunate,  sir. 

MR.  SWINDEL:  We  sent  an  engineer  to  your  State  in  June 
to  investigate  some  sand  oil  roads  there  as  we  called  it.  There 
is  a  little  place  in  an  adjoining  county  to  us  that  has  been  built 
about  a  year  and  a  half  and  it  has  got  people  in  that  county  crazy 
about  that  class  of  road,  and  while  we  are  in  a  day's  ride  by  auto- 
mobile of  where  the  Indians  are  living  in  their  native  huts  and  we 
don't  get  any  State  aid,  neither  have  we  had  but  very  little  engineer- 
ing aid  in  the  roads  in  our  State,  we  are  not  following  the  path  of 
the  calf  that  has  been  dead  200  years  ago,  and  we  want  to  know  or 
would  like  to  know  if  you  could  tell  us  anything  about  that  asphalt 
oil  sand  road;  I  mean  whether  the  sand  is  heated,  whether  the  sand 
and  asphalt  are  heated  and  mixed  and  put  on  the  road  hot,  say,  the 
road  bed  rolled  and  leveled  off  and  that  material  put  on  and  rolled 
down  three  or  four  inches  thick,  something  like  that.  Do  you  know 
anything  about  the  wearing  qualities  of  that  kind  of  road. 

MR.  SOHIER:  I  would  be  happy  to  send  the  gentleman  the 
specifications.  We  built  an  asphalt  oil  sand  road  in  1906.  It  was 
built  by  what  we  call  a  layer  method  in  a  little  town  on  Cape  Cod 
where  there  was  nothing  but  sand,  the  road  surface  was  hardened 
with  loam  and  clay.  I  think  we  had  to  use  loam  at  that  time, 
so  that  it  would  not  rut  much.  On  that  we  spread  three-quarters 
of  a  gallon  of  hot  asphaltic  oil,  and  you  can  get  better  grades  of 
oil  today  than  we  used  then  if  you  buy  the  good  grades  with  an 
asphalt  base,  and  you  will  have  an  absolute  failure  if  you  buy  oil 
with  a  paramne  base.  If  you  get  Mexican  oil,  California  oil  or 
Texas  oil  from  the  right  wells,  you  will  usually  get  good  oil.  Three- 
quarters  of  a  gallon  of  oil  was  spread  per  square  yard,  very  roughly. 
That  had  about  an  inch  to  an  inch  and  a  quarter  of  sand  put  over  it 
and  another  three-quarters  of  a  gallon  of  oil  was  spread  over  that, 
then  another  inch  or  an  inch  and  a  quarter  of  sand  spread  on  that, 
and  then  another  one-half  of  a  gallon  of  oil  spread  on  that,  then 
about  an  inch  of  sand  put  over  that.  That  road  cost  at  that  point 
SI 700  a  mile  for  a  16-foot  road  the  first  year. 

Now  the  next  spring  you  jumped  from  hump  to  hump,  you  thought 
you  had  no  road  and  you  had  a  lot  of  ruts  and  holes  and  it  was  very 
uneven.  It  was  harrowed  with  a  disc  harrow;  first  broken  with  a 
gang  plow,  harrowed  and  made  fine  with  a  disc  harrow.  If  we  could 
have  used  water,  we  would  have  secured  better  results  but  we  did 
not  have  any  water.  It  was  shaped  back,  rolled  in  and  given  a 
little  more  oil  on  the  surface.  It  stood  us  $2500  a  mile  the  second 
year  and  we  had  a  reasonably  satisfactory  road  for  12  or  15  farm 
teams  and  light  buggies  a  day  and  the  road  is  on  the  job  now  and  you 


224  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

would  not  know  it  from  some  of  the  other  roads  made  by  a  mixing 
process,  but  we  have  been  constantly  filling  ruts  and  holes  and  it 
has  cost  us  about  $300  a  mile  a  year  to  keep  that  road  up,  but  no  more 
than  the  macadam  road  right  alongside  of  it  and  the  macadam  road 
alongside  of  it  is  now  getting  500  cars  a  day  every  pleasant  day  in  the 
summer,  and  it  is  taking  them  and  the  old  oil  sand  road  is  carrying 
the  same. 

The  road  by  the  mixing  method  costs  usually  about  $4500  a  mile. 
You  must  get  a  good  quality  of  oil,  you  must  be  sure  your  sand  is 
dry  and  hot,  about  the  same  temperature  as  the  oil.  We  are  getting 
better  results  with  a  hot  mixture.  We  did  mix  it  by  hand.  We  have 
had  prices  of  30  cents  to  40  cents  a  square  yard  for  the  surface  not 
including  any  grading  or  hardening  the  subgrade  with  clay  or  loam. 
We  furnished  oil  to  the  contractor.  That  is  for  4  inches  thick  and 
16  feet  in  width,  and  on  those  roads  we  are  finding  it  is  rather  better 
to  give  them  a  surface  application  of  oil  the  first  year  because  it  is 
very  hard  to  get  the  man  who  will  either  rake  the  mixture  smooth 
or  put  down  his  shovel  so  that  he  does  not  get  a  little  bit  of  a  ripple. 

The  layer  method  costs  $2500  a  mile  and  the  mixing  method 
about  $5000  for  the  surface. 

The  first  method  takes  two  years,  sometimes  three,  before  you  get 
a  good  road.  By  the  other  method  you  get  a  good  road  almost  at 
once.  You  ask  how  long  are  they  going  to  last?  They  are  going  to 
last  us  ten  years  provided  they  do  not  suddenly  develop  such  a  heavy 
traffic  of  heavily  loaded  teams  on  iron  tires  that  they  cut  through. 
They  have  not  cut  through  yet,  and  we  put  them  right  against 
macadam  all  the  way  from  Boston  to  Cape  Cod,  150  miles,  but  with 
large  automobile  traffic,  not  heavy  team  traffic,  and  we  are  a  little 
bit  afraid  of  the  auto  trucks.  We  know  that  one  truck  a  day  won't 
hurt  the  road,  or  five  trucks  won't  hurt  it,  because  we  use  trucks 
over  it  ourselves,  but  they  are  rutting  it  a  little.  We  hope  it  is  not 
going  to  rut  much  and  we  hope  if  we  have  to  do  anything  to  it,  we 
will  find  that  we  can  roll  stone  in  on  hot  days  and  thus  strengthen 
the  road  and  save  the  top.  In  the  future  we  can  perhaps  grade  out 
sands,  use  a  better  and  harder  asphalt  to  make  practically  a  sheet 
asphalt  road  without  too  great  an  increase  in  cost. 

MR.  BURGESS  :  The  road  I  mentioned  was  built  in  front  of  a  hotel ; 
the  man  is  here  in  town  that  had  charge  of  the  construction,  I  don't 
remember  his  name  now,  but  while  the  road  won't  get  hot  enough 
to  run  or  puddle  in  hot  weather,  it  is  not  perfectly  hard,  it  is  the 
least  bit  springy,  you  can  take  your  knife  and  cut  out  a  piece  like 
that  and  stick  it  back  in  and  rub  your  foot  over  it  and  in  a  little 
bit  you  can't  tell  where  it  is,  it  seems  to  go  back  together.  Well 
that  road  was  constructed  by  burning  all  the  vegetable  matter 
out  of  the  sand,  having  nothing  but  the  pure  sand  and  heating  the 
oil  to  something  like  250  and  mixing  it  hot  and  putting  it  on  the 
road  and  rolling  it  hot.  It  was  mixed  by  hand,  just  a  small  piece, 


DISCUSSION  225 

but  we've  got  the  road  craze  in  our  county;  we've  got  sand  up  there 
that  deep. 

MR.  SOHIER:    So  have  we. 

MR.  BURGESS:  And  my  Hillsboro  County  friend  is  building 
brick  roads.  We  are  not  able  to  build  brick  roads;  I  don't  know  that 
they  are  much  richer  than  we  are,  but  there's  more  of  them,  so  I 
don't  think  we  could  build  brick.  The  only  material  we  have  is  a 
reasonably  poor  class  of  clay  and  we  are  using  a  great  deal  of  that 
with  the  sand  but  it  goes  all  to  pieces;  it  won't  stand,  and  from  the 
way  that  little  piece  of  road  looks  down  there  and  what  our  engi- 
neer reports  he  brought  back  from  Cape  Cod  about  that  road  up 
there,  we  have  about  decided  that  the  sand  asphalt  road  was  our 
best  road. 

MR.  SOHIER:     Where  do  you  come  from? 
MR.  BURGESS:    South  Florida. 

MR.  SOHIER:  I  think  if  you  have  got  really  a  hot  climate,  if  I 
were  in  your  place,  I'd  use  the  heavier  oils,  I  would  use  some  of 
the  oils  that  you  want  to  heat  to  300  to  350;  you  can  still  make 
it  mix  if  you  will  heat  your  sand  to  the  same  temperature. 

REPRESENTATIVE  OF  THE  STANDARD  OIL  COMPANY:  The  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company,  of  Jacksonville,  will  give  him  all  the  information 
he  needs. 

MR.  BURGESS  :  The  stuff  we  are  using  is  about  99  per  cent  pure 
asphalt;  it  is  not  an  oil  at  all,  you  can  cut  a  chunk  out  of  it,  and 
throw  it  around  anywhere  you  please  and  it  won't  run;  but  now,  as 
you  see,  the  granite  road  wears  out,  the  brick  wears  out,  the  steel 
rails  on  the  railroad  wear  out.  If  this  sand-oil  road,  this  asphalt 
road  wears  out,  why  can't  we  heat  some  more  asphalt,  sprinkle 
some  sand  over  it,  heat  some  more  asphalt  and  sprinkle  some  more 
sand  over  it  and  build  up  that  road  and  keep  it  from  wearing  out? 

MR.  SOHIER:     That  is  just  what  we  are  doing. 

MR.  BURGESS:  We  have  great  quantities  of  sand;  if  we  can 
get  some  plan  by  which  we  can  build  a  road  out  of  sand,  we  are 
fixed.  We  don't  have  to  blast  up  the  sand,  we  can  shovel  it  out. 

MR.  SOHIER:  You  want  to  use  the  coarsest,  best  sand  you  have 
in  the  bank,  and  if  you  want  to  do  it  cheaply,  you  want  to  mix  it 
by  machine,  and  the  next  thing  I  want  to  say  is  this,  you  cannot 
use  any  specifications  and  find  them  correct  on  your  particular  sand, 


226  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

we  don't  know  enough  yet  to  know  why,  but  we  do  know  that  some 
sands  apparently,  as  far  as  we  can  tell,  the  same,  mix  very  nicely 
and  come  down  with  18  gallons  of  oil,  hot,  to  the  cubic  yard  of  sand; 
we  use  up  to  23  on  other  sands  and  when  you  get  your  road  done, 
you  want  to  have  your  material  well  mixed  so  it  will  pack  down  and 
won't  be  mealy.  It  ought  to  tamp  out  so  that  it  compacts.  The  rule 
for  that  is  as  it  was  with  the  tar,  spread  your  sand  in  a  heap  and  rake 
it  and  if  you've  got  about  the  right  mixture  of  sand  and  oil,  it  will 
continue  to  crawl  for  quite  a  few  minutes  after  you  have  mixed  it 
and  it  stops  right  off  after  you've  raked  it  if  you  have  not  got  enough, 
also  when  you  tamp  it  or  roll  it  there  should  be  enough  asphalt  in  the 
mixture  to  make  it  consolidate  pretty  well. 

MR.  BURGESS:  Let  me  ask  one  question:  I  was  at  a  little  town 
nearby  where  I  was  putting  down  a  small  piece  of  street  out  of 
this  same  material  and  noticed  a  man  that  was  putting  it  down; 
he  took  a  little  piece  of  paper  and  was  mixing  the  sand  and  oil  hot, 
had  it  hot  before  he  put  it  together  and  still  kept  it  in  the  same 
pot  with  a  fire  under  it,  and  he  would  take  out  a  little  of  that  sand 
every  few  minutes  and  look  at  it  on  a  piece  of  paper  and  I  thought 
from  his  examination  that  he  was  trying  to  get  it  mixed  until  the 
grains  practically  become  a  part  of  the  sand.  It  was  mealy  like; 
then  he  put  it  down  and  when  he  put  it  down  and  packed  it  a  little 
it  seemed  to  go  together  all  right. 

MR.  SOHIER:  What  you  need  is  just  about  10  per  cent  more  as- 
phaltic  oil  than  the  voids  in  the  sand  as  shown  by  water  but  we  have 
not  been  able  to  use  very  heavy  asphalt.  We  tried  to  mix  sand  and 
asphalt  with  the  result  that  it  rolled  up  like  a  snow  ball — I  am  speak- 
ing of  barrel  asphalt  that  melted  about  350 — and  we  found  that  we 
could  not  use  as  heavy  a  material  as  that  and  consequently  we  have 
used  the  heaviest  standard  oil,  what  they  call  B  and  without  very- 
much  difference  since  the  Standard  Oil  Company  has  given  us  Mexi- 
can oil]  we  had  some  perfectly  punk  jobs  before  they  gave  us  Mexi- 
can oils.  We  have  used  California  and  Texas  oils  and  got  good  re- 
sults and  no  doubt  any  good  asphalt  will  give  good  results  if  you 
have  the  proper  sand. 

MR.  BURGESS:  I  understand  that  the  asphalt  is  just  used  to 
fill  up  the  void  between  the  sand,  and  when  you  get  it  packed  you 
have  practically  got  a  sand  road? 

MR.  SOHIER:  Sheet  asphalt  has  only  about  10  per  cent  of  asphalt 
in  it.  The  Topeka  mix  has  only  about  10  per  cent  of  the  bituminous 
material  in  it  as  compared  to  the  rest  of  the  material  as  in  the  sheet 
asphalt  and  that  is  about  18  gallons  to  the  cubic  yard,  but  it  swells 
one-seventh  with  the  heat  so  that  it  would  make  19J  hot. 


DISCUSSION  227 

MR.  BURGESS:  The  specifications  I  think  we  have  call  for  18 
gallons  to  a  cubic  yard  of  sand. 

MR.  SOHIER:  I  would  like  to  say  to  any  of  the  other  gentlemen 
here  that  we  have  some  of  the  best  roads  I  think  that  are  built 
anywhere,  that  are  built  by  the  same  method  exactly  that  I  have 
been  describing,  using  hot  asphaltic  oil  with  gravel,  clean  sandy 
gravel,  grading  that  gravel  and  they  are  very  much  better  than  the 
sand  roads  because  we  think  they  will  take  any  amount  of  travel. 
We  use  a  good  clean  sharp  gravel  and  they  have  been  down  7  years 
and  don't  show  a  pimple  yet. 

A  MEMBER:  Is  the  sand  on  the  Boston  and  Cape  Cod  road 
marine  shell  sand? 

MR.  SOHIER:  It  has  no  shell  in  it;  we  tried  to  get  a  coarse  sand 
and  not  a  fine  sand;  it  is  fairly  sharp  but  it  really  has  several  sizes 
of  sand;  we  get  it  out  of  the  bank,  don't  take  it  off  the  beach.  We 
have  one  place  where  we  could  take  it  off  the  beach  but  there  it  is  an 
original  sand  bank  which  was  originally  marine  sand  but  has  been 
in  the  bank  a  great  many  years  now.  It  is  much  sharper  than  the 
sand  on  the  beach.  The  success  of  the  road  depends  on  the  quality 
of  the  sand  in  my  opinion.  You  should  try  experiments  first  and 
so  find  out  if  the  sand  and  oil  will  work  and  what  particular  sand 
and  particular  oil  will  give  the  best  results.  Then  use  that. 

REPRESENTATIVE  OF  STANDARD  OIL  COMPANY:  If  our  Florida 
friend  will  write  to  Watertown,  Florida,  they  have  just  put  down 
that  kind  of  a  road  there  this  summer  and  he  will  get  information 
that  will  help  him. 

MR.  SOHIER:  I  think  there  was  some  put  down  by  the  Lane 
Construction  Company  a  little  south  of  Tampa  this  year,  also. 

MR.  SWINDEL:  That  road  you  put  the  oil  on  was  clay,  hard  sur- 
face, it  was  not  sand  like  we  have  in  Florida. 

MR.  SOHIER:  It's  just  the  same,  sir,  if  your  sand  is  coarse  and 
sharp.  All  we  use  the  clay  or  loam  for  is  just  enough  in  the  sub-base 
so  that  when  we  spray  the  oil  on  and  when  the  oil  team  goes  on  to 
the  road,  it  won't  rut  it  as  deep  as  it  used  to  rut  the  sand.  When 
we  sent  an  oil  team  over  the  old  sand  roads  it  took  four  or  five  horses 
to  drag  it  with  the  result  that  when  you  looked  at  the  road  you 
found  a  whole  lot  of  oil  in  the  rut  and  a  whole  lot  in  each  horse's 
track  and  got  little  drop  of  oil  all  over  the  rest  of  the  road.  All 
this  had  to  be  harrowed  and  broken  up  and  mixed  and  rolled  back 
to  get  a  road.  Now  after  we  have  hardened  the  road  we  can  spray 


228  AMEKICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

three-quarters  of  a  gallon  of  oil  to  the  square  yard  and  have  it  very 
even  and  I  have  seen  a  road  with  only  one  coat  of  oil  that  stood  the 
traffic  for  quite  a  little  while  very  nicely. 

MR.  SWINDEL:  Do  you  have  a  heater  in  your  tank  to  heat  the 
oil? 

MR.  SOHIER:  Sometimes,  but  we  usually  heat  it  to  275  in  the 
tank  car  so  it  spreads  about  250  on  the  road  and  we  also  use  a  pump 
so  that  we  can  get  on  three  or  four  loads  a  day  and  in  that  way  save 
quite  a  lot  of  money.  If  you  can  get  good  clean  sandy  gravel  so  that 
you  can  use  inch  and  a  half  stone  graded  down  to  clean  sharp  sand, 
you  will  get  a  road  that  I  think  will  wear  as  well  as  asphalt  pave- 
ments under  country  traffic. 

A  MEMBER:  May  I  ask  what  is  the  heaviest  steel  wire  traffic 
that  goes  over  the  Cape  Cod  road? 

MR.  SOHIER:  The  heaviest  probably  is  3  tons,  but  there  are 
very  few  of  them.  The  ordinary  traffic  is  the  little  country  traffic 
that  farmers  and  fishermen  have  around  there  and  most  of  them 
are  single  horse  wagons.  If  you  will  write  me,  I  will  send  you  the 
traffic  on  that  road,  exactly  what  it  is. 

MR.  SWINDEL:  We  are  going  to  build  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in 
each  commissioner's  district  in  our  county,  of  this  asphalt  sand 
road  and  scatter  it  in  different  places  over  the  county  so  that  the 
people  of  the  county  can  see  it,  and  of  course  it  will  be  built  on 
different  classes  of  ground  you  know  and  it  will  be  subjected  to 
different  kinds  of  traffic  and  we  are  going  to  put  in  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  in  each  commissioner's  district,  just  for  a  test  to  see  how  it 
will  look. 

MR.  SOHIER:  Build  it  16  or  18  feet  wide,  otherwise  they  will 
cut  in  on  it,  and  crown  it  one-third  of  an  inch  to  the  foot,  only  and  not 
more — three-quarters  of  an  inch  to  the  foot  always  makes  a  rut, 
because  every  one  straddles  the  crown. 

MR.  SWINDEL:  The  clay  has  been  put  down  and  it  has  rutted 
out,  knocked  into  holes.  We  thought  to  level  that  off  and  put  this 
material  on  top  of  that. 

MR.  SOHIER:  I  don't  think  you  can  mix  it  with  any  sand  that 
has  clay  in  it,  5  per  cent  clay  in  the  sand  will  spoil  your  mix. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Are  there  any  more  questions  that  you  gentle- 
men would  like  to  ask? 


DISCUSSION  229 

A  MEMBER:  I  would  like  to  ask  Mr.  Sohier  what  kind  of  asphalt 
he  uses  with  that  gravel  road,  whet  her  it  is  a  penetration  or  mixing 
method  of  surface? 

MR.  SOHIER:  We  have  a  lot  of  gravel  roads,  have  had  oil  sur- 
faces on  the  gravel  for  some  time  and  they  work  well.  That  gravel 
mixed  road  is  put  on  hot,  an  inch  and  a  half,  stone  in  the  gravel 
about  50  per  cent  stone  down  to  a  100  mesh  sand,  and  in  one  case 
where  we  were  using  broken  stone  on  the  bottom,  we  used  the  stone 
dust  and  considered  it  rather  better  than  the  sand,  but  we  had  to 
go  up  as  high  as  23  gallons  of  oil  in  one  pit  and  20  gallons  in  the 
other  to  get  exactly  the  same  mixture,  and  we  use  mostly  a  heavy 
grade  of  California  oil,  also  some  Texas,  some  Aztec,  some  Monte- 
zuma  and  some  Standard  oil  right  alongside,  but  just  in  short  sec- 
tions to  see  whether  they  were  or  were  not  what  they  were  sold  to 
be.  Some  are  not.  By  and  by  we  will  tell  you. 

A  MEMBER:     Did  those  oils  show  any  percentage  of  paraffine? 

MR.  SOHIER:  No  sir.  Our  specifications  do  not  allow  any 
paraffine,  but  I  do  think  there  is  quite  a  difference  in  oils  of  the 
same  specific  gravity,  in  the  way  in  which  they  will  last  without 
crawling  at  the  end  of  three  or  four  years.  I  think  the  cut-back, 
taking  the  top  and  bottom  and  getting  the  asphalt,  is  less  likely 
to  crawl  than  an  oil  that  is  refined  down  to  a  certain  point,  leaving 
the  various  oils  in  between  the  top  and  the  bottom,  but  I  think  the 
thing  we  all  know  the  least  about,  despite  anything  the  Standard 
oil  people  or  any  other  oil  people  will  tell  you,  or  anybody  else,  is 
bitumen,  and  if  you  get  bitumen  that  will  stick  to  your  finger  and 
put  a  pencil  in  it  and  can't  take  it  off  without  cutting  off  the  wood, 
you  are  getting  a  pretty  good  bitumen;  and  if  you  can  wipe  it  off 
with  a  paper,  you  can  bet  your  bottom  dollar  it  is  a  lubricant  and 
not  good  for  road  purposes.  If  it  is  long  and  stringy  it  is  good; 
if  it  will  stick  to  your  finger  or  a  pencil  it  is  good,  and  if  it  won't  stick 
it  is  not  worth  a  cent. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Are  there  any  more  questions?  We  have 
spent  a  very  profitable  afternoon  and  I  want  to  say  that  I  am  very 
grateful  to  you  for  the  interest  you  have  shown.  I  hope  that  you 
will  all  be  here  promptly  at  10  o'clock  tomorrow  morning. 


230  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

November  12, 10  A.M. 
GENERAL  WM.  T.  ROSSELL  IN  THE  CHAIR 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  the  meeting  will  please  come  to 
order.  I  have  here  a  notice  to  be  published,  that  State  and  Fed- 
eral highway  officials  and  ex-officials  will  meet  at  3  p.m.  in  the 
moving  picture  room.  This  does  not  apply  to  other  than  State  and 
Federal  officials.  We  have  some  telegrams  that  the  Secretary  will 
read. 

THE  SECRETARY  :  I  have  here  a  telegram  addressed  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Road  Congress  which  reads  as  follows:  "The  United 
Daughters  of  the  Confederacy,  100,000  strong  with  chapters  in  34 
States  of  the  Union,  ask  that  the  Great  Highway  to  be  projected 
through  the  South  from  Richmond  to  Santiago  be  named  The 
Jefferson-Davis  Highway,  in  which  case  they  pledge  their  support 
to  the  same. — Mrs.  Walter  D.  Lamar." 

We  have  also  another  telegram  reading  as  follows:  Regret  exceed- 
ingly unexpected  business  arrangements  prevented  my  being  in 
Atlanta  this  week,"  Mr.  Paul  D.  Sargent,  State  Highway  Engineer 
of  Maine.  I  want  also  to  announce  that  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  American  Highway  Association  for  the  election  of  officers  and 
for  the  transaction  of  such  other  business  as  may  properly  come 
before  it,  will  be  held  in  this  room  tonight  at  8  o'clock. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  first  thing  on  the  program  is  an  address 
by  Mr.  C.  J.  Bennett,  State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Connecticut 
on  System  in  Road  Management. 

SYSTEM  IN  ROAD  MANAGEMENT 

CHARLES  J.  BENNETT 
Highway  Commissioner  of  Connecticut 

In  consideration  of  a  topic  of  this  character,  it  must  be  realized  that 
there  are  certain  principles  to  be  applied  in  organizing  or  systematizing 
a  highway  department,  which  can  be  applied  generally  to  the  problem 
wherever  a  department  of  this  character  is  to  be  formed.  Further 
than  that,  we  cannot  go.  The  particular  methods  of  accounting,  the 
minutiae,  the  forms,  types  of  books,  methods  of  reporting  and  record- 
ing reports  are  in  every  instance  a  peculiar  problem  to  be  solved 
locally  and  in  the  manner  best  fitted  to  give  a  solution  of  the  peculiar 
difficulties  which  arise  on  account  of  position  and  magnitude  of  the 
department  geographically  or  financially. 

Having  in  mind,  therefore,  that  the  detailed  phases  of  the  problem 
are  local,  there  will  be  no  endeavor  in  this  paper  to  outline  an  ideal 


SYSTEM   IN    ROAD   MANAGEMENT  231 

system  of  accounting,  reports  and  records  for  a  highway  department, 
for  such  a  system  would  apply  probably  only  to  that  particular  de- 
partment with  which  the  writer  is  more  nearly  familiar.  There  will 
be,  however,  an  attempt  made  to  show  in  a  general  way,  what,  in 
the  estimation  of  the  writer,  are  the  broad  principles  which  can  be 
applied  to  systematic  management  of  a  highway  department,  whether 
it  be  town,  city  or  state. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  necessary  to  realize  that  there  are  two  results 
to  be  secured: 

First,  the  proper  and  economical  spending  of  a  certain  amount  of 
money  in  the  way  best  fitted  to  serve  the  general  public,  and 

Second,  the  presentation  of  the  method  of  spending  this  money  to 
the  public,  so  that  it  may  be  thoroughly  informed  as  to  how  its  money 
has  been  apportioned  and  what  results  have  been  reached.  Such  a 
record  or  report  made  to  the  public  should  be  in  simple  language  so 
that  the  most  uninformed  may  understand  the  results  desired  and  the 
ends  achieved. 

In  connection  with  the  first  proposition,  i.e.,  the  spending  of 
money  to  get  the  best  results.  The  first  requisite  in  organizing  a 
system  of  this  kind  is  the  record  or  system  of  bookkeeping  which 
should  show  at  all  times,  the  condition  of  the  accounts  and  keep  a 
check  on  the  expenditures  made  for  specific  purposes.  Such  a  sys- 
tem should  be  simple  and  familiar  to  all  the  employees  of  the  depart- 
ment and  should  show  graphically,  at  a  glance,  the  amount  of  the 
appropriations  made  for  specific  purposes  and  a  summary  of  the  defin- 
ite projects  on  which  this  money  should  be  expended  with  the  total 
weekly  or  monthly  expenditures  for  the  purposes  defined.  This 
information  should  be  available  to  all  the  employees  and  should  be 
so  plain  as  to  make  it  possible  for  a  change  in  the  personnel  of  the 
office  force  without  a  consequent  confusion  arising  from  a  compli- 
cated and  abstruse  system  of  accounts. 

In  connection  with  this  system  of  bookkeeping  and  system  of 
reports  of  work  necessary,  the  orders  for  the  work  to  be  done  should 
be  immediately  compiled  and  entered  in  the  books  so  that  the  dis- 
bursements may  be  kept  up  to  date.  There  should  be  no  possibility 
of  verbal  orders  which  would  call  for  expenditures  of  money  without 
an  accompanying  written  report  and  order,  which  should  be  entered 
at  once  in  the  ledger.  This  system  of  accounts  should  provide  also 
for  a  periodic  statement  of  the  financial  condition  of  the  department, 
which  statement  or  balance  should  show  not  only  the  cash  available, 
but  also  the  actual  amount  available  after  all  the  liabilities,  bills  and 
debts  of  the  department  were  paid. 

Having  formulated  such  a  system  of  accounting,  a  force  of  em- 
ployees should  be  organized  in  such  a  manner  that  the  system  of 
accounts  may  be  followed  and  in  such  a  way  also  that  the  general 
idea  of  spending  the  money  economically  and  well  be  firmly  estab- 
lished. 

The  first  idea  which  should  be  applied  in  the  organization  of  a 


232  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

highway  department  is  the  military  system,  that  is,  the  depart- 
ment should  be  subdivided  so  that  each  part  might  have  certain 
duties  with  a  definite  amount  of  money  to  spend.  Each  subdi- 
vision should  report  directly  to  the  superior  officer  and  through 
this  superior  officer  to  the  military  head.  The  organization  should 
be  such  that  no  orders  should  be  passed  around  a  subordinate, 
but  should  rather  go  through  a  subordinate.  It  is  quite  necessary 
in  dealing  with  a  force  of  any  magnitude  that  the  rank  and  file  should 
know  the  purpose  of  the  organization  and  the  wishes  of  the  chief. 
In  other  words,  the  department  should  be  imbued  with  the  spirit 
and  aims  of  the  man  at  the  head,  for  in  this  way  each  man  will  work, 
so  far  as  is  possible,  along  the  same  lines  and  the  results  gained  will 
be  more  nearly  uniform  and  standard. 

An  effort  should  be  made  to  build  up  patriotism  in  the  department, 
which  should  work  for  the  betterment  of  the  road  system  rather  than 
for  the  personal  benefit  of  the  employees  or  of  the  political  party 
which  is  responsible  for  the  appointment  of  members  of  the  depart- 
ment. A  modified  civil  service  system  is  a  good  thing,  in  that  it 
makes  the  men  more  sure  of  their  positions  than  under  a  political 
system.  Such  a  civil  service  should,  however,  provide  for  the  re- 
moval of  employees  by  the  head  of  the  department  without  applying 
to  any  outside  body,  such  as  a  State  or  Municipal  Civil  Service  Com- 
mission. The  whole  idea  of  such  a  department  and  the  organization 
of  the  force,  should  be  to  secure  the  right  men  for  the  right  places  and 
keep  them  there  while  they  give  good  service.  There  is  nothing 
which  can  disorganize  a  department  so  much  as  the  right  of  an  em- 
ployee to  apply  to  some  outside  body  which  has  no  knowledge  of 
conditions  and  which  can  only  judge  of  a  man's  ability  or  his  right 
to  hold  a  position,  by  an  examination  on  his  technical  knowledge  or 
by  a  brief  hearing.  The  measure  of  a  man's  value  is  in  the  results 
he  gams  in  actual  service  and  knowledge  of  a  man's  ability  can  only 
be  secured  by  the  record  of  his  achievements  from  day  to  day. 

In  the  organization  of  a  force,  a  chart  should  be  prepared  showing 
the  connection  between  employees,  showing  to  whom  an  employee 
should  report  and  stating  distinctly  what  his  duties  shall  be.  The 
best  results  are  to  be  gained  by  delegating  authority  to  a  man  and  plac- 
ing confidence  in  him,  having  in  mind  the  theory  that  men  are  by 
nature  honest  and  will  endeavor  to  do  right  and  gain  good  results  if 
given  the  opportunity.  Allowance  should  be  made  for  honest  mis- 
takes and  a  careful  record  kept  of  such  mistakes  so  that  a  man  may 
realize,  when  removed,  that  the  reasons  for  his  removal  are  sound  and 
based  on  results  showing  his  lack  of  ability. 

In  selecting  employees  to  deal  with  the  public,  men  should  be  sought 
who  are  tactful,  intelligent  and  polite  in  their  intercourse  with  people. 
The  employee  should  be  instructed  that  at  all  times  it  is  necessary 
for  him  to  be  fair  and  reasonable  and  to  keep  his  temper.  A  public 
employee  is  a  servant  of  the  public  and  in  his  dealings  with  citizens, 


SYSTEM    IN   ROAD    MANAGEMENT  288 

should  realize  this  fact,  but  he  should  also  he  firm  and  not  afraid 
to  refuse  an  unreasonable  request. 

Given  then  a  system  of  accounting  in  the  organization,  the  mem- 
bers of  this  organization  must  bear  in  mind  that  if  they  are  kept  in- 
formed as  to  the  purpose  of  the  department  in  which  they  work, 
they  should  on  their  part,  keep  their  superiors  well  informed  of  their 
own  movements,  the  amount  of  work  done  and  the  character  and  cost 
thereof.  In  other  words,  a  method  of  reporting  work  should  be  es- 
tablished and  kept  which  should  give  plainly  and  simply,  all  the  neces- 
sary information  as  to  the  actual  physical  operations  carried  on  by 
the  employees.  The  local  situation  will  govern  the  extent  and  fre- 
quency of  such  reports  but  they  should  show  primarily  and  in  a  clear 
way,  the  work  which  the  employee  is  trying  to  do,  the  probable  cost 
of  the  work  to  be  done  before  it  is  started,  and  from  time  to  time  the 
actual  cost ;  including  remarks  as  to  the  success  or  failure  of  any  partic- 
ular experiment.  There  should  not  be  an  endeavor  to  make  compli- 
cated reports  which  should  show  minutiae  to  the  point  of  the  ludicrous, 
for  a  system  of  reporting  which  becomes  so  complicated  that  it  is  not 
simple  of  understanding,  fails  utterly  in  its  purpose. 

The  recording  of  reports  in  connection  with  the  accounting  system 
should  be  made  in  such  a  manner  that  through  these  records  the  out- 
sider, either  layman  or  professional,  may  secure  information  as  to 
the  comparative  cost  of  certain  classes  of  work,  the  success  or  failure 
of  certain  types  of  roads  and  the  financial  value  of  expenditures  for 
certain  specific  purposes.  For  instance,  it  might  be  possible  to 
demonstrate  in  a  certain  instance,  by  a  system  of  records  that  a  larger 
first  cost  of  construction  would  be  very  much  more  economical  even- 
tually than  a  small  first  cost  with  a  corresponding  large  charge  for 
maintenance  in  future  years.  The  system  of  records  should,  there- 
fore, show  the  ultimate  result  from  an  expenditure,  which  ultimate 
result  should  be  gained  from  records  made  over  a  long  term. 

The  above  discussion  has  covered  mainly  the  first  principle,  which 
was  stated,  namely,  the  endeavor  to  get  good  work  with  the  money 
appropriated. 

A  road  department  has,  however,  the  duty  of  presenting  its  opera- 
tions to  the  public  eye,  not  only  as  results  on  the  roads  themselves, 
but  in  the  success  or  failure  of  the  department  as  a  financial  proposi- 
tion. This  presentation  must  be  made  in  the  form  of  a  periodical 
report  to  some  superior  body,  as  the  mayor  of  a  city  or  the  legisla- 
ture of  a  State.  The  writer  finds,  in  perusing  many  of  the  reports 
made,  that  there  is  an  entire  lack  of  system  in  presenting  the  informa- 
tion, and  no  effort  made  to  make  the  report  clear.  Most  reports 
are  made  in  such  a  manner  that  an  expert  accountant  would  be 
needed  to  find  out  results  gained  and  even  then,  these  results  would  be 
of  little  value.  The  spirit  shown  most  in  reports  is  that  they  claim 
general  excellence  for  the  department  and  try  to  justify  its  continu- 
ance. Certainly  there  are  some  failures  made  by  roadbuilders,  which 


234  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

should  be  reported  for  the  good  of  the  work.     Reasons  for  failure 
should  be  stated,  whether  the  failures  be  financial  or  physical. 

It  is  quite  possible  and  necessary  to  make  an  annual  report  which 
is  readable  and  interesting  to  the  layman.  The  text  portion  of  such 
a  report  should  be  written  in  plain  English  without  technical  terms 
and  with  general  results  stated  broadly  and  succinctly.  Tabulation 
of  records  should  be  made  as  simply  as  possible  and  the  cost  per  unit 
should  give,  not  only  definite  figures,  but  should  state  furthermore,  just 
what  details  were  included  in  the  units  of  work  done.  For  instance,  in 
one  locality  maintenance  of  roads  does  not  include  the  oiling  of  the 
surface,  while  in  other  reports,  this  oiling  is  included,  which,  of  course, 
makes  it  impossible  to  compare  the  two  costs,  and  for  this  reason, 
and  many  others,  as  stated  above,  the  reports  should  show  definitely 
what  details  are  included  under  each  heading,  and  the  cost  might  be 
analyzed  accordingly. 

The  above  is  designed  to  open  up  a  general  discussion  on  the  value 
of  system  in  road  management. 

The  writer  wishes  to  make  clear  again  that  there  is  no  question  in 
his  mind  that  the  system  should  be  simple  and  operative  rather  than 
complicated  and  unwieldly.  The  simpler  the  method  of  bookkeeping, 
organization,  reporting  and  recording,  the  more  successful  will  be 
the  results  in  spending  the  money  economically  and  well  and  the  more 
successful  will  be  the  opportunity  of  the  official  at  the  head  to  present 
his  information  so  that  it  will  be  of  benefit  first,  to  the  general  public, 
and,  second,  to  the  profession  of  which  he  is  a  member. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  Paul  D.  Sargent  was  to  have  opened  the 
the  discussion  on  this  paper,  but  as  he  is  absent,  the  subject  is  open 
for  general  discussion. 

MR.  T.  HUGH  BOORMAN  (of  New  York):  I  trust  that  all  our 
meetings  will  have  some  practical  result.  I  believe  in  work  and 
not  too  much  wind.  There  is  one  most  important  feature  in  Mr. 
Bennett's  address  which  every  man  here  and  every  association  con- 
nected with  us  should  endeavor  to  have  carried  out  and  that  is  the 
most  necessary  method  of  conducting  the  business  of  the  Highway 
Bureaus,  of  positively  discharging  any  employee  who  is  not  worthy 
of  filling  his  position.  I  go  back  to  the  time  of  our  worthy  chair- 
man's predecessor,  General  Newman.  When  he  came  to  New  York 
we  were  inflicted,  as  another  gentleman  of  the  corps,  General  Ben- 
ham,  was  inflicted,  with  these  awful  civil  service  employees.  General 
Benham  threw  up  his  job  because  he  had  such  a  lot  of  utterly  indif- 
ferent, inefficient  men  whom  he  had  to  employ.  Now  we  should 
in  every  way  endeavor  to  get  ordinances  or  laws  that  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Bureau  of  Highways  should  be  positively  in  the  hands 
of  one  chief  without  any  recourse  whatever.  Any  man  decided  by 
that  chief  to  be  inefficient  should  be  instantly  discharged.  You  had 


DISCUSSION  235 

occasion  recently  in  Philadelphia,  in  regard  to  licensing  of  engineers, 
to  bring  forward  that  statement,  but  while  we  believe  to  a  certain 
extent  in  civil  service,  we  suffer  more  from  it  than  from  any  other 
source. 

MR.  KING  (of  Memphis,  Tenn.) :  This  is  a  part  of  the  program, 
gentlemen,  that  I  am  very  much  interested  in.  We  have  in  Shelby 
County,  Tennessee,  a  commission  form  of  government,  as  well  as 
that  form  for  the  city,  and  I  happen  to  be  connected  with  the  county 
government  as  chairman  of  that  commission.  We  had  some  old 
method  of  conducting  the  public  funds  and  it  took  us  quite  a  good 
while  to  get  rid  of  that  system  and  I  find,  as  an  economic  proposition 
that  there  is  nothing  so  very  advantageous  to  the  management  of 
your  public  funds  and  bridge  building  and  road  building  as  a  public 
system  of  accounting,  as  well  as  a  perfect  system  of  purchasing. 
Everybody  had  been  purchasing,  even  down  to  the  lowest  man  in 
the  employ  of  the  county,  whatever  he  needed,  but  that  is  not  so 
now.  One  man  who  was  handed  down  to  me  for  political  reasons, 
when  I  said  to  him — at  the  head  of  the  bridge  department — "You 
must  come  through  my  office  for  everything  you  want,"  got  mad  and 
said,  "I  have  lived  in  this  city  all  my  life  and  in  this  county,  and  I 
never  had  to  get  an  order  for  anything  in  my  life;  my  word  has 
always  been  taken."  I  said  to  him,  "You  can  either  adopt  this 
system  or  quit."  The  result  is  that  in  the  bridge  department  we 
have  saved  47  per  cent  in  one  year's  time  by  having  a  perfect  sys- 
tem for  purchasing.  We  have  a  road  department  and  on  my  desk 
every  morning  there  is  a  card  from  the  foreman  of  every  bridge 
crew,  a  card  from  the  foreman  of  every  dirt  road  crew,  a  card  from 
the  foreman  of  every  turnpike  crew,  stating  exactly  what  work  was 
done  the  day  before.  For  instance,  if  it  is  a  bridge  crew,  they 
state  exactly  the  bridge  that  was  being  repaired  or  rebuilt,  where 
the  lumber  came  from,  how  much  old  lumber  was  used  and  how 
much  was  thrown  away,  and  from  the  dirt  road  department,  how 
many  miles  of  road  work  the  day  before,  or  fractional  parts  of  a 
mile,  were  constructed,  how  many  men  employed  and  how  many 
mules  were  in  commission  and  how  many  out  of  commission,  and 
from  the  turnpike  department,  the  same  way;  so  on  my  desk  every 
morning  I  have  a  report  from  every  man  and  at  the  end  of  the  month 
I  can  tell  whether  one  man  in  the  dirt  road  department  is  costing 
me  more  than  for  other  crews  of  like  character  and  like  equipment; 
I  can  tell  the  same  way  in  the  bridge  department  what  it  costs  per 
foot  or  per  hundred  feet  to  work  that  lumber;  so  then  it  is  an  abso- 
lute system  and  that  system  is  reducing  the  cost  of  repairing  and 
building  in  that  county  from  25  per  cent  to  47  per  cent.  So  gentle- 
men, there  is  not  anything  that  so  concerns  us  and  the  taxpayers 
of  this  country,  there  is  not  anything  so  pleasing  to  the  taxpayers 
as  the  very  question  that  the  gentleman  has  been  discussing  and  I 
think  we  need  to  study  it  and  get  a  system  all  over  this  country 
that  shall  be  workable  and  plain,  that  the  people  may  understand. 


236  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

MR.  J.  W.  BARNETT:  The  gentleman  has  just  outlined  in  a 
very  clear  and  interesting  manner  his  method  of  record  keeping, 
cost  keeping;  he  stated  that  before  any  supplies  could  be  purchased 
that  orders  would  have  to  be  issued.  I  would  like  very  much  to 
have  him  explain  to  us  his  method  of  purchasing  supplies,  whether 
through  a  purchasing  agent  or  whether  it  is  done  through  the  chair- 
man of  the  commission;  that  to  me  is  a  very  interesting  point. 

MR.  KING:  I  do  the  purchasing  myself,  as  chairman  of  that 
commission.  Every  dollar's  worth  of  goods  of  the  county,  amount- 
ing to  $7000  or  $8000  a  year,  I  purchase  myself. 

MR.  E.  P.  BALA  (of  Atlanta,  Ga.):  Order  is  the  first  law  of 
nature.  God  in  making  the  world  had  a  plan.  Everything  must 
have  its  plan  to  reach  perfection.  In  road  building  as  in  everything 
else,  there  must  be  system.  If  you  want  a  road,  the  first  question 
is,  is  it  a  public  utility?  Is  there  traffic  enough  to  justify  that  road? 
How  is  it  to  be  built  between  two  points,  and  you  must  get  a  doctor. 
An  engineer  is  a  doctor  of  highway  roads.  You  must  employ  a 
competent  engineer.  He  must  go  over  the  road  carefully  in  a  pre- 
liminary survey.  If  I  was  going  to  build  a  railroad  or  a  highway 
from  Atlanta  to  Macon  I  would  want  to  know  the  difference  of 
elevation  between  those  two  points;  I  don't  want  to  crawl  up  higher 
than  Atlanta  a  dozen  times.  In  going  from  Atlanta  to  Macon 
I  want  to  go  by  a  uniform  down  grade  because  Macon  is  lower  than 
Atlanta.  The  location  of  a  road  is  an  important  consideration; 
you  don't  want  to  sacrifice  grade  to  curvature  or  curvature  to  grade, 
but  you  want  to  find  out  which  way  the  main  traffic  will  go  when 
this  road  is  built,  and  want  to  build  with  reference  to  grades,  and  the 
way  the  traffic  is  moving.  You  want  to  put  as  few  curves  as  possible 
and  get  as  near  an  airline  as  possible  and  put  no  heavy  grades  upon 
this  road.  If  you  put  curves,  pursue  the  same  policy  the  railroads 
do,  make  circle  curves  going  from  a  tangent  to  an  easy  curve  or  a 
little  higher,  and  then  to  the  body  of  the  curve,  and  all  in  the  same 
way.  Another  thing,  you  want  to  prepare  to  procure  the  right  of 
way  before  you  strike  a  lick  in  excavation,  you  want  to  be  sure  that 
you  get  a  wide  enough  right  of  way  for  all  the  purposes  that  road  will 
be  put  to,  put  it  a  little  wider  than  the  present  necessities  call  for, 
give  it  ample  room,  and  whenever  you  strike  a  curve  you  should 
have  the  right  of  the  property  from  each  end  of  the  curve  and  clear 
that  right  of  all  trees  to  give  access  to  sight;  put  no  dead  men's 
curves  on  it.  Then  again,  after  your  location  is  made,  be  sure  you 
get  an  engineer  that  is  capable  of  carrying  out  the  instructions  on 
this  road,  give  him  some  limit,  give  him  the  idea  of  thought;  don't 
grind  him  down  by  conventionalities.  I  was  once  called  upon  to 
locate  a  line  from  Chicago  Junction  to  Chicago.  My  instructions 
were  the  simplest  ever  had — "as  near  an  airline  as  possible,  pay  no 
attention  to  towns,  we  are  building  it  for  a  freight  line."  Those 


PROBLEMS   OF    STREET   CONSTRUCTION    AND    MAINTENANCE          237 

were  simple  instructions.  The  engineer  was  on  his  mettle  and  we 
got  271  miles  out  of  269,  all  roads  crossing  either  under  or  above, 
for  safety.  It's  the  same  way  with  our  roads  here;  when  you  hit 
a  railroad,  if  possible,  go  under  or  go  above.  Then  the  next  ques- 
tion in  road  building  is  the  surface;  get  a  good  cross  section  and 
maintain  it,  and  if  your  traffic  is  very  heavy,  put  on  the  best  ma- 
terial you  can  find,  using  economy;  and  again  you  want  to  keep 
that  surface  up  to  its  original  character.  If  a  sharp  tired  wagon 
goes  over  it  and  cuts  it,  you  want  to  be  there  the  next  moment 
and  repair  it.  If  it  makes  a  hole,  the  next  wagon  that  comes  along 
hammers  it  deeper  and  so  on;  heavy  traffic  comes  along  and  makes 
a  terrible  hole,  one  that  is  dangerous  to  the  public.  Then  again 
you  want  to  have  system  in  everything,  system  in  keeping  accounts, 
system  and  a  head  to  every  department.  This  thing  of  every  man 
being  a  head  is  all  wrong;  there  must  be  one  head.  A  man  that 
cannot  do  his  duty  under  any  circumstances  does  not  deserve  the 
position  that  he  holds. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    I  received  this  notice: 

The  following  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  by  the 
Georgia  Women's  Suffrage  League,  Mrs.  Francis  Smith  Whiteside, 
President,  at  their  meeting  Wednesday  afternoon: 

Resolved,  That  the  Georgia  Women's  Suffrage  League  heartily  endorses 
the  movement  of  the  American  Highway  Association  for  good  roads  in  Georgia 
and  that  the  League  stands  ready  to  cooperate  with  the  movement  in  all  their 
undertakings. 

Next  on  the  program  list  is  a  paper  on  "Street  Construction  and 
Maintenance,"  by  Henry  W.  Durham,  Chief  Engineer  of  Highways, 
Manhattan,  New  York. 

SOME  PROBLEMS  OF  STREET  CONSTRUCTION  AND 
MAINTENANCE  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD. 

HENRY  WELLES  DURHAM 

Chief  Engineer  of  Highways,  Manhattan,  New  York  City 

When  recently  the  invitation  was  received  by  me  to  discuss  the 
subject  of  street  construction  and  maintenance,  it  seemed  like 
asking  for  the  writing  of  a  cyclopoedia  in  two  weeks.  Most  books 
bearing  this  title  are  at  best  merely  superficial  and  all  that  can 
be  said  in  a  few  minutes,  is  to  touch  on  a  few  points  which  may  have 
a  passing  interest  to  those,  who  like  the  speaker  find  the  attempt  to 
satisfy  public  demands,  always  hampered  by  a  general  public  igno- 
rance even  among  those  considered  well  informed,  as  to  what  is  the  best 
or  the  standard  practice  in  other  communities  than  their  own,  as  well 
as  to  why  many  conditions  about  which  complaint  is  made,  cannot  be 
immediately  changed. 


238  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

It  must  be  recognized  that  the  problems  of  our  largest  city  as  a 
whole,  are  not  always  those  of  others  of  a  lesser  size,  but  usually 
some  of  its  subdivisions  can  be  found  to  parallel  almost  any  other 
municipality,  the  Metropolitan  District  having  grown  by  the  con- 
solidation of  former  distinct  units  varying  from  villages  to  large 
cities,  many  of  which  still  continue  their  individual  characters. 

Any  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  speaker  attributable  to  the 
alleged  insularity  of  New  York,  may  possibly  have  been  modified  by 
beginning  his  paving  career  as  engineer  of  our  oldest  American  city, 
Panama,  and  by  a  course  of  investigation  of  municipal  paving  con- 
ditions, both  in  European  cities  and  in  those  of  our  country. 

Some  years  since,  in  a  report  made  by  a  citizens'  committee  on 
New  York  pavements,  expression  was  given  to  a  popular  idea  which 
still  prevails  that  the  pavements  of  the  City  of  New  York  are, 
and  probably  always  have  been,  very  inferior  to  those  of  first-class 
cities  of  the  old  world.  As  the  facilitation  of  public  communica- 
tion by  its  highways  gives  as  good  a  measure  as  is  possible  of  the 
prosperity  of  a  community,  a  short  statement  of  some  European  and 
American  street  problems  and  the  methods  of  solution  employed, 
will  be  of  more  interest  than  purely  local  statistics,  even  though 
now  progress  in  the  cities  of  the  former  continent,  may  be  temporarily 
interrupted;  because  the  duration  of  that  interruption  and  its  ulti- 
mate result  may,  to  a  great  extent,  depend  on  the  degree  of  per- 
fection attained  in  highway  communication  in  the  various  countries 
involved. 

The  work  of  pavement  maintenance  abroad,  has  been  largely 
dropped  for  the  present  as  is  witnessed  by  a  recent  communication 
from  the  director  of  the  French  Mission  of  Engineers  to  the  United 
States  of  America,  now  in  Paris,  who  writes  me  regarding  his  ina- 
bility to  furnish  certain  data  which  had  previously  been  requested, 
due  to  the  fact  that  he  "is  becoming  more  and  more  busy  in  quite 
different  lines."  This  censored  bulletin  seems  to  indicate  that  the 
famous  corps  of  Engineers  of  Bridges  and  Highways  is  not  at  present 
occupied  with  its  ordinary  civilian  problems. 

The  statement  may  be  axiomatic,  but  it  still  seems  to  require 
reassertion  that  though  road  construction  and  maintenance  have 
been  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present  of  primary  importance 
to  all  countries  that  have  attained  important  rank,  they  have  radi- 
cally altered  in  conditions  in  the  past  quarter  century  due  princi- 
pally to  two  causes:  the  first  of  which  is  the  motor  vehicle;  and  the 
second  (in  so  far  as  relates  to  the  problem  of  municipalities)  the 
increasing  importance  of  utilizing  the  space  immediately  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  streets  for  public  utilities.  These  are  required 
to  an  extent  increasing  as  rapidly  as  the  density  of  population  in 
working,  trade  and  residence  centers,  which  involve  a  demand  for 
the  distribution  of  power  as  well  as  for  means  of  communication 
and  transportation  requiring  large  installations  of  lines  for  telegraph, 
telephone,  water  supply,  gas,  sewers  and  rapid  transit  railroads. 


PROBLEMS   OF   STREET  CONSTRUCTION   AND   MAINTENANCE         239 

City  streets  developed  from  first  being  that  portion  of  a  highway 
between  built-up  rows  of  houses  and  the  adjacent  communicating 
spaces  between  outlying  buildings,  and  were  gradually,  after  many 
centuries,  elaborated  by  the  separation  of  pedestrians  from  vehicular 
traffic.  Up  to  the  middle  of  the  past  century  a  pavement,  consist- 
ing of  stone  blocks  laid  directly  on  the  ground  surface  of  the  street, 
was  considered  satisfactory  in  all  cities  of  Europe  and  in  the  older 
cities  of  this  country.  At  the  present  time  such  a  surface  is  used  in 
a  great  part  of  the  streets  in  every  important  European  city. 

An  essential  difference  between  our  cities  and  those  of  Europe  lies 
in  the  fact  that,  due  to  our  broad  growth,  our  streets  are  to  a  very 
large  extent  on  regraded  ground,  whereas  in  many  of  the  older  cities 
of  Europe  the  streets  have  occupied  their  present  location  for  hun- 
dreds of  years,  have  been  only  to  a  slight  extent  excavated  and  re- 
filled, and  furnish  a  durable  unyielding  foundation  for  the  paved 
surface.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  not  10  per  cent  of  the  area  of  streets 
of  the  great  cities  of  Europe  are  paved  on  a  concrete  foundation, 
a  notable  case  in  point  being  the  city  of  Hamburg  where  some  of  the 
finest  stone  pavements  in  the  world,  having  flat  heads  and  close 
fitting  joints,  are  laid  directly  on  a  sand  foundation,  and  Paris,  which 
has  yTth  of  its  stone  streets  on  concrete.  But  whereas  most  European 
streets  of  whatever  type  have  a  permanent  surface  suitable  to  the 
existing  conditions,  those  in  our  cities  not  yet  provided  with  a  con- 
crete base  are  largely  of  a  temporary  and  unsatisfactory  nature,  await- 
ing permanent  improvement. 

For  new  pavements  in  important  thoroughfares  concrete  foun- 
dations are  regarded  as  essential  by  engineers  on  both  sides  of  the 
ocean.  As  to  the  requisite  thickness  and  proportioning  of  the 
concrete  there  are  as  many  practices  followed  as  there  are  cities. 
The  minimum  thickness  abroad,  and  a  figure  which  corresponds  to 
that  of  many  of  our  important  towns,  is  4  inches.  This,  up  to  July 
of  this  year,  was  regarded  as  adequate  in  Brussels  for  the  traffic 
previously  contemplated.  Probably  the  average  abroad  is  about  6 
inches.  Berlin  and  Paris  have  foundations  running  from  6  to  8  inches 
as  do  Liverpool  and  Birmingham,  while  London  goes  to  a  maximum 
of  12  inches  on  its  main  streets  founded  on  an  alluvial  soil. 

Its  composition  in  different  places  varies  between  wide  limits. 
A  cheap  and  easy  form  of  criticism  occasionally  indulged  in  by 
those  well  enough  informed  to  know  better,  is  to  direct  public  com- 
plaint against  some  specified  case  of  foundation  concrete  work  in 
New  York,  often  based  on  the  authority  of  some  eminent  engineer 
(name  not  given)  who  observed  the  work  on  his  way  through  the 
street  and  stated  that  the  amount  of  cement  employed  was  inade- 
quate and  the  materials  not  properly  mixed  to  produce  a  durable 
foundation.  On  such  criticisms  argument  has  been  based  that  the 
proportioning  of  such  concrete  in  Manhattan  at  the  ratio  of  one  of 
cement  to  three  of  sand  and  six  of  stone  or  gravel  does  not  produce  a 
strong  enough  mixture. 


240  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

For  purposes  of  comparison  the  following  table  shows  some  of  the 
varying  proportions  abroad: 

Cement  Fine  Aggregate  Coarse  Aggregate 

London : 

City  and  Westminster    1     6    Thames  ballast — unscreened 

river  gravel 

Lewisham 1     7    Thames  ballast — unscreened 

river  gravel 

Battersea 1    3  sand  5    clean  gravel 

Liverpool 1    6  crushed  slag    3    broken  stone,  3-inch  gauge 

Paris 1    3f  sand  7£  stone  or  gravel 

Berlin  and  Charlotten- 

burg 8    fine  gravel  and  sand 

Hamburg 1     7    unscreened  river  gravel 

Vienna 1    3  sand  5    gravel 

First  quality  cement  is  the  same  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  but 
it  should  be  noted  that,  except  in  the  best  work,  in  the  continental 
cities  the  contractor  is  usually  permitted  to  use  on  streets  of  second- 
ary importance  a  slag  cement  of  inferior  grade  and  in  some  cases  a 
lime  mortar,  so  that  the  concrete  would  be  of  much  less  strength  than 
the  proportions  indicate.  It  is  frequently  constructed  of  bank 
gravel,  no  separate  measurement  of  sand  and  gravel  being  made, 
but  the  proportion  of  cement  added  to  the  run  of  the  bank.  Often 
the  old  macadam  road  material  is  used,  when  a  street  is  repaved  with 
an  impervious  surface,  to  furnish  the  material  for  concrete,  it  being 
screened  at  the  side  and  mixed  with  cement  and  sand. 

Work  of  concrete  mixing  is  done  almost  entirely  by  hand,  al- 
though machinery  has  been  introduced  in  Germany  to  a  small  extent. 
The  subfoundation  is  rough  graded  with  about  the  same  accuracy 
prevalent  in  New  York,  but  it  is  more  usual  to  finish  the  concrete  sur- 
face smooth.  It  is  commonly  laid  between  forms  set  transversely 
to  the  axis  of  the  street  at  intervals  of  about  15  feet,  materials  being 
turned  over  on  a  mixing  board  between  these  forms  directly  into 
place.  Final  finish  to  the  surface  is  then  obtained  by  drawing  a 
straight-edge  across  the  width  of  the  street,  the  concrete  being  laid 
mixed  wet  enough  so  that  finer  material  flushes  to  the  surface  and 
produces  a  fairly  smooth  finish  under  the  straight-edge.  Where  this 
method  is  not  followed,  the  forms  are  placed  longitudinally  and  a 
finish  obtained  by  drawing  along  them  a  template  formed  to  the 
proper  transverse  section.  Where  wood  pavement  is  to  be  laid, 
particular  attention  is  given  to  obtaining  an  accurate  smooth  surface 
and  a  certain  amount  of  hand-smoothing  is  sometimes  employed; 
but  it  was  noted  in  London  and  in  other  cities  that  by  employing 
the  method  of  accurately  setting  transverse  strips  to  the  surface 
grade  on  narrow  widths  of  concrete  and  then  drawing  a  straight- 
edge or  a  screed  along  on  these  adjacent  strips,  between  which  the 
work  of  mixing  and  placing  was  being  carried  on,  a  sufficiently 
smooth  surface  was  obtained  with  very  little  subsequent  plastering. 
For  asphalt  and  granite  it  is  not  attempted  to  obtain  such  smooth 


PROBLEMS  OP  STREET  CONSTRUCTION  AND  MAINTENANCE         241 

results,  but  usually  a  more  accurate  surface  results  on  all  classes  of 
work  than  with  us,  though  it  is  at  the  sacrifice  of  speed.  The  quality 
of  the  concrete  is  not  superior  to  that  now  being  produced  in  this 
country. 

In  summary  it  may  be  said  that  Europe  presents  to  us  no  solution 
of  the  pavement  foundation  problem  different  from  or  better  than 
those  known  in  this  country,  and  that  there  is  substantial  accord  in 
all  important  cities  about  the  present-day  necessity  of  concrete 
foundations  for  durable  pavements. 

A  most  difficult  problem  confronting  the  highway  engineer  today 
in  city  work  is  to  make  a  correct  decision  as  to  a  suitable  form  of 
wearing  surface  to  be  adopted,  one  that  shall  if  possible  combine  the 
very  contradictory  qualities  demanded  by  the  different  interests 
involved.  Horsedrawn  trucking  interests,  which  are  still  with  us 
to  a  great  extent,  desire  a  surface  which  shall  furnish  a  good  foot- 
hold for  animals  in  addition  to  giving  good  traction  for  wheels;  the 
occupants  of  adjacent  buildings  desire  absence  of  noise  and  cleanli- 
ness; while  the  necessities  for  access  to  subsurface  structures  require 
the  possibilities  of  frequent  opening  and  easy  restoration  to  a  con- 
dition substantially  as  good  as  the  original;  further,  the  taxpayer 
demands  a  form  of  construction  that  shall  combine  a  minimum  of 
original  cost  and  subsequent  maintenance  with  a  maximum  of  dura- 
bility; and  the  general  critic  calls  for  the  discovery  of  some  hitherto 
unknown  perfect  type  and  refers  us  to  the  great  cities  of  Europe  in 
which,  as  he  knows  from  personal  observation  during  the  few  hours 
he  spent  in  each  and  on  the  few  blocks  which  he  visited,  the  pave- 
ments are  perfect,  repairs  never  required,  openings  made  during  the 
night  and  restored  before  morning — all  at  practically  no  expense 
to  the  taxpayer. 

Investigation  does  not  bear  out  these  claims,  nor  unfortunately 
does  it  discover  the  desired  solution.  The  municipal  highway  en- 
gineer everywhere  abroad,  as  in  this  country,  is  trying  to  satisfy  the 
same  conditions  with  the  same  limited  success.  The  best  to  be  said 
is  that  general  experience  has  reduced  to  a  very  few  classes  the  num- 
ber of  desirable  wearing  surfaces  for  city  streets,  and  the  selection  of 
the  most  suitable  for  each  particular  case  is  usually  arrived  at  by  a 
process  of  elimination,  taking  the  one  that  presents  the  fewest  draw- 
backs. 

The  original  street  pavement,  and  that  which  is  used  over  more 
than  half  the  area  of  all  city  streets  in  Europe  at  the  present  time, 
is  some  class  of  stone  block,  ranging  in  quality  from  the  rough  cobble- 
stone pavement  which  has  been  generally  discarded  in  our  cities 
but  which  is  still  very  prevalent  abroad,  through  various  grades  of 
squared  block  to  one  laid  with  hand-dressed  blocks  with  joints  of  less 
than  J  inch  and  heads  absolutely  plain,  found  to  a  very  limited  ex- 
tent in  such  cities  as  London,  Liverpool  and  Birmingham  and  cost- 
ing from  So  to  $10  per  square  yard. 

The  most  frequently  used  type  at  the  present  time  in  the  cities  of 


242  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

Central  Europe  is  that  known  as  the  Belgian  block  from  its  prev- 
alence in  that  country — a  type  superseded  with  us;  but  when  laid 
with  the  greater  care  usually  found  abroad  and  on  streets  little  sub- 
ject to  excavation,  quite  satisfactory  though  noisy.  These  blocks 
are  generally  laid  without  foundation,  with  joints  not  exceeding 
one  inch  in  width  and  a  surface  much  smoother  than  that  of  our 
poorer  type  of  similarly  paved  streets. 

Another  variation  of  this  class  is  the  type  of  large  slab  block 
pavement  employed  in  Italy  and,  to  some  extent,  in  Austria,  composed 
of  stones  measuring  sometimes  as  much  as  18  x  24  inches  on  the 
top  with  a  depth  of  about  6  inches,  laid  with  close-fitting  joints 
and  combining  wearing  surface  with  foundations.  Such  pave- 
ments, while  extremely  slippery  even  when  the  upper  surface  of  the 
block  is  grooved,  seem  to  give  entire  satisfaction  in  the  cities  where 
they  exist.  The  material  employed  for  the  block  is,  as  with  us,  either 
a  trap  rock  or  a  granite  presenting  varying  degrees  of  hardness  in 
accordance  with  the  material  available  for  the  locality  in  question. 
Only  in  exceptional  cases  is  there  any  attempt  made  to  classify  the 
stone  according  to  hardness  for  use  on  grades  of  various  steepness. 

The  latest  improvement  in  stone  paved  streets,  and  one  occurring 
simultaneously  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  is  the  reduction  of  the 
depth  of  the  blocks  over  a  concrete  foundation  to  a  dimension  not 
exceeding  5  or  6  inches,  and  the  use  of  accurately  cut  square-fitting 
stones  laid  over  the  foundation  in  a  cushion  of  minimum  thickness 
in  virtual  contact,  so  that  when  the  joints  are  solidly  filled  with  either 
a  cement  grout  or  some  bituminous  material  they  shall  present  no 
edges  to  wear  round  and  produce  an  irregular  noisy  surface  under 
traffic. 

In  most  European  city  streets  where  none  of  the  above  kinds  of 
stone  pavement  prevail,  some  form  of  macadam  or  Telford  roadway 
is  used,  either  the  old  water-bound  surface  or,  in  the  more  modern 
construction,  with  the  addition  of  a  bituminous  filler. 

Finally,  on  a  limited  proportion  of  the  better  class  streets,  and 
these  are  in  the  area  commonly  seen  by  the  tourist,  there  are  found 
the  quiet  and  smooth  surfaces — sheet  rock  asphalt  and,  to  a  lesser 
extent,  soft  or  hard  wood  block. 

Making  a  comparison  with  those  of  our  American  cities  which  have 
devoted  much  attention  to  modern  repaving  in  recent  years,  it  would 
seem  as  if  the  above  classification  should  be  reversed  both  as  to 
quantity  and  quality;  but  it  is  based  on  accurate  figures  for  the 
leading  countries  of  Europe.  A  tabulation  of  the  relative  quanti- 
ties of  different  classes  of  pavement  in  the  first  seventy-six  cities  of 
Germany  shows  this  to  be  the  case.  The  list  includes  all  cities  hav- 
ing a  population  of  50,000  and  upward  or  an  aggregate  of  more  than 
15,000,000,  which  is  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  entire  country.  They 
have  a  total  area  of  paved  carriageway  of  approximately  110,000,000 
square  yards  divided  as  follows: 


PROBLEMS   OF   STREET   CONSTRUCTION   AND   MAINTENANCE         243 

Stone  block,  all  classes 60,000,000 

Macadam,  telford,  gravel  or  earth 35,000,000 

Asphalt 9,000,000 

Slag  block 2,000,000 

Wood  block 1,000,000 

Small  cube  stone 2,000,000 

Miscellaneous 2,000,000 

Total 111,000,000 

That  is,  more  than  50  per  cent  is  stone  block  and  86  per  cent 
either  stone  block,  some  form  of  crushed  stone  or  dirt,  leaving  14 
per  cent  to  divide  among  all  other  types.  Of  this  remainder  nearly 
two-thirds  are  sheet  asphalt,  and  all  other  kinds  occur  in  only  rela- 
tively small  quantities.  These  figures  are  from  the  official  report 
of  1912  and  consequently  subject  to  slight  revision,  but  show  sub- 
stantially the  relative  importance  attached  on  the  continent  of 
Europe  to  the  various  classes  of  pavement  surface.  A  statement 
of  these  facts  does  not  in  any  way  detract  from  a  recognition  of  the 
large  extent  of  elsewhere  unequalled  wood  surfaced  streets  in  London, 
nor  of  the  very  fine  asphalt  pavements  in  the  newer  parts  of  Berlin  and 
on  the  boulevards  of  Paris  and  Vienna.  Citizens  of  none  of  pur  lead- 
ing American  cities  would  be  contented  to  have  in  a  residential  street 
macadam  and  stone  block,  to  the  extent  to  which  they  prevail  abroad; 
and,  consequently,  lessons  drawn  from  foreign  practice  are  value- 
less to  us  in  this  respect,  while  we  have  already  learned  to  construct 
stone  and  asphalt  pavements  of  a  quality  equal  to  their  best. 

The  selection  of  the  types  of  pavement  to  be  adopted  in  a  great 
city,  while  limited  in  a  large  degree  to  the  three  classes  referred  to, 
can  not  be  laid  down  in  any  set  of  rules  whose  observation  will  lead 
to  thft  Ra.tiafar.tion  of  any  community.  Local  climatic  conditions, 
economically  available  sources  of  supply,  as  well  as  the  relation  to 
each  other  of  the  different  localities  for  commerce,  manufacture  and 
residence  and,  finally,  the  financial  resources  of  each  city  must  all 
exercise  too  great  an  influence  to  make  the  practice  of  one  valuable 
as  more  than  a  general  example  for  another. 

With  regard  to  noise,  more  attention  is  paid  to  this  question  in 
city  streets  than  previously,  and  the  old  type  of  wide  joint  stone 
pavement  has  been  completely  ruled  out.  On  our  modern  granite 
streets  such  noise  has  been  very  measurably  reduced.  Motor  ve- 
hicles are  as  quiet  on  them  as  on  asphalt  or  wood,  but  there  is  inevi- 
tably a  certain  amount  of  rumbling  from  steel  tires  and  horses'  hoofs, 
and  if  the  most  noiseless  surface  is  desired  wood  must  be  adopted. 
In  view  of  its  greater  life,  however,  and  consequent  ultimate  economy, 
its  lessened  slipperiness  and  almost  equal  ease  for  maintaining  in  a 
clean  condition,  the  lessened  amount  of  repairs  required  and  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  only  surface  in  which  street  openings  can  be  re- 
stored to  a  condition  equal  to  the  original,  modern  smooth -dressed 
close-fitting  granite  pavement  on  a  concrete  foundation,  its  joints 
filled  with  bituminous  material,  has  been  decided  to  be  mo«t  satis- 


244  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

factory  for  those  streets  in  the  borough  of  Manhattan  having  the 
heaviest  traffic  where  the  general  city  noises  from  surface  and  ele- 
vated railroads  and  the  other  sources  of  disturbance  of  a  city  render 
any  condition  attributable  to  variations  in  the  type  of  pavement 
negligible. 

For  a  fairly  heavy  and  dense  traffic  in  wide  street  subject  to  infre- 
quent cuts  and  having  a  level  surface  or  only  moderate  grade,  there 
is  no  question  but  wood  pavements  can  be  laid  that  are  eminently 
satisfactory.  They  require  the  most  careful  attention  for  main- 
tenance and  perhaps  vary  in  quality  between  greater  extremes  than 
any  other  type.  Nothing  finer  in  the  world  in  pavement  surface 
exists  than  can  be  seen  in  London  on  the  Mall  from  the  Admiralty 
Arch  to  Buckingham  Palace,  a  street  that  is  subject  to  a  fairly  dense 
pleasure  traffic,  or  on  Whitehall,  the  Strand,  Piccadilly,  or  many 
other  of  the  adjacent  streets  in  the  heart  of  Westminster.  On  the 
other  hand,  some  of  the  worst  wood  surfaces  encountered  in  any 
city  can  be  found  within  two  or  three  miles  of  those  just  referred  to, 
illustrating  very  clearly  the  absolute  necessity  of  constant  attention 
for  maintenance  and  the  selection  of  the  best  class  of  wood  and 
workmanship  for  this  type  of  construction. 

For  the  combination  of  economy,  cleanliness,  absence  from  much 
noise  and  satisfactory  surface  for  the  general  city  traffic  in  the 
residence  district,  nothing  has  been  developed  better  than  the  modern 
asphalt  pavement.  It  has  been  adopted  on  a  majority  of  the  streets 
in  New  York  City.  While  many  miles  of  inferior  pavement  of  this 
type  have  been  laid  there,  all  of  a  period  long  past,  they  are  as  rap- 
idly as  possible  being  superseded  with  a  modern  type  of  construc- 
tion on  a  concrete  foundation,  which  promises  much  greater  dura- 
bility and  ease  of  maintenance.  The  relative  lesser  amount  of  this 
surface  in  European  cities  is  very  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  we  have 
had  no  good  pavements  on  any  but  a  few  streets  in  each  city  up  to 
very  recently;  whereas  it  has  been  the  practice  abroad  for  many 
years  to  construct  good  macadam  surfaces  in  all  residence  districts. 
At  the  present  time  foreign  cities  are  following  our  custom  of  laying 
this  class  of  pavement  on  new  light  traffic  streets,  and  in  the  large 
real  estate  developments  around  Berlin  asphalt  was  adopted  almost 
exclusively.  The  cities  of  Paris  and  Vienna  last  year  made  con- 
tracts for  extensive  repaving  with  asphalt,  which  was  being  sub- 
stituted in  Vienna  for  the  old  stone  surfacing  of  the  Boulevard;  while 
Paris  was  tearing  out  many  miles  of  stone  block,  inferior  wood  and 
macadam  and  relaying  with  asphalt.  This  work  will  undoubtedly 
be  resumed  in  all  these  cities  when  it  is  again  possible  to  devote 
attention  to  rebuilding. 

Much  more  difficult  in  our  country  than  the  writing  of  specifica- 
tions appears  to  be  the  securing  of  the  desired  result.  A  strong 
difference  seems  to  exist  between  our  practice  and  that  of  Europe 
in  this  matter.  A  careful  comparison  of  foreign  methods  with  ours 
brings  out  very  strongly  the  greater  care  given  by  us  to  the  prepa- 


PROBLEMS   OF   STREET   CONSTRUCTION   AND   MAINTENANCE         245 

ration  of  exact  specifications  and  the  greater  attention  given  by 
them  to  the  producing  of  the  result  for  which  the  specifications  were 
written.  It  would  seem  as  if  some  of  our  city  engineers  thought 
that  the  whole  aim  of  their  office  had  been  attained  when  they  had 
succeeded  down  to  the  last  period  in  describing  chemical  and  physi- 
cal qualities  of  the  materials  to  be  used  and  the  exact  details  to  be 
followed;  just  as  in  our  country  we  have  too  great  a  tendency  to  re- 
gard our  record  file  and  office  systems  as  ultimate  ends.  The 
specifications  used  in  such  important  cities  as  London,  Birming- 
ham, Liverpool,  Hamburg  and  Berlin,  and  even  in  Paris  where  the 
most  attention  is  given  to  detail  of  any  city  in  Europe,  seem  notice- 
ably weak  in  contrast  to  ours  and  to  leave  much  to  the  honesty  of 
the  contractor.  Whereas  when  it  comes  to  the  execution  of  the  work 
the  attitudes  are  reversed,  and  the  European  engineer  and  contractor 
seem  to  work  in  harmony  with  but  one  end  in  view,  namely,  the  con- 
struction of  the  particular  piece  of  work  called  for  at  the  price  agreed 
upon.  A  recognition  of  the  difference  of  national  traits  furnishes 
no  indication  of  how  to  change  them,  except  as  pointing  out  the 
direction  in  which  almost  all  of  our  cities  can  obtain  better  work, 
that  is,  in  the  line  of  closer  inspection  of  materials  and  workman- 
ship of  construction.  It  is  a  problem  that  is  worthy  the  attention 
of  many  men  who  may  have  a  tendency  to  regard  anything  but  the 
scientific  end  of  engineering  construction  as  beneath  their  dignity. 

Even  when  his  pavement  is  constructed  in  the  best  manner  the 
engineer  in  charge  of  city  highways  has  merely  solved  his  prelimi- 
nary problems  and  has  remaining  his  real  task  of  keeping  the  pave- 
ment down.  Part  of  the  solution  of  this  question  can  be  taken  up 
after  construction  in  the  installation  of  an  adequate  system  of  keeping 
track  of  street  defects  and  openings  and  the  prevention  of  the  latter 
by  proper  restriction  on  the  issuance  of  permits  and  careful  inspec- 
tion of  the  work  done  under  them;  but  the  real  method  of  con- 
trolling street  openings  so  as  to  reduce  them  to  a  minimum  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  city  planners  and  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  those  charged 
with  street  maintenance  to  do  more  than  regulate  it  to  the  best  of 
their  ability.  It  is  in  this  line  that  the  observer  finds  European 
superiority  most  apparent.  He  sees  nothing  in  engineering  con- 
struction problems  as  a  whole  done  better  abroad  than  here  but 
does  find  European  municipal  governments  taking  charge  of  and 
regulating  in  an  orderly  manner  first,  the  planning  and  laying  out 
of  street  developments  and  then  the  installation  in  them,  beneath 
the  surface,  of  the  necessary  public  utilities,  so  that  when  once  con- 
structed the  street  shall  be  as  nearly  permanent  as  possible.  The 
chaotic  condition  of  subsurface  pipes  beneath  the  streets  in  our 
great  cities  is  notorious,  but  it  is  no  argument  except  to  those  afraid 
to  undertake  any  change  to  say  that  it  must  continue  because  it 
has  always  been  that  way.  We  must  arrange  in  our  new  streets  in 
entirety  and  in  our  older  ones  by  changing  whenever  the  opportunity 
occurs  to  provide  beneath  the  sidewalks  or  footways  for  the  installa- 


246  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

tion  of  all  necessary  house  service  lines,  leaving  the  space  beneath 
the  roadway  for  main  sewers,  passenger  subways  and  the  large  water 
and  gas  mains,  thus  eliminating  as  much  as  possible  our  most  fre- 
quent cause  of  street  opening  for  the  giving  of  additional  house 
service  to  private  parties. 

In  the  office  of  the  City  Engineer  of  the  city  of  Hamburg  is  a 
set  of  drawings  showing  standard  sections  officially  adopted  for  all 
city  streets  of  whatever  width  and  on  each  is  specified  in  its  vertical 
and  horizontal  relation  to  curb  and  house  line  the  position  of  each 
class  of  pipe  and  even  the  position  of  the  trees  and  their  longitudinal 
spacing  are  standardized.  For  the  improvement  of  the  worst  of 
our  old  streets  we  can  follow  the  example  of  London,  which  has 
constructed  some  six  miles  of  pipe  galleries  in  which  are  placed 
electric  light  and  telephone  wires  and  minor  gas  service  lines.  The 
installation  of  pipe  galleries  to  any  great  extent  is  an  almost  prohibi- 
tive expense,  but  it  is  not  impossible  as  a  solution  of  the  trouble  in 
our  densest  streets,  and  by  adopting  the  principle  of  utilizing  the 
space  beneath  our  footways,  instead  of  presenting  them  for  a  nomi- 
nal consideration  to  private  parties,  a  great  ultimate  saving  will  be 
caused.  Subsidewalk  vaults  need  not  be  entirely  eliminated  for 
this,  as  a  depth  of  only  a  few  feet  below  the  surface  is  required  for 
the  necessary  pipes  and  wires;  but  our  cities  should  not  give  up  im- 
portant space  in  their  crowded  streets  merely  to  provide  illumination 
by  means  of  sidewalk  dead-lights  to  the  basement  of  adjacent  build- 
ings. It  must  be  recognized,  however,  that  the  idea  that  only 
in  this  country  do  we  make  frequent  street  openings  is  a  mistake. 

No  system  can  provide  for  all  the  necessities  arising  from  future 
development,  and  only  in  a  city  which  has  ceased  to  grow  would  it 
be  possible  to  conceal  all  evidences  of  construction.  A  careful 
observation  shows  in  every  great  city  of  Europe  conditions  paral- 
leling many  of  those  complained  of  in  our  streets,  particularly  in  re- 
gard to  the  extent  to  which  the  building  constructor  is  allowed  to 
use  the  public  thoroughfare  for  his  private  purposes,  even  on  such 
famous  thoroughfares  as  Unter  den  Linden,  the  Champs  Elysees 
and  Regent  Street;  while  it  is  of  particular  interest  to  call  attention 
to  the  comparison  in  the  number  of  street  openings  between  the 
borough  of  Manhattan  of  New  York  City  having  a  total  mileage  of 
streets  of  455  and  the  city  of  Westminster,  London,  with  100  miles 
of  street.  The  average  annual  number  of  permits  granted  for  street 
openings  in  the  former  is  about  25,000;  in  the  latter,  20,000;  and 
though  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  superficial  extent  of  our 
excavations  in  New  York  is  by  far  the  greater,  yet  the  figures  indi- 
cate that  even  in  the  greatest  city  of  the  world  there  has  been  no  final 
solution  of  the  greatest  problem  which  confronts  the  administrator 
in  charge  of  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  city  streets. 

In  concluding  these  necessarily  cursory  notes,  the  fact  must  be 
emphasized  that  the  choice  of  the  most  satisfactory  type  of  wearing 
surface,  is  largely  a  local  one.  New  York  lays  wood  pavements  only 


DISCUSSION  247 

on  level  streets,  Berlin  only  on  grades.  Other  forms  of  block  pave- 
ment than  those  largely  used  in  New  York,  are  giving  satisfaction 
elsewhere.  Time  does  not  permit  of  reference  to  the  many  successful 
brick  streets  and  those  of  various  types  of  bituminous  concrete, 
within  the  limits  of  neighboring  cities.  The  question  of  paving 
construction  in  and  adjacent  to  the  tracks  of  street  railways,  is  a 
problem  in  itself. 

One  point  above  all  must  be  kept  in  mind — careful  work  for  a 
short  time,  will  lay  a  good  pavement ;  it  can  only  be  kept  in  its  place  in 
condition  for  use  by  constant  vigilance.  A  thorough  organization  for 
the  purpose  of  inspecting  and  reporting  defects  and  for  the  execution 
of  immediate  repairs,  is  the  prime  requisite  of  a  good  highway  bureau. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  of  this  paper  will  be  opened  by 
Captain  J.  W.  Barnett,  City  Engineer  of  Athens,  Georgia. 

CAPTAIN  BARNETT:  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  American 
Highway  Association:  I  have  been  deeply  interested  in  the  paper 
which  has  just  been  read.  I  wish  very  much  that  I  could  have  had 
access  to  this  admirable  document  before  the  hour  of  discussion  ar- 
rived, because  there  are  many  points  of  interest  to  engineers  of  this 
country  contained  therein  and  I  would  liked  to  have  studied  them 
more  carefully  before  undertaking  to  lead  in  this  discussion,  but, 
in  as  much  as  I  have  not  had  the  opportunity,  I  wish  to  make  a  few 
statements  as  to  some  of  the  most  salient  points.  I  feel  that  the 
author's  wide  experience  and  travel  fit  him  admirably  for  the  han- 
dling of  this  most  difficult  subject.  I  notice  that  he  makes  the  state- 
ment that  only  10  per  cent  of  the  total  area  of  the  pavements  laid  in 
European  cities  have  a  permanent  foundation,  a  concrete  foundation. 
That  is  a  most  startling  statement  to  me.  I  have  never  gone  into 
that  phase  of  the  question  abroad  very  carefully,  have  been  labor- 
ing under  the  impression  that  the  European  pavements  were  of  the 
very  best  class  possible,  that  they  took  every  precaution  to  over- 
come any  possible  failure  in  the  foundations.  I  can  readily  see 
from  this  statement  how  many  grievous  errors  have  been  made  in 
this  country  in  the  construction  of  pavements.  I  understand  now 
how  so  many  engineers  have  been  led  to  believe  that  a  permanent 
form  of  pavement  can  be  constructed  without  the  use  of  a  concrete 
foundation,  using  this  as  a  precedent.  They  evidently  have  not 
taken  into  consideration  the  different  conditions  existing  abroad  and 
in  this  country.  The  European  cities  are  very  old,  their  principal 
highways  have  been  in  existence  for  centuries  and  doubtless  very 
little,  if  any,  material  changes  have  been  made  in  the  grades.  There- 
fore they  have  a  natural  foundation  which,  is,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, very  good,  upon  which  to  lay  a  pavement.  In  this  country 
the  reverse  is  true.  The  rapid  growth  of  our  cities  has  necessitated 
frequent  and  constant  changes  in  the  grades,  leaving  a  foundation 
upon  which  we  must  lay  concrete  or  some  other  form  of  material 


248  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

sufficient  to  support  the  permanent  surface.  I  note  also,  in  this 
admirable  paper  that  reference  is  made  to  the  different  proportions 
used  throughout  Europe  and  this  country  in  the  mix  of  concrete  used 
in  the  foundations.  A  great  many  engineers  have  been  misled  by 
the  proportions  given  in  many  specifications.  They  seem  to  think 
that  a  1-3-6  or  a  1-2-4  mix  in  New  York  City  is  suited  for  Atlanta 
regardless  of  the  character  of  the  ingredients  entering  into  the  mix. 
The  profession  is  too  prone  to  adopt  the  specifications  of  other  cities. 
I  think  the  proportioning  of  concrete  is  one  of  the  most  important 
things  to  decide.  We  should  take  the  materials  in  hand,  consider 
the  percentage  of  voids  and  proportion  the  mix  as  may  be  required 
to  form  a  dense  concrete.  I  simply  touch  on  this  particular  point 
because  I  feel  that  there  are  a  great  many  errors  being  made  in  this, 
resulting  in  too  weak  a  foundation  to  sustain  the  traffic.  The  in- 
crease in  volume  and  weight  of  trafec  is  rapid.  The  advent  of  the 
heavy  motor  truck  and  other  conveyances,  carrying  thousands  of 
tons,  necessitate  a  better  class  of  construction  thao  that  used  here- 
tofore. The  gentleman  refers  also  to  the  matter  of  selection  of  the 
pavement.  That  is  a  matter  that  is  not  given  proper  thought. 
Political  influences  are  too  frequently  brought  to  bear  in  making  this 
decision.  We  do  not  consider  as  fully  as  we  should  traffic  conditions 
and  the  interests  of  the  adjacent  property  holders  to  the  thorough- 
fares to  be  paved.  We  are  inclined  to  adopt  some  form  of  pavement 
because  some  other  city  does. 

The  author  refers  to  the  matter  of  maintenance.  To  my  mind 
that  is  the  most  serious  problem  confronting  us  today.  The  people 
of  the  South  do  not  regard  this  question  as  they  should.  The 
average  person  feels  that  the  pavement  once  laid  is  good  for  all  time. 
If  you  see  fit  to  make  minor  repairs  in  two  or  three  years  the  tax- 
payer declares  the  venture  a  failure.  Regardless  of  this  feeling, 
repairs  should  be  made  promptly  and  systematically.  It  is  an  easy 
matter,  with  the  experience  of  other  cities,  to  select  specifications 
that  are  effective;  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  properly  lay  a  pavement, 
but  the  question  that  gives  most  concern  is  that  of  maintenance. 
The  Public  Utility  corporations  are  a  great  menace  to  our  pave- 
ments— I  mean  the  street  railways,  the  telephone  and  electric  light 
companies.  Sewer,  gas  and  water  mains  which  have  to  be  gone  into 
frequently  are  the  most  disturbing  elements.  I  do  not  know  the 
practice  in  cities  generally  as  to  the  matter  of  maintenance,  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  when  an  excavation  is  made  in  the  streets  that  the 
repairs  should  be  left  entirely  with  the  city  officials,  the  engineering 
department.  The  engineer's  office  should  be  notified  when  the  sur- 
face is  to  be  replaced  and  a  trained  force  sent  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
storing the  pavements.  That  I  think  is  the  key  note  of  success  in 
the  restoration  of  pavements  where  openings  are  necessary  and  have 
to  be  frequently  made.  From  my  own  experience  I  know  it  is  a 
matter  of  impossibility  to  get  contractors  and  others  who  are  paid 
so  much  per  square  yard  to  make  a  satisfactory  job.  Gentlemen, 
I  thank  you  very  much. 


DISCUSSION  249 

MR.  KING:  Suppose  you  have  a  macadam  street  or  road  or  a 
gravel  road,  and  you  want  to  surface  it  with  asphaltic  concrete  or 
something;  would  you  tear  that  up  in  order  to  get  the  concrete  base 
and  build  a  concrete  base?  Did  you  ever  try  using  the  macadam  and 
gravel  road  as  a  substitute  for  the  concrete  base? 

CAPTAIN  BARNETT  :  No,  1  have  not.  I  am  very  glad  you  brought 
up  that  point.  I  will  tell  you  what  I  am  doing  at  Athens,  Ga. 
We  have  quite  a  lot  of  macadam  roads  that  have  been  down  for 
from  ten  to  fifteen  years  without  any  repairs  of  a  consequence  being 
made  on  them.  Now  they  are  full  of  holes  and  unsuited  for  the 
automobile  traffic,  so  I  have  undertaken  to  substitute  for  the  mac- 
adam a  concrete  pavement.  I  am  ripping  up  the  macadam  and 
using  the  stone  as  a  matrix,  and  I  think  we  are  getting  excellent 
results. 

MR.  KING:  We  have  a  two  mile  stretch  of  road  from  the  city 
limits  to  the  country  club  in  Memphis  and  it  had  been  a  splendid 
gravel  road  and  we  let  a  contractor  surface  that  with  two  inches  of 
asphaltic  concrete,  machine  mixed  method.  The  gravel  of  course 
was  brought  up  to  the  proper  contour,  the  holes  filled  and  swept 
well.  That  has  been  down  a  year  and  a  half;  300  to  500  automo- 
biles traveling  over  it  every  day  or  so  and  it  is  holding  out  splendidly. 
I  have  a  five  years'  maintenance  guarantee.  It  cost  $10,500  a  mile  to 
fix  that  and  put  it  down  and  we  are  using  that  gravel  as  a  concrete 
base  and  I  am  watching  it  with  a  good  deal  of  interest. 

A  MEMBER:    What  width? 

MR.  KING:  It  is  20  feet  wide  and  wearing  admirably;  not  a 
nickel  of  repairs  so  far. 

CAPTAIN  BARNETT:  Under  those  conditions  I  am  inclined  to  be- 
lieve that  a  concrete  road  could  have  been  built  for  the  same  amount 
of  money  and  you  would  have  a  road  that  would  be  there  long  after 
your  scheme  will  have  been  forgotten.  We  are  building  concrete 
roads  for  $1.10  a  square  yard  under  the  conditions  named  and  along 
these  streets  we  have  street  car  lines,  which  increases  the  difficulty. 

MR.  KING:     What  will  you  surface  with? 

CAPTAIN  BARNETT:  Tarvia,  a  paint  coat  about  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  in  thickness. 

DR.  PRATT:  At  the  outset,  most  of  us  in  the  South  had  an  idea 
that  this  subject  was  applicable  principally  to  larger  cities,  but  there 
is  one  phase  of  the  question  of  maintenance  that  is  applicable  to  all 
our  small  towns  and  villages  that  I  want  to  emphasize  in  a  few  words. 


250  AMERICAN    KOAD   CONGRESS 

and  that  is  I  think  we  should  draw  a  lesson  from  what  has  been  done 
in  larger  cities,  as  for  instance,  borough  of  Manhattan,  New  York, 
where  they  had  something  like  400  and  odd  miles  of  streets  and  some- 
thing like  25,000  excavations  a  year;  we  should  take  a  lesson  from 
them,  that  in  our  small  towns  and  villages  throughout  the  South 
when  we  permit  those  streets  to  be  dug  up,  that  we  should  be  just  as 
emphatic  that  the  one  responsible  for  digging  up  that  street  either 
puts  up  a  bond  or  a  sufficient  amount  of  money  as  a  guarantee  that 
the  road  surveys  of  that  town  or  village  will  be  put  back  in  as  good 
shape  as  it  was  before  he  began  to  do  the  digging.  We  think  that 
because  perhaps  our  village  streets  are  surfaced,  or  sand  clay  graveled, 
or  paved  with  a  block  pavement  or  concrete,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  make  those  stipulations  with  those  who  are  digging  up  our  streets, 
but  many  of  you  who  ride  in  automobiles  have  felt  the  result  of  the 
indiscriminate  digging  up  and  making  excavations  in  streets  in  our 
small  towns,  by  coming  across  what  is  apparently  a  "thank-you- 
ma'm"  across  a  street.  There  is  no  excuse  whatever  for  those  being 
allowed  in  any  of  our  small  villages  or  towns  of  the  South  or  North 
or  East  or  West,  and  we  should  be  just  as  careful  to  have  our  streets 
put  back  in  good  shape  as  they  are  in  the  larger  cities  or  towns. 
And  then  just  one  other  thought  in  that  same  connection  which 
also  has  bearing  on  maintenance,  and  that  is  where  we  have  our 
water  pipes  and  sewers  put  down  through  these  streets,  let  us  see 
if  we  cannot  pass  an  ordinance  that  connections  shall  be  made  with 
abutting  property  before  the  surfacing  is  done  on  that  road  and 
not  have  the  experience  I  had  not  so  very  long  ago;  within  30  days 
after  a  road  had  been  surfaced,  there  were  six  applications  to  cut 
that  surface  to  connect  abutting  properties  with  the  water  main, 
when  the  order  had  already  been  given  three  months  before  that 
they  should  connect  with  the  water  main.  Of  course  that  is  the 
fault  of  those  in  charge  of  the  town  itself,  but  to  my  mind  we  should 
take  these  lessons  from  the  larger  cities  and  put  them  into  practice 
in  our  smaller  towns  and  villages. 

MR.  WILLIAMS  (of  West  Virginia) :  Following  up  what  Dr.  Pratt 
says,  Huntington,  West  Virginia,  solved  that  problem  in  a  measure; 
they  have  an  ordinance  requiring  all  places  in  the  street  where  open- 
ings have  been  made  in  any  street  surface  for  the  purpose  of  making 
pipe  connections,  to  be  concreted  from  the  pipes  up  to  where  the 
base  of  the  bricks,  or  whatever  surface  goes  in,  is  put  in.  That 
makes  it  so  that  the  man,  the  next  time  he  goes  to  get  in  there, 
will  have  to  tear  up  the  entire  concrete,  and  the  effect  of  that  causes 
most  every  fellow  that  has  connections  to  be  made,  to  get  busy 
and  get  it  made  at  the  right  time  because  the  property  owner  or 
whoever  makes  the  connection  has  to  pay  this  extra  amount  and 
then  afterwards  he  has  to  stand  the  expense  of  taking  it  out  in  case 
of  any  repair  to  be  made;  not  only  that,  but  the  filling  in  of  the 
concrete  in  that  way  prevents  the  thank-you-mam  that  the  doctor 
refers  to. 


DISCUSSION  251 

MR.  WATKINS:  In  some  of  our  cities  in  Washington,  we  have 
an  ordinance  that  provides  for  putting  water  mains  and  sewer  con- 
nections in  at  the  time  the  water  mains  and  the  sewer  pipes  are  laid 
to  the  property  line  for  each  sub-division  of  property,  and  there  is 
a  tax  against  that  property  and  it  has  to  be  paid  by  the  owner  to 
provide  for  this  and  it  obviates  cutting  up  the  streets. 

MR.  SHIRLEY:  We  charge  $1  a  square  yard  for  earth  cut  out, 
S3  a  square  yard  for  macadam,  $6  a  square  yard  for  asphalt,  brick 
or  concrete;  this  is  charged  against  whoever  makes  the  opening. 
We  have  had  quite  a  great  deal  of  trouble  over  those  charges.  The 
department  makes  the  repairs  after  the  cut  has  been  made.  The 
trouble  comes  in  with  us  that  public  service  corporations  charge  the 
individual  the  cost  of  repairing  the  pavement,  in  some  places  it 
will  run  up  as  high  as  $100.  I  have  had  delegations  in  my  office 
of  as  high  as  200  people  asking  to  be  relieved  of  that  work.  I  have 
put  down  a  pavement  and  after  it  has  been  down  six  months  have 
had  39  applications  made  in  a  block  to  cut  it  for  a  new  set  of  houses. 
That  represented  39  families.  I  have  had  those  39  families  to  con- 
tend with  and  it  is  a  problem.  I  would  like  to  see  some  standard 
plan  worked  out.  With  us  it  is  one  of  the  most  disagreeable  parts 
of  the  work  we  have  to  handle.  If  you  make  these  charges,  public 
pressure  is  brought  to  bear  to  be  relieved  of  them.  We  passed  a 
rule  that  any  pavement  laid  should  not  be  opened  for  4  years,  and 
they  even  went  to  the  legislature  to  make  a  new  law  about  it.  A 
man  who  owns  a  plot  of  land,  we  will  notify  him  that  a  pavement  is 
going  to  be  laid  at  a  certain  time  and  that  no  opening  will  be  made 
for  4  years.  He  will  sell  that  land  maybe  two  weeks  after  the 
road  is  laid;  the  land  is  developed,  those  lots  are  sold  to  different 
individuals,  the  individual  makes  the  application  for  these  water 
mains  and  if  any  of  you  here  know  what  it  means  to  have  a  home 
without  water,  gas,  electric  lights,  etc.,  and  have  the  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  the  family  behind  you  trying  to  get  them  in,  you  know 
you  are  up  against  a  tough  proposition. 

MR.  LEECH  (of  Steubenville,  Ohio):  We  have  an  ordinance  that 
authorizes  the  engineering  department  to  make  as  many  taps  as 
they  deem  necessary  before  a  pavement  is  laid  down,  and  charge 
it  to  abutting  properties.  The  Gas  Company,  likewise,  make  their 
taps  for  the  property  before  a  pavement  is  put  down,  under  the 
directions  of  the  engineering  department;  then  we  charge  a  permit 
of  $25  for  tearing  up  a  pavement  within  five  years  after  it  is  put  down. 
We  have  had  very  little  occasion  to  tear  up  any  streets  in  the  last 
seven  or  eight  years  outside  of  what  comes  from  a  break  or  leak 
in  the  line.  If  a  piece  of  ground  is  not  sub-divided  we  imagine 
the  sub-division  and  maybe  we  get  in  one  or  two  too  many  but  we 
put  it  in  anyhow  and  charge  it  to  the  abutting  property  and  it  gives 
us  very  little  trouble. 


252  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

MR.  DURHAM:  There  were  one  or  two  points  brought  out  in  the 
discussion  which  I  thought  it  would  be  of  interest  to  make  a  passing 
comment  upon;  one  on  the  question  of  foundations.  We  do  not 
in  New  York  or  anywhere  else  recognize  the  foundation  as  anything 
but  some  hard  and  durable  non-compressive  material  on  which  the 
wearing  surface  is  laid.  Concrete  is  put  there  with  the  object  of 
producing  such  a  surface.  If  you  have  already  a  material  just  as 
hard  and  durable  as  concrete,  there  is  no  need  of  concrete.  We 
have  recognized  that  in  one  of  our  streets  in  New  York  where  I 
was  criticized  by  an  inspector  of  the  Finance  Department  who  dis- 
covered that  we  were  laying  our  concrete  only  3  inches  thick  and 
I  was  called  on  for  an  explanation  of  that  fact.  It  was  supposed 
that  a  contractor  was  being  allowed  to  scant  his  contract.  In  reply 
I  pointed  out  that  we  were  re-laying  an  old  metallic  road  on  a  Telford 
base.  There  were  9  inches  of  good  Telford  in  there  and  to  pull 
out  that  good  Telford  to  refill  it  with  earth  and  3  inches  of  concrete 
on  top  of  that  was  ridiculous,  so  our  concrete  foundation  is  merely 
one  means  of  getting  a  hard,  incompressible  foundation.  The  other 
points  on  the  subject  of  street  openings  brought  out  quite  an  inter- 
esting discussion  and  I  want  to  state  that  the  problem  in  New  York 
or  London  or  in  smaller  cities  is  essentially  the  same.  We  require 
all  applicants  for  permits  to  open  a  street  pavement,  to  make  a 
cash  deposit  of  double  the  value  of  restoring  that  pavement.  We 
inspect  the  work  and  then  we,  either  with  our  city  labor  or  a  con- 
tractor, make  the  restoration  and  hold  the  balance  of  the  money 
due  for  six  months.  In  case  there  is  no  settlement  the  permittee 
gets  the  return  of  that  balance.  In  case  of  any  settlement,  the 
pavement  is  resurfaced  at  his  expense.  In  the  case  of  a  large  public 
service  corporation,  it  is  permitted  to  put  up  a  bond,  but  a  cash 
deposit  of  $5000  is  also  required,  because  it  is  so  handy  in  case  of 
emergency.  The  superintendent  of  an  office  building  in  which  one 
of  our  great  daily  papers  is  published  made  an  application  to  open 
one  of  our  cross  streets  two  weeks  after  the  pavement  was  finished. 
I  asked  him  why  that  was  necessary  and  he  said,  "It  is  due  to  the 
action  of  the  Water  Department  in  making  a  change  in  the  valve 
some  distance  away"  whereby  they  had  the  possibility  of  only  one 
connection  to  their  building  and  in  case  of  emergency  the  newspaper 
would  be  unable  to  go  on  and  the  wheels  of  the  nation  would  stop. 
The  permit  was  refused.  The  application  was  renewed  with  addi- 
tional pressure.  I  saw  that  applicant  and  told  him  that  if  he  would 
bring  me  a  letter  from  the  responsible  editor  of  that  newspaper, 
the  application  would  be  granted.  It  has  never  been  renewed  and 
the  pavement  has  not  been  opened. 


BITUMINOUS  MACADAM  253 

BITUMINOUS  MACADAM  BY  THE  COLD  MIXING 
METHOD 

BY  IRVING  W.  PATTERSON 
Chief  Engineer  of  the  Rhode  Island  State  Board  of  Public  Roads 

The  Rhode  Island  State  board  of  public  roads  has,  beginning 
with  the  year  1906,  constructed  a  large  amount  of  bituminous  mac- 
adam by  the  cold  mixing  method,  this  type  of  construction  being 
generally  considered  typical  of  Rhode  Island  State  highway  work. 
Reports  of  certain  sections  of  our  bituminous  macadam  construc- 
tion have  been  rendered  at  gatherings  of  this  kind  in  past  years,  but 
as  a  rule  these  reports  were  made  so  soon  after  the  date  of  con- 
struction that  definite  conclusions  regarding  the  success  of  the  work 
could  not  be  drawn.  It  is  the  writer's  intention  in  this  paper  to 
give  a  re'sume'  of  this  work  since  the  date  of  its  inauguration  in  1906 
and  to  draw  certain  conclusions  regarding  the  points  of  construction 
and  the  adaptability  of  the  cold  mixing  method,  based  upon  his 
experience  with  work  of  this  type  in  Rhode  Island. 

The  first  attempt  made  by  the  State  highway  authorities  of  Rhode 
Island  to  avoid  the  deficiencies  characteristic  of  plain  waterbound 
macadam  construction  by  the  incorporation  of  a  bituminous  binder 
was  upon  the  so-called  Post  Road  which  practically  parallels  the 
south  shore  of  the  State.  This  road  is  subjected  to  the  heavy  through 
automobile  traffic  between  the  famous  shore  resorts  of  Rhode  Island 
and  the  large  cities  to  the  south  and  west.  A  traffic  census  upon 
this  road  taken  during  1913  showed  an  average  summer  travel  of 
approximately  600  vehicles  daily,  consisting  very  largely  of  motor 
vehicles.  The  construction  work  upon  this  section  was  carried  out 
during  midsummer  of  1906. 

In  1906  there  was  little  reliable  information  concerning  bituminous 
macadam  available,  so  the  exact  methods  of  carrying  out  the  work 
necessarily  had  to  be  decided  upon  more  or  less  arbitrarily.  After 
considerable  discussion  by  the  engineers  in  charge  of  the  work,  it 
was  decided  to  use  a  crude  tar  as  a  binder  and  to  incorporate  this 
material  with  the  road  metal  by  the  cold  mixing  method.  The 
mineral  aggregate  employed  in  the  mix  was  crushed  stone  of  sizes 
which  were  retained  upon  a  one-half  inch  screen  and  which  passed 
an  inch  and  one-half  screen. 

The  stone  employed  was  native  field  and  wall  stone,  which  is  a 
rather  coarse  grained,  somewhat  kaolinized  granite. 

The  metalled  surface  was  constructed  14  feet  wide  with  a  crown 
of  three-quarters  of  1  inch  per  foot. 

All  rolling  was  accomplished  by  means  of  a  ten-ton,  three- wheel 
steam  roller. 

The  construction  in  brief  was  as  follows.  Crushed  stone  which 
was  retained  on  an  inch  and  one-half  screen  and  which  passed  through 
a  3  inch  screen  was  first  spread  over  the  well  rolled  sub-grade 


254  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

to  a  depth  of  4  inches  after  compression.  This  course  was  not  filled 
with  sand  or  stone  screenings  but  was  well  rolled.  Crude  tar  was 
very  lightly  sprinkled  over  this  first  course  of  stone.  Crushed  stone 
of  the  sizes  stated  previously  was  then  mixed  with  crude  tar  in  the 
proportion  of  15  gallons  of  tar  per  cubic  yard  of  stone.  Mixing  was 
carried  out  upon  a  portable  wooden  mixing  platform  placed  as  closely 
as  convenient  to  the  point  where  the  mixture  was  being  spread.  The 
mixture  of  stone  and  tar  was  spread  over  the  first  course  of  crushed 
stone  to  a  depth  of  2  inches  after  compression.  The  mixture  was 
well  rolled,  after  which  a  covering  of  stone  screenings  was  applied. 

No  foundations  and  no  sub-drainage  were  deemed  necessary  upon 
this  work  because  of  the  stable  character  of  the  gravelly  sub-soil 
encountered. 

The  results  secured  upon  this  first  experimental  section  of  bitumi- 
nous macadam  were  remarkably  successful.  No  repairs  have  been 
required  to  date.  The  surface  today  is  perfectly  intact  and  presents 
a  perfect  mosaic  appearance,  due  to  the  top  surfaces  of  the  stones 
in  the  mixture  being  all  in  evidence. 

In  1907  a  much  longer  section  of  bituminous  macadam  was  con- 
structed about  one  mile  east  of  the  first  experimental  section.  The 
method  of  construction  was  almost  identical  with  the  construction 
employed  the  previous  year.  The  results  secured  upon  the  section 
built  in  1907  were  inferior  to  the  results  secured  in  1906.  The  sur- 
face began  to  ravel  slightly  in  1912,  and  during  that  year  a  seal-coat 
of  refined  tar  was  applied.  Today  the  surface  is  somewhat  irregular 
and  a  few  breaks  are  in  evidence,  although  the  riding  qualities  of 
the  road  are  very  fair.  We  attribute  the  relatively  inferior  results 
secured  from  our  work  in  1907  largely  to  a  less  stable  sub-soil. 

It  will  be  noticed  from  the  foregoing  brief  description  of  the  method 
of  construction  that  no  seal-coat  was  applied  at  the  time  of  con- 
struction. Subsequent  experiments  have  proved  the  advisability 
of  seal-coating.  We  attribute  the  marked  success  of  this  early  work 
in  spite  of  the  absence  of  a  seal-coat  largely  to  the  character  of  the 
travel.  The  horse-drawn  traffic  over  both  of  the  above  sections  is 
very  light,  and  we  believe  that  the  blows  of  horses'  shoes  upon  the 
exposed  surfaces  of  the  soft  stones  would  be  destructive  if  horse- 
drawn  traffic  occurred  in  any  considerable  amount. 

In  1908  bituminous  macadam  by  the  cold  mixing  method  was 
taken  up  to  much  greater  extent.  Various  experiments  both  in 
materials  and  methods  were  carried  out,  and  today  we  are  able  to 
see  that  these  experiments  were  largely  negative  in  results  produced. 
We  tried  many  materials  and  combinations  of  materials  which  did 
not  give  satisfaction,  and  no  work  noticeably  superior  to  the  work 
of  1906  and  1907  was  done.  Results  approximating  those  secured 
in  1906  and  1907  were  secured,  however,  upon  sections  constructed 
in  the  same  manner  as  were  the  bituminous  roads  built  those  years. 
Perhaps  the  greatest  failures  in  the  work  during  1908  were  upon 
sections  where  tar  products  and  asphalt  products  heated  in  separate 
kettles  were  used  in  combination  as  a  binder  for  the  top  course  of 


BITUMINOUS   MACADAM  255 

crushed  stone.  Where  this  combination  of  binders  was  employed, 
ravelling  started  the  following  year  and  increased  in  extent  very 
rapidly  as  time  went  on.  In  1913  a  heavy  seal-coat  of  asphalt  was 
applied  to  several  of  the  roads  bound  with  a  combination  of  tar  and 
asphalt  and  the  results  secured  from  this  treatment  appear  highly 
satisfactory. 

In  1909  some  very  interesting  experiments  were  carried  out  and 
these  experiments  produced  some  very  positive  results.  It  is  true 
that  there  was  work  done  in  1909  according  to  methods  tried  out 
in  1908  and  since  proved  unsatisfactory,  but  at  the  date  of  the  con- 
struction of  the  1909  work  it  was  not  to  be  ascertained  for  a  certainty 
what  of  the  1908  work  was  satisfactory  and  what  was  not,  due  to 
the  short  time  the  work  had  been  done. 

Upon  the  Nayatt  Point  road  in  the  town  of  Barrington  the  most 
interesting  and  valuable  experiments  of  the  year  were  carried  out. 
The  section  of  this  road  selected  for  the  experiments  offered  excellent 
opportunities  for  experimental  work  because  of  the  remarkable  uni- 
formity and  excellent  stability  of  the  sub-soil  encountered.  We  are 
reasonably  certain  that  foundation  troubles  have  not  been  responsible 
for  any  of  the  defects  which  have  developed  in  any  of  the  experi- 
mental sections.  These  experiments  have  been  completed  long 
enough  now  so  that  we  are  enabled  to  draw  certain  definite  conclu- 
sions from  them.  The  results  are  not  of  any  particular  interest  as 
far  as  the  comparison  of  methods  of  construction  is  concerned  but 
they  are  of  great  interest  in  the  comparison  of  bituminous  materials. 
We  give  below  a  report  of  these  experiments,  together  with  descrip- 
tions of  the  repairs  necessitated  upon  each  section  and  the  appear- 
ance presented  by  each  section  October,  1914. 

REPORT  OF  BARRINGTON  1909  EXPERIMENTAL  WORK 

All  of  the  experiments  were  carried  out  between  August  31,  1909, 
and  October  22,  1909. 

The  soil  encountered  throughout  is  a  sandy  loam  which  allows 
of  free  percolation  of  water  and  is  never  subject  to  heaving  due  to 
frost  action. 

The  traffic  is  composed  largely  of  motor  vehicles,  although  in 
early  spring  and  late  fall  considerable  heavy  horse-drawn  traffic  is 
found.  The  traffic  over  the  road  is  not  excessive — a  fair  daily  aver- 
age of  the  number  of  vehicles  passing  over  the  road  between  May  1 
and  October  1,  being  very  close  to  350.  During  the  remainder  of 
the  year,  the  traffic  is  less. 

The  metalled  surface  was  constructed  14  feet  wide  and  crowned 
three-quarters  of  an  inch  to  the  foot. 

The  stone  employed  upon  all  of  the  experimental  sections  with 
the  exception  of  Section  No.  1  was  native  field  and  wall  stone  which 
was  in  large  part  a  fine  grained,  hard  granite.  Upon  Section  No.  1 
Connecticut  Trap  Rock  was  employed. 


256  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

The  type  of  construction  employed  upon  all  of  the  sections  was 
bituminous  macadam  by  the  cold  mixing  method. 

The  total  depth  of  road  metal  was  six  inches  after  rolling.  No 
foundations  were  deemed  necessary  because  of  the  stable  character 
of  the  sub-soil,  and  no  sub-drains  were  constructed.  The  crushed 
stone  was  laid  in  two  courses.  The  first  course  consisted  of  crushed 
stone  which  passed  through  a  three-inch  screen  and  was  retained 
on  an  inch  and  one-half  screen,  laid  to  a  depth  of  4  inches  after 
compression.  Neither  filler  nor  bituminous  material  was  applied 
to  this  course.  The  second  course  of  stone,  into  which  bituminous 
material  was  incorporated,  was  laid  to  a  depth  of  2  inches  after 
compression.  The  surface  covering  consisted  of  clean  one-half  inch 
stone  screenings.  The  first  course  of  stone  was  well  rolled  previous 
to  the  laying  of  the  second  course  of  stone. 

Except  upon  two  sections  (Sections  7  and  8)  mixing  was  done  by 
hand  upon  a  wooden  mixing  platform  composed  of  two  separate 
parts,  each  8  feet  square.  This  platform  was  laid  on  top  of  the  first 
course  of  stone  immediately  ahead  of  the  point  where  the  mixture 
was  being  laid.  Six  men  were  employed  in  mixing  the  stone  with 
the  bituminous  binder  and  shovelling  the  mixture  onto  the  road. 
Mixing  was  carried  out  until  all  stones  were  completely  covered 
with  bituminous  material.  The  crushed  stone  was  not  heated  pre- 
vious to  mixing.  In  addition  to  the  six  men  who  did  the  mixing 
there  were  two  other  men  in  the  gang  who  assisted  in  handling  the 
bituminous  part  of  the  work — a  raker  who  graded  the  mixture  after 
it  was  shovelled  onto  the  road  and  a  man  who  took  care  of  the 
kettles  in  which  the  bituminous  material  was  heated.  In  the  con- 
struction of  Sections  7  and  8  a  mixing  machine  known  as  the  American 
Tar  Company  Mixer  was  employed.  This  machine  was  not  a 
mechanical  mixer,  since  it  was  in  effect  merely  a  special  heated  plat- 
form upon  which  mixing  was  accomplished  by  pulling  by  hand  the 
crushed  stone  through  a  reservoir  of  heated  bituminous  material. 
The  same  number  of  men  were  employed  in  mixing  with  this  con- 
trivance as  were  employed  in  the  mixing  upon  a  mixing  platform. 

All  of  the  experimental  sections  were  seal-coated  at  the  time  of 
construction.  The  seal-coat  was  applied  with  ordinary  house  brooms. 

All  rolling  in  connection  with  the  work  was  accomplished  with  a 
fifteen-ton,  three-wheel  roller. 

The  analyses  of  the  bituminous  materials  were  all  made  in  the 
testing  laboratory  of  the  Rhode  Island  State  Board  of  Public  Roads. 

EXPERIMENT  NO.    1 

(Crude  tar  and  asphalt  m  mix  with  asphalt  seal-coat — trap  rock) 
Construction.  Upon  our  first  experiment  we  employed  a  mixture 
composed  of  50  per  cent  crude  tar  and  50  per  cent  hard  asphalt  in 
the  mix.  The  tar  and  the  asphalt  were  heated  in  separate  kettles 
and  applied  separately  to  the  stone  upon  the  mixing  platform — the 
tar  always  being  spread  over  the  stone  first  and  the  asphalt  last. 


BITUMINOUS   MACADAM  257 

A  seal-coat  of  the  same  asphalt  that  was  used  in  the  mix  was  applied 
over  the  mixture. 

The  amount  of  binder  employed  for  the  mix  was  18  gallons  per 
cubic  yard  of  stone. 

The  amount  of  binder  employed  for  the  seal-coat  was  J  gallon  per 
square  yard  of  surface. 

The  stone  employed  was  Connecticut  Trap  Rock  throughout.  The 
first  course  of  crushed  stone  consisted  of  the  commercial  2J  inch 
stone  and  the  second  course,  with  which  the  binder  was  incorporated, 
with  commercial  1J  inch  stone  which  was  claimed  to  be  of  sizes 
retained  upon  a  J  inch  screen  and  which  passed  a  1J  inch  screen. 

Cost.  The  cost  of  this  section  was  $0.827  per  square  yard  exclu- 
sive of  grading. 

ANALYSIS   OF  CRUDE   TAR 

Specific  gravity 1 . 256 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0.700  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0.000  per  cent 

Free  carbon 30.200  per  cent 

Ash 0.000  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 38.000  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  normal  material too  soft 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 18.600  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 70.000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  40°C 0.750 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 19.600 

Distillation 20.680  per  cent 

Up  to  105°C 1.600  per  cent 

105°C.  to  170°C 2.640  per  cent 

170°C.  to  225°C 5.740  per  cent 

225°C.  to  270°C 6.820  per  cent 

270°C.  to  300°C 3.880  per  cent 

ANALYSIS   OP  ASPHALT 

Specific  gravity 0 . 994 

\V ater  soluble  material  (organic) 0. 190  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0. 000  per  cent 

Free  carbon 0 . 270  per  cent 

Ash 0.290  per  cent 

Solubility  in  cold  carbon  tetra-chloride 98.730  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 12.600  per  cent 

Paraffine 0.410  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  normal  material 95 .000  degrees 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 0.550  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 103.000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 20.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 36.000 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  205°C 1 .060  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 117.000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 14.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 30.000 

Solubility  in  88°  B.  naphtha 68.300  per  cent 

Character  of  solution  (oily  or  sticky) sticky 

Viscosity  100°C. 

New  York  Testing  Laboratory  viscosimeter 379 . 000  seconds 

Viscosity  25°C. 

Penetrometer...                 30.000 


258  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Results.  This  section  was  very  nearly  a  failure.  Hair  lines  devel- 
oped inside  of  one  month  after  completion  and  by  the  following  spring 
ravelling  had  become  quite  extensive.  Patching  has  been  necessary 
each  year  since  construction.  What  remained  of  the  original  surface 
by  October,  1914,  appeared  rough  and  hair-lined  and  numerous 
breaks  were  in  evidence. 

We  feel  that  the  character  of  the  stone  employed  in  the  mix  was 
one  reason  for  failure.  The  percentage  of  the  smaller  sizes  of  stone 
as  compared  with  the  percentage  found  in  native  stone  was  small 
in  the  commercial  trap  rock,  so  the  rolled  mixture  consequently  was 
far  from  compact.  The  combination  of  tar  and  asphalt  in  the  mix 
is  also  to  our  minds  a  reason  for  failure.  Such  a  combination  has 
never  given  us  first-class  results,  although  with  some  grades  of  stone 
the  results  have  been  fair. 

EXPERIMENT  NO.    2 

(Crude  tar  and  asphalt  in  mix  with  asphalt  seal-coat — native  stone) 

Construction.  The  second  experiment  was  practically  a  duplica- 
tion of  Experiment  No.  1  with  the  exception  that  native  stone  was 
employed  in  place  of  Connecticut  Trap  Rock.  The  binders  employed 
were  purported  by  the  manufacturers  to  be  identical  with  the  binders 
used  in  Experiment  No.  1,  and  the  analyses  of  the  materials  showed 
that  such  was  the  case.  The  analyses  were  so  nearly  identical  with 
the  analyses  given  of  the  materials  employed  upon  Experiment  No. 
1  that  they  are  not  here  given. 

There  was  a  slight  variation  in  the  quantity  of  binder  employed 
for  the  mix,  15  gallons  per  cubic  yard  of  stone  being  used  instead  of 
18  gallons.  The  same  amount  of  binder  (f  gallon  per  square  yard) 
was  used  for  the  seal-coat. 

Cost.  The  cost  of  this  work  was  $0.788  per  square  yard  exclusive 
of  grading. 

Results.  The  results  secured  upon  Experiment  No.  2  have  proven 
fairly  satisfactory.  There  have  been  a  few  breaks  in  the  surface 
which  required  repair.  These  breaks  have  occurred  with  increasing 
frequency  since  construction.  The  cost  of  maintenance  during  a 
period  of  five  years  was  approximately  $0.025  per  square  yard. 

Upon  examination  in  October,  1914,  the  surface  presented  a  smooth 
asphalt  finish  except  in  a  very  few  spots  where  the  seal-coat  had 
worn  off  and  allowed  the  surfaces  of  the  stones  to  become  visible. 
A  sample  of  the  road  taken  up  showed,  however,  that  there  was 
no  appreciable  life  left  in  the  binder.  The  material  in  the  seal-coat 
appeared  to  be  in  good  condition. 

The  superior  success  of  this  section  as  compared  with  Experiment 
No.  1  we  attribute  to  the  superior  grading  of  the  sizes  of  the  native 
stone  with  the  resulting  stronger  mechanical  bond. 


BITUMINOUS   MACADAM  259 

EXPERIMENT   NO.   3 

Refined  coal  tar  in  both  mix  and  seal-coat 

Construction.  Upon  our  third  experiment  a  refined  coal  tar  of 
the  characteristics  shown  below  was  employed.  The  quantities  em- 
ployed were  16.5  gallons  per  cubic  yard  for  the  mix  and  f  gallon 
per  square  yard  for  the  seal-coat.  Native  stone  was  employed. 

Cost.  The  cost  of  this  work  was  $0.838  per  square  yard  exclusive 
of  grading. 

ANALYSIS   OF  REFINED  TAR 

Specific  gravity 1 .222 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0 . 400  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0.410  per  cent 

Free  carbon 24.700  per  cent 

Ash 0.100  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 29 . 390  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  normal  material too  soft 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 15 . 000  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 62 . 000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 2.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 15.000 

Distillation 19 .690  per  cent 

Up  to  105°C 0.000  per  cent 

105°C  to  170°C 0.380  per  cent 

170°C.  to  225°C 7.820  per  cent 

225°C.  to  270°C 8.280  per  cent 

270°C.  to  300°C 3.210  per  cent 

Results.  The  results  to  date  have  been  very  satisfactory,  although 
a  complete  renewal  of  the  seal-coat  is  called  for.  No  repairs  to  the 
metalled  surface  were  carried  out  until  the  fall  of  1914,  although 
the  necessity  for  repair  was  evident  for  some  time  previous.  The 
seal-coat  began  to  disappear  noticeably  about  one  year  after  con- 
struction. Two  years  after  construction  a  true  mosaic  surface  was 
presented  by  the  exposed  surfaces  of  the  crushed  stone.  The  sur- 
face gradually  became  rougher,  due  apparently  to  the  decomposition 
of  the  binder  in  the  surface  voids.  Ravelling  was  not  in  evidence 
until  the  summer  of  1914.  The  need  for  renewal  of  the  seal-coat 
was  felt  in  1913,  but  since  the  section  was  experimental,  we  wished 
to  see  exactly  how  long  it  would  be  before  disintegration  set  in. 

Examination  during  October,  1914  (previous  to  any  repairs  being 
made),  showed  a  rough  mosaic  surface  with  occasional  evidence  of 
ravelling.  Abrasion  of  the  stone  by  traffic  was  very  evident,  the 
surface  being  covered  with  a  very  light  coating  of  particles  of  stone 
which  apparently  had  been  broken  off  from  the  stones  composing 
the  road  surface. 

EXPERIMENT   NO.    4 

Asphalt  in  both  mix  and  seal-coat 

The  characteristics  of  the  asphalt  employed  in  this  experiment 
may  be  obtained  from  the  analysis  given  below.  The  quantities  of 
binder  employed  were  21  gallons  per  cubic  yard  of  stone  for  the  mix 
and  f  gallon  per  square  yard  for  the  seal-coat. 


260  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Cost.  The  cost  of  this  section  was  $0.898  per  square  yard  exclusive 
of  grading. 

ANALYSIS   OF  ASPHALT 

Specific  gravity 0.965 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0.320  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0.000  per  cent 

Free  carbon 0.340  per  cent 

Ash 0.030  per  cent 

Solubility  in  cold  carbon  tetra-chloride 99.620  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 7 . 990  per  cent 

Paraffine , 0. 160  per  cent 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 16.600  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 65 . 000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 46.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 105.000 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  205°C 19 . 100  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 116.000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 29 . 000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 58.000 

Results.  The  results  obtained  upon  this  section  are  to  date  supe- 
rior to  the  results  secured  upon  any  other  section.  No  repairs  have 
been  necessitated. 

Examination  during  October,  1914,  showed  a  perfectly  intact, 
smooth  asphalt  finish. 

EXPERIMENT  NO.    5 

Refined  tar  containing  20  per  cent  of  asphalt  in  both  mix  and  seal-coat 

Construction.  The  material  used  in  this  section  was  a  refined  tar 
mixed  with  20  per  cent  of  asphalt  at  the  manufacturer's  plant.  The 
quantities  of  material  employed  were  24  gallons  per  cubic  yard  of 
stone  for  the  mix  and  |  gallon  for  the  seal-coat. 

Cost.    This  section  cost  $0.924  per  square  yard  exclusive  of  grading. 

ANALYSIS   OF  BITUMINOUS  BINDER 

Specific  gravity 1 . 176 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0 . 490  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0. 110  per  cent 

Free  carbon 18.600  per  cent 

Ash 0 . 050  per  cent 

Solubility  in  cold  carbon  tetra-chloride 74.000  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 27 . 400  per  cent 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 10.500  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 70 . 000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 2.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 12.000 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  205°C 17.500  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 80 . 000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C i        degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 2J 

Viscosity  25°C. 

Penetrometer too  soft 

Results.  The  results  obtained  upon  this  section  are  very  fair. 
The  surface  became  perfectly  mosaic  inside  of  two  years  from  the 
date  of  construction,  due  to  the  disappearance  of  the  seal-coat.  No 
repairs  have  been  given  this  section,  but  the  need  for  a  renewal  of 
the  seal-coat  has  been  appreciated  for  two  years. 


BITUMINOUS   MACADAM  261 

Inspection  during  October  showed  a  rough  mosaic  surface,  per- 
fectly intact  as  far  as  ravelling  is  concerned,  and  slightly  darker  in 
color  than  the  surface  of  Section  No.  3. 

EXPERIMENT   NO.    6 

Refined  tar  containing  10  per  cent  of  asphalt  in  both  mix  and  seal-coat 

Construction.  The  binder  employed  in  this  experiment  was  manu- 
factured by  the  same  concern  which  furnished  the  material  for  Experi- 
ment No.  5.  The  only  difference  claimed  for  the  material  was  the 
different  percentage  of  asphalt.  The  quantities  of  binder  employed 
were  24  gallons  per  cubic  yard  of  stone  for  the  mix  and  f  gallon  per 
square  yard  of  surface  for  the  seal-coat. 

Cost.  The  cost  of  this  section  was  $0.917  per  square  yard  exclu- 
sive of  grading. 

ANALYSIS   OF   BITUMINOUS  BINDER 

Specific  gravity 1 . 211 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0.580  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0.000  per  cent 

Free  carbon 22.500  per  cent 

Ash 0.090  per  cent 

Solubility  in  cold  carbon  tetra-chloride 69.500 

Fixed  carbon 26.200  per  cent 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 13.500  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 67 . 000  degrees 

Penetration  at  4°C 1 .000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 10. 000 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  205°C 18.000  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 85.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C i 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 1$ 

Distillation 18.690  per  cent 

Up  to  105°C 0.290  per  cent 

105°C.  to  170°C 1 .000  per  cent 

170°C.  to  225°C 3.290  per  cent 

225°C.  to  270°C 9.430  per  cent 

270°C.  to  300°C 4.680  per  cent 

Results.  The  results  obtained  upon  Section  No.  6,  were  not 
noticeably  different  from  the  results  secured  upon  Section  No.  5. 
No  repairs  have  been  carried  out  upon  this  section  to  date. 

Observation  during  October,  1914,  could  disclose  no  differences  in 
appearance  or  condition  from  Section  No.  5,  except  perhaps  a 
slightly  lighter  color. 

EXPERIMENT  NO.    7 

Refined  tar  in  both  mix  and  seal-coat 

Construction.  Mixing  in  this  experiment  was  carried  out  with  an 
American  Tar  Company  mixing  machine.  The  amounts  of  mate- 
rial used  were  24  gallons  per  cubic  yard  of  stone  for  the  mix  and 
f  gallon  per  square  yard  for  the  seal-coat. 

Cost.  The  cost  of  this  section  was  $0.910  per  square  yard  exclu- 
sive of  grading. 


262  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

ANALYSIS   OF  REFINED   TAR 

Specific  gravity 1 . 244 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0 . 240  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0. 430  per  cent 

Free  carbon 24.500  per  cent 

Ash 0.010  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 30.700  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  normal  material too  soft 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 11 .900  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 63 . 000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 3.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 15.000 

Distillation 20.660  per  cent 

Up  to  105°C 0.000  per  cent 

105°C.  to  170°C 0.320  per  cent 

170°C.  to  225°C 4.760  per  cent 

225°C.  to  270°C 10.870  per  cent 

270°C.  to  300°C 4.710  percent 

Results.  The  results  secured  in  this  work  are  not  appreciably 
different  from  the  results  described  in  the  report  of  Experiments 
No.  3,  where  also  a  refined  tar  was  employed.  Ravelling  has  not 
progressed  to  the  extent  that  it  has  upon  Section  No.  3,  but  examina- 
tion showed  evidences  of  ravelling. 

EXPERIMENT   NO.    8 

Refined  water-gas  tar 

Construction.  Mixing  upon  this  section  was  accomplished  by  means 
of  an  American  Tar  Company  mixing  machine.  The  quantities  of 
binder  used  were  24  gallons  per  cubic  yard  of  stone  for  the  mix  and 
f  gallon  per  square  yard  of  surface  for  the  seal-coat. 

Cost.  The  cost  of  this  work  was  $0.932  per  square  yard  exclusive 
of  grading. 

ANALYSIS   OF  REFINED  WATER-GAS  TAR 

Specific  gravity 1 . 167 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0.250  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0. 130  per  cent 

Free  carbon 2.420  per  cent 

Ash 0. 110  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 22. 100  per  cent 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 15 . 500  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 74 .000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 0.500 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 3  000 

Distillation 16.830 

Up  to  105°C 0.000  per  cent 

105°C.  to  170°C 0.000  per  cent 

170°C.  to  225°C 0.000  per  cent 

225°C.  to  270°C 10.390  per  cent 

270°C.  to  300°C 6.440  per  cent 

Viscosity  25°C. 

Penetrometer too  soft 

Results.  The  results  secured  upon  this  section  have  been  very 
satisfactory.  One  patch  was  necessitated  about  one  year  after  com- 


BITUMINOUS   MACADAM  263 

pletion,  but  no  further  repairs  have  been  needed.  The  seal-coat 
has  worn  off,  but  decomposition  of  the  binder  has  not  extended 
down  in  the  surface  voids  appreciably. 

Examination  during  October,  1914,  showed  a  smooth  mosaic  sur- 
face very  dark  in  color  as  compared  with  the  surfaces  of  the  other 
sections  which  appear  mosaic.  The  surface  was  perfectly  intact. 
The  need  for  a  renewal  of  the  seal-coat  is  beginning  to  be  in  evidence. 

EXPERIMENT   NO.    9 

Crude  tar  in  mix,  asphalt  seal-coat 

Construction.  Mixing  upon  this  section  was  carried  out  by  hand 
upon  mixing  platforms.  The  quantities  of  binder  employed  were 
18  gallons  per  cubic  yard  of  stone  in  the  mix  and  }  gallon  per  square 
yard  in  the  seal-coat. 

Cost.  The  cost  of  this  section  was  $0.816  per  square  yard  exclu- 
sive of  grading. 

ANALYSIS   OP  TAR 

Specific  gravity 1.256 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0.700  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0.000  per  cent 

Free  carbon 30.200  per  cent 

Ash 0.000  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 38.050  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  normal  material too  soft 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 18.600  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 70.000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 0.750 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 19.600 

Distillation 20.680  per  cent 

Up  to  105°C 1.600  per  cent 

105°C.  to  170°C 2.640  per  cent 

170°C.  to  225°C 5.740  per  cent 

225°C.  to  270°C 6.820  per  cent 

270°C.  to  300°C 3.880  per  cent 

ANALYSIS  OF  ASPHALT 

Specific  gravity 0 . 994 

Water  soluble  material  (organic) 0. 190  per  cent 

Water  soluble  material  (inorganic) 0. 000  per  cent 

Free  carbon 0.270  per  cent 

Ash 0.290  per  cent 

Solubility  in  cold  carbon  tetra-chloride 98.730  per  cent 

Fixed  carbon 12.600  per  cent 

Paraffine 0.410  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  normal  material 95.000  degrees 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  170°C 0.550  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 103 .000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 20.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 36.000 

Evaporation  5  hours  at  205°C 1 .060  per  cent 

Melting  point  of  residue 117.000  degrees 

Penetration  of  residue  at  4°C 14.000 

Penetration  of  residue  at  25°C 30.000 

Solubility  in  88°  B.  naphtha 68.300  per  cent 

Character  of  solution  (oily  or  sticky) sticky 


264  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

Viscosity  100°C. 

New  York  Testing  Laboratory  viscosiraeter 379.00  seconds 

Viscosity  25°C. 

Penetrometer 30.000 

Results.  No  ravelling  has  ever  taken  place  upon  this  section. 
The  only  repairs  necessitated  to  date  have  consisted  merely  in  touch- 
ing up  spots  where  the  seal-coat  had  disappeared.  The  expense  of 
maintenance  to  date  has  been  less  than  $0.005  per  square  yard. 

A  smooth  asphalt  surface  was  presented  by  this  section  upon 
examination  during  October,  1914.  There  was  no  evidence  of  ravel- 
ling to  be  seen,  but  in  a  very  few  small  spots  the  disappearance  of 
the  seal-coat  allowed  the  top  surfaces  of  the  stones  to  be  seen. 

CONCLUSIONS  DRAWN  FROM  ABOVE  EXPERIMENTS 

These  experiments  at  Barrington  seem  to  prove  that  certain  forms 
of  the  cold  mixing  method  are  very  satisfactory  upon  roads  sub- 
jected largely  to  motor  vehicle  traffic.  Only  two  of  the  sections 
have  necessitated  repairs  of  any  account  during  the  five  years  they 
have  been  laid.  Both  of  the  sections  requiring  repair  were  laid  with 
the  same  combination  of  binders,  and  the  much  greater  extent  of 
repairs  necessitated  upon  the  section  constructed  of  trap  rock  is  of 
interest  in  consideration  of  mineral  aggregates. 

It  was  shown  conclusively  that  a  seal-coat  of  asphalt  is  much  more 
permanent  than  a  seal-coat  of  refined  tar,  although  both  the  crude 
tar  and  the  refined  tars  gave  excellent  results  as  far  as  their  binding 
of  the  mineral  aggregate  is  concerned. 

The  effectiveness  of  refined  water-gas  tar  is  also  proven.  The 
section  built  of  this  product  is  superior  at  present  to  either  section 
built  of  refined  coal-tar. 

BITUMINOUS   MACADAM    SUBSEQUENT   TO    1909 

In  1910  the  typical  construction  employed  was  a  mixture  of  crude 
tar  and  crushed  stone,  seal-coated  with  a  heavy  asphaltic  product. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  this  construction  is  identical  with  the  con- 
struction employed  in  Experiment  No.  9  at  Barrington  the  previous 
year.  The  facility  with  which  the  crude  tar  could  be  handled  and 
the  good  results  secured  with  this  material  previously  accounted  for 
its  extended  use  in  1910.  The  results  secured  with  this  type  of 
construction  in  1910  were  very  successful.  With  one  exception  these 
roads  have  required  only  the  lightest  of  repairs  to  date,  the  exception 
noted  being  located  upon  the  main  street  of  a  large  village  and 
constructed  of  commercial  2}  inch  and  li  inch  trap  rock.  This 
road  had  disintegrated  somewhat  by  the  spring  of  1911,  and  from 
that  time  on  the  disintegration  rapidly  became  greater  in  extent. 
By  the  spring  of  1913  the  condition  of  the  surface  was  serious.  Sev- 
eral breaks  of  10  square  yards  or  more  in  area  appeared,  and  small 
breaks  were  very  numerous.  It  was  decided  to  patch  the  breaks 


BITUMINOUS    MACADAM  265 

with  a  mixture  of  three-quarter  inch  trap  rock  arid  refined  tar  and 
to  apply  over  the  entire  surface  a  seal-coat  of  asphalt  covered  with 
clean  one-half  inch  trap  rock  screenings.  Asphalt  of  approximately 
15  mm.  penetration  was  applied  at  the  rate  of  one-half  gal  on  per 
square  yard  of  surface  and  covered  while  hot  with  screenings,  which 
were  rolled  with  a  6-ton  tandem  roller  as  soon  as  possible.  This 
work  was  done  in  June,  1913.  The  results  of  this  treatment  have 
proved  very  satisfactory,  no  further  ravelling  having  taken  place 
to  date. 

Mixing  in  1910  was  accomplished  by  the  hand  mixing  method 
upon  wooden  platforms. 

The  crude  tar  which  was  used  to  the  greatest  extent  in  our  work 
during  1910  was  the  product  of  the  Providence  gas  plant.  Since 
1910,  vertical  retorts  have  been  installed  at  this  plant  and  the  crude 
tar  at  present  produced  is  not  suitable  for  use  by  the  mixing  method 
without  previous  refining.  The  Providence  gas  house  tar  used  in 
1910  was  remarkable  for  its  uniform  good  quality,  and  we  doubt  if 
we  could  duplicate  the  results  secured  that  year  with  any  crude  tar 
at  present  available  in  sufficient  quantity  for  our  needs. 

In  1911  no  appropriation  for  road  work  was  made  by  the  General 
Assembly  and  consequently  no  bituminous  macadam  was  constructed. 

In  1912  an  attempt  was  made  to  duplicate  in  effect  the  excellent 
results  secured  in  1906  by  the  use  of  crude  tar  by  employing  a  com- 
paratively light  refined  tar.  It  was  the  express  intention  to  apply 
to  the  roads  built  with  this  refined  tar  a  seal-coat  of  asphalt  as  soon 
as  need  for  such  treatment  was  evidenced,  thereby  securing  event- 
ually the  same  type  of  road  which  was  so  eminently  satisfactory  in 
1910. 

Mechanical  mixing  was  introduced  into  our  work  for  the  first 
time  in  1912.  The  type  of  mixer  employed  upon  practically  all  of 
the  work  was  a  cube  mixer  of  approximately  one-half  cubic  yard 
capacity  fitted  with  a  heating  device.  The  stone  was  not  heated 
previous  to  mixing,  the  heating  device  being  employed  merely  for 
the  purpose  of  keeping  the  inside  of  the  mixer  warm  so  that  it  would 
not  become  clogged.  The  heat  was  developed  by  a  flame  generated 
by  the  combustion  of  crude  oil  sprayed  under  pressure,  and  this 
flame  entered  the  mixer.  It  is  the  writer's  opinion  that  this  direct 
flame  was  responsible  for  burning  the  bituminous  material  in  sev- 
eral cases. 

The  stone  employed  in  the  mix  upon  the  work  in  1912  was  both 
local  1J  inch  stone  and  commercial  1J  inch  trap  rock.  The  results 
secured  with  the  local  stone  averaged  superior  to  the  results  with 
trap  rock. 

The  results  secured  upon  our  work  in  1912  were  variable.  In 
1913  it  was  deemed  necessaary  to  seal-coat  with  asphalt  approxi- 
mately 42  per  cent  of  the  total  area  of  the  roads  constructed  in  1912. 
During  1914  approximately  6  per  cent  of  the  total  area  was  seal- 
coated  with  asphalt.  The  roads  which  have  not  been  seal-coated 


266  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

are  in  very  good  condition  at  present,  but  we  anticipate  the  necessity 
for  applying  a  seal-coat  to  all  of  them  during  the  next  two  construc- 
tion seasons.  The  seal-coating  of  the  work  done  in  1912  has  been 
very  effective  to  date,  but  it  is  as  yet  too  early  to  draw  conclusions 
regarding  the  results  of  the  1912  work  after  seal-coating  as  compared 
with  the  results  secured  in  1910  where  the  seal-coat  was  applied  at 
the  time  of  construction. 

During  1913  the  amount  of  bituminous  macadam  constructed  by 
the  cold  mixing  method  was  small  as  compared  with  the  amount 
constructed  in  1912.  Two  methods  were  employed.  The  type  of 
construction  employed  in  1910  was  taken  up  to  some  extent  with  a 
refined  tar  in  place  of  a  crude  tar — a  seal-coat  of  asphalt  being 
applied  at  the  time  of  construction  in  exactly  the  same  manner. 
An  asphalt  of  characteristics  similar  to  the  asphalt  employed  upon 
Experiment  No.  4  at  Harrington  in  1909  was  used  to  some  extent 
in  both  mix  and  seal-coat.  The  work  by  both  methods  has  proved 
perfectly  satisfactory  to  date,  although  the  construction  is  so  recent 
that  definite  conclusions  cannot  be  drawn.  Trap  rock  was  employed 
satisfactorily  in  the  mix  for  the  first  time  during  1913.  The  com- 
mercial three-quarter  inch  size  of  trap  rock  was  employed  in  place 
of  the  commercial  If  inch  size  which  was  previously  used,  and  this 
product  has  given  excellent  satisfaction  to  date. 

It  has  been  proved  in  our  work  that  the  utmost  care  in  construct- 
ing bituminous  macadam  by  the  cold  mixing  method  is  necessary. 
The  crushed  stone  must  be  perfectly  dry  at  the  time  of  mixing  and 
all  stones  must  be  perfectly  covered  with  bitumen  in  order  that  good 
results  may  be  secured.  The  manner  of  carrying  out  the  rollirg  is 
also  important  in  its  effect  upon  the  results  obtained.  It  is,  of 
course,  necessary  to  secure  by  rolling  as  compact  a  mass  as  possible, 
but  we  have  found  that  considerable  care  must  be  exercised  in  regu- 
lating the  time  and  amount  of  rolling.  If  the  weather  is  cool  at  the 
time  of  construction,  we  frequently  postpone  the  heavy  rolling  until 
mid-day,  when  the  maximum  warmth  is  experienced,  although  the 
initial  rolling  is  done  as  soon  after  the  mixture  is  laid  as  possible. 

The  character  and  sizes  of  the  crushed  stone  employed  are  also 
of  great  importance.  We  have  secured  the  best  results,  as  far  as 
stone  is  concerned  with  our  native  rock,  which  is  rather  variable  in 
character.  As  a  rule  our  native  rock  is  softer  than  trap  rock  and 
breaks  with  a  much  more  irregular  fracture  than  trap  rock.  There 
is  more  or  less  breaking  of  the  native  stone  by  rolling,  and  this 
appears  to  be  beneficial  rather  than  otherwise  in  that  a  denser  pave- 
ment is  secured.  We  feel  that  if  trap  rock  is  employed,  smaller 
sizes  are  necessary  than  are  necessary  with  a  softer  stone,  unless 
there  is  a  certainty  of  securing  a  perfect  crusher-run  from  1?  inch 
to  one-quarter  inch  or  less. 

We  have  experimented  with  heating  the  aggregate  previous  to 
mixing,  but  these  experiments  seem  to  show  that  inferior  results 
are  secured  as  compared  with  the  results  obtained  with  the  same 


BITUMINOUS   MACADAM  267 

materials  where  the  aggregate  is  unheated.  The  aggregate  in  bitumi- 
nous macadam  contains  at  best  a  large  percentage  of  voids,  and  in 
the  heated  aggregate  there  was  noted  a  tendency  upon  the  part  of 
the  binder  to  run  off  from  the  stones,  leaving  only  a  very  thin  coat- 
ing upon  each  stone.  In  several  cases,  for  instance,  18  gallons  of 
binder  per  cubic  yard  of  stone  were  necessary  to  cover  all  stones  in 
our  unheated  mineral  aggregate,  but  when  the  aggregate  was  heated, 
12  gallons  would  cover  all  stones  and  there  would  be  considerable 
bitumen  which  would  run  through  the  mineral  aggregate  and  be  lost. 
The  tendency  for  the  bitumen  to  cover  a  heated  aggregate  very 
lightly  seems  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  heat  retained  by  the 
stones  does  not  allow  the  binder  to  become  hard  for  a  considerable 
time,  with  the  result  that  it  continues  to  run  for  nome  time.  We 
recognize  that  it  is  necessary  to  heat  the  aggregate  is  a  dense  mixture 
such  as  a  bituminous  concrete  pavement  affords,  but  in  bituminous 
macadam  work  by  the  mixing  method  we  prefer  a  cold  aggregate  or 
an  aggregate  heated  but  slightly. 

The  weather  conditions  influence  the  results  obtained  in  bitu- 
minous macadam  by  the  mixing  method  considerably.  We  have 
noticed  that  roads  built  late  in  the  fall  just  before  freezing  sets  in 
are  not  apt  to  be  as  satisfactory  as  those  built  in  mid-summer,  even 
though  the  temperature  at  the  time  of  construction  is  not  low.  It 
seems  to  be  a  decided  advantage  to  roads  built  by  this  method  of 
construction  to  have  a  comparatively  long  period  of  warm  weather 
immediately  after  construction  in  order  that  the  surface  may  become 
freed  from  the  top  covering  of  stone  screenings  and  well  smoothed 
out  before  snow  and  ice  appear.  In  Rhode  Island  we  consider  the 
season  most  favorable  to  this  type  of  construction  to  be  between 
the  middle  of  May  and  the  middle  of  October. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  cold  mixing  method  of  constructing  bitumi- 
nous macadam  as  practiced  in  Rhode  Island  appears  to  be  an  eco- 
nomical pavement  for  motor  vehicle  traffic.  It  does  not  appear  to 
the  writer  as  suitable  for  heavy  horse-drawn  traffic  or  for  a  heavy 
mixed  traffic.  The  traffic  upon  several  of  the  trunk  lines  in  Rhode 
Island  consists  of  motor  vehicle  traffic  to  the  extent  of  over  90  per 
cent  of  the  total  amount  of  traffic,  and  it  is  upon  these  roads  that 
we  expect  in  the  future  to  confine  our  bituminous  macadam  roads 
built  by  the  cold  mixing  method.  Through  large  villages  where 
the  percentage  of  horse-drawn  traffic  is  large,  we  expect  to  take  up 
a  stronger  method  of  construction. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  paper  on  the  program  has  been  taken 
from  the  afternoon  session  and  transferred  to  the  morning  session. 
It  is  a  paper  on  "Convict  Labor,"  by  Mr.  George  P.  Coleman, 
State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Virginia. 


268  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

CONVICT  LABOR 

BY  GEORGE  P.  COLEMAN 
State  Highway  Commissioner  of  Virginia 

Prior  to  1906  the  convicts  of  this  State  were  let  out  to  contract, 
first,  in  the  construction  of  railways  and  other  public  works,  and 
then  under  one  contract  for  the  making  of  shoes.  This  was  done 
in  the  Penitentiary  enclosure,  in  buildings  constructed  by  the  con- 
tractor. In  the  revision  of  our  constitution  on  1903,  section  185, 
provides  that  the  Legislature  may  make  provision  for  the  use  of  her 
State  convicts  and  jail  men  in  the  construction  of  State  and  county 
roads.  With  this  end  in  view,  the  Legislature  of  1906  passed  the 
Withers-Lassiter  law,  placing  certain  of  her  convicts  on  the  roads. 
This  law  has  been  amended  by  each  succeeding  Legislature  until 
its  provisions  are  about  as  follows: 

A  county  or  district  of  a  county  desiring  to  use  convicts  in  the 
construction  of  its  public  highways,  must  make  application,  through 
the  county  road  authorities,  to  the  Highway  Commissioner,  for  a 
force  of  convicts.  This  application  must  designate  the  road  or  roads 
to  be  improved,  their  approximate  length  and  location  and  the 
amount  of  money  on  hand  to  carry  on  the  construction.  The 
Highway  Commissioner  will,  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  receipt  of 
this  application,  send  an  engineer  to  the  county  to  make  the  neces- 
sary surveys  for  changes  in  location  from  which  plans,  profiles,  es- 
timates of  cost  and  specifications  are  prepared.  These  estimates, 
plans,  etc.,  are  then  furnished  the  county  road  authorities,  and  if 
agreed  to  by  them,  the  Highway  Commissioner  then  makes  requisi- 
tion on  the  Superintendent  of  the  Penitentiary  for  a  force  of  men. 
The  county  road  authorities,  in  this  second  application,  agree,  on 
the  part  of  the  county,  that  the  work  shall  be  done  under  the  direct 
supervision  of  the  Highway  Commissioner;  they  also  agree  that  the 
work  shall  be  done  either  by  contract  or  by  force  account;  if  the 
former,  the  work  is  then  advertised  by  the  Highway  Commissioner 
and  the  bids  are  opened  at  the  county  court  house  and  the  work  is  let 
to  the  lowest  responsible  bidder,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
commissioner.  In  this  contract  the  contractor  agrees  to  take  a 
certain  percentage  of  the  whole  amount  in  convict  labor  and  agrees 
to  use  not  less  than  a  given  number  of  men  during  the  life  of  the 
contract.  These  convicts  are  furnished  to  the  contractor  at  10  cents 
per  hour  per  man,  the  total  for  each  month  being  deducted  from 
the  monthly  payments  of  the  contractor,  the  county  thereby  secur- 
ing the  benefit  of  this  deduction.  In  the  first  contract  made,  it 
was  agreed  to  furnish  the  contractor  all  labor  necessary  for  his 
work,  but  it  was  found  that  under  this  plan  the  labor  was  used 
uneconomically  and  wastefully.  The  rules  now  require  that  a  con- 
tractor shall  not  use  less  than  30  per  cent,  nor  to  exceed  40  per  cent, 
of  the  total  contract  in  convict  labor.  We  are,  however,  working 


CONVICT    LABOR  269 

away  from  this  plan,  that  is,  using  convicts  on  contract  work,  finding 
that  under  the  second  plan,  that  of  force  account,  we  get  better  re- 
sults both  for  the  county  and  for  the  convict. 

Should  we  decide  to  do  the  work  by  force  account,  the  county 
road  authorities  agree  first  to  have  the  work  done  under  an  engi- 
neer or  superintendent  appointed  by  the  Highway  Commissioner, 
who  has  complete  charge  of  the  whole  work.  They  further  agree 
to  furnish  all  necessary  teams,  tools,  machinery,  materials,  etc., 
necessary  to  economically  and  expeditiously  carry  on  the  work. 
They  also  agree  to  pay  the  superintendent  and  all  necessary  free 
labor,  such  as  foremen,  blacksmiths,  etc.,  for  it  is  not  always  pos- 
sible to  get  this  class  of  labor  from  the  convict  body.  We  also 
require  the  county  to  provide  such  medical  attendance  as  the  pris- 
oners may  require.  The  law  requires  that  the  prisoners  shall  be 
furnished  by  the  Superintendent  of  the  Penitentiary  on  the  req- 
uisition of  the  Highway  Commissioner.  It  further  states  that 
the  Superintendent  shall  furnish  a  sergeant  and  the  necessary  guards 
to  properly  care  for  the  men,  stipulating,  however,  that  the  High- 
way Commissioners  shall  agree  to  the  appointment  of  both  ser- 
geants and  guards,  and  that  if  at  any  time  the  Highway  Commis- 
sioner should  see  fit,  the  Superintendent  must  remove  any  sergeant 
or  guard  unsatisfactory  to  him.  It  further  stipulates  that  the  High- 
way Commissioner  and  the  Superintendent  shall  agree  on  the  neces- 
sary rules  and  legulations  for  working  the  convicts. 

The  Virginia  convict  road  force  is  composed  of  all  male  convicts, 
who  are  considered  safe  by  the  Superintendent  of  the  Penitentiary, 
and  all  male  jail  men  over  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  this  force,  when 
placed  on  a  county  road  or  in  a  county  quarry,  is  guarded,  fed, 
clothed  and  transported  at  the  expense  of  the  State;  this  about 
equally  divides  the  cost  of  the  road  work  between  the  county  and 
the  State. 

A  suitable  camp  site  is  selected  with  a  view  to  proper  drainage 
and  a  plentiful  supply  of  good  water;  also  that  the  men  will  not 
have  to  walk  at  any  time  exceeding  two  miles  to  or  from  their  work. 
This  is  particularly  important,  since  walking  in  gangs  of  ten  to 
twenty  is  necessarily  slow.  The  camps  for  the  men  are  divided 
into  a  sleeping  house,  wide  enough  for  a  row  of  cots  down  each 
side,  and  an  8  foot  passage  way  down  the  center,  built  to  hold  from 
fifty  to  eighty  men.  The  men  are  supplied  with  all  necessary  bedding, 
etc.,  and  in  winter  the  building  is  heated  with  stoves.  Next  to 
this  is  the  dining  camp  and  at  one  end  of  this  is  the  store  room, 
kitchen  and  guards'  dining  room.  Facing  these,  and  a  little  to  the 
side,  is  a  camp  with  two  rooms,  one  for  the  sergeant  and  the  other 
for  the  guards.  All  of  these  buildings  have  corrugated  metal  roofs, 
and  canvas  sides,  and  the  sleeping  quarters  have  wooden  floors  and 
are  so  constructed  that  they  can  be  readily  taken  down  and  moved 
to  new  locations.  In  addition  to  the  sergeant,  there  are  from  three 
to  five  guards,  depending  on  the  size  of  the  camp.  The  pay  of  the 


270  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

sergeant  at  first  is  $50  per  month  and  his  board,  which  amount  is 
gradually  increased  to  $75  per  month  and  board.  This  amount  may 
be  further  increased  by  placing  the  sergeant  in  charge  of  the  road 
construction.  The  pay  of  the  guards  begins  at  $25  per  month  and 
board,  and  may  be  increased  to  $35  and  board.  The  guards  are 
also  required  to  supervise  and  direct  the  work  of  the  men  when  called 
on  to  do  so  by  the  Superintendent,  but  with  the  class  of  men  avail- 
able at  the  price,  this  has  not  been  found  practical.  The  salaries 
of  the  sergeants  and  guards  constitute  the  heaviest  cost  of  main- 
taining the  State  convict  road  force,  and  up  to  the  present  time  we 
have  not  been  able  to  devise  any  plan  which  will  enable  us  to  materi- 
ally reduce  this  cost. 

As  a  general  thing,  from  three  to  five  prisoners  are  kept  in  the 
camp  to  do  the  cooking,  cleaning,  washing,  etc.  The  remaining 
men  are  divided  into  gangs  of  from  four  to  twenty  men,  the  worst 
class  of  the  prisoners  being  placed  under  guard  and  worked  in  the 
quarries  or  gravel  pits  or  on  the  grade.  The  trusties  are  sent  off  in 
small  gangs  to  shape  the  road,  spread  stone,  build  culverts  and  head- 
walls  and  are  used  as  blacksmiths,  firemen,  rollermen,  drivers  and 
water  boys.  The  best  men  in  the  quarries  and  on  the  grade  are 
trained  as  drill  runners  and  enginemen  and  if  their  behavior  war- 
rants it,  are  made  into  trusties  and  sent  off  on  work  not  requiring  a 
guard. 

The  Legislature  of  1906  appropriated  $25,000  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  convict  road  force  for  eighteen  months,  and  the  last 
Legislature  appropriated  $145,000,  together  with  the  jail  fees,  which 
will  give  us  about  $180,000  for  the  maintenance  of  the  force  for 
1914.  Since  the  organization  of  the  Department,  we  have  used  con- 
victs in  thirty-seven  counties  and  at  the  present  time  we  are  main- 
taining camps  in  thirty-one  counties,  representing  about  eleven 
hundred  convicts  and  five  hundred  jail  men  working  on  the  roads 
of  the  State.  It  has  cost  the  State  during  the  past  year  to  clothe, 
feed,  guard  and  otherwise  provide  for  this  labor,  approximately 
fifty-one  cents  per  ten  hour  working  day.  It  is  quite  impossible  to 
compare  convict  labor  with  free  labor  unless  you  are  working  them 
side  by  side  and  under  exactly  the  same  conditions.  I  have  heard 
a  great  deal  said  about  the  inefficiency  of  prison  labor  as  compared 
with  the  same  class  of  free  labor,  the  usual  argument  being  that  you 
cannot  expect  to  get  the  same  results  from  men  working  under  com- 
pulsion and  without  compensation  and  hope  of  advancement. 
From  eight  years'  experience,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  prison  labor 
properly  handled,  that  is,  with  intelligence  and  humanity,  is  just 
as  satisfactory  and  efficient  as  any  other  class  of  common  labor, 
with  the  additional  advantage  of  being  regular  and  under  perfect 
control.  You  are  in  a  position  to  train  each  man  for  his  particular 
work  and  to  derive  an  immediate  benefit  from  that  training. 

Now  of  course  we  get  all  classes  of  men  sent  to  the  roads,  some 
whose  physical  condition  is  such  that  they  are  incapable  of  doing 


CONVICT   LABOR  271 

hard  work;  these  are  made  into  water  boys,  yard  men,  drivers,  etc. — 
in  other  words,  they  are  given  such  work  as  they  are  capable  of 
doing.  We  have  found  that  working  prison  labor  on  the  roads  is 
not  without  its  drawbacks.  In  many  sections  of  the  State  the 
work  is  light  and  it  is  not  always  advisable  to  string  your  men  out  as 
needed.  Nor  is  it  possible  or  economical  with  the  funds  in  hand  to 
employ  a  sufficient  number  of  guards.  Our  experience  has  led  us 
to  believe  that  the  most  economical  results  can  be  obtained  from 
prison  labor  working  under  guard,  when  that  labor  is  concentrated 
and  when  it  is  worked  near  their  headquarters.  One  thing  is  cer- 
tain— the  use  of  prison  labor  on  the  roads  in  Virginia  has  quickened 
the  demand  for  better  roads  and  given  an  impetus  to  the  move- 
ment that  nothing  else  has  ever  done.  So  much,  then,  for  the 
benefit  accruing  to  the  counties  and  the  State  from  the  use  of  this 
labor  in  improving  her  highways. 

The  State  realizes  that  its  first  duty  is  to  improve  both  morally 
and  physically  this  class  of  its  citizens,  and  to  send  these  back  into 
the  world  better  able  to  cope  with  its  temptations,  and  we  feel  that 
road  work  is  a  move  in  the  right  direction.  In  dealing  with  this 
phase  of  the  question,  you  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  about 
75  per  cent  of  the  prison  population  of  this  State  is  negro,  and  that 
your  problem  is  thus  made  doubly  difficult.  The  prisoners  in  our 
road  force  are  allowed  a  reduction  in  their  term  of  imprisonment  of 
four  days  each  month  for  good  behavior,  and  when  they  prove  that 
they  can  be  trusted  and  are  competent,  they  are  given  more  skilled 
employment.  It  is  the  endeavor  of  each  sergeant  to  have  as  many 
trusties  on  his  work  as  possible;  these  men  are  put  on  special  work 
without  guards,  and  are  allowed  special  privileges.  Should  they, 
however,  break  the  rules  or  regulations,  they  are,  as  a  punishment, 
placed  back  under  the  guard.  The  men  are  well  clothed  and  fed 
and  generally  well  cared  for — they  live  and  work  out  of  doors  and 
while  each  man  is  required  to  do  a  full  day's  work,  they  are  never 
driven.  There  are  a  number  of  instances  where  the  men  on  the 
completion  of  their  sentence  have  been  employed  by  contractors  on 
the  same  work  at  good  wages,  and  in  many  instances  employed  by 
farmers  who  live  near  the  road  work,  and  in  this  way  they  are  kept 
away  from  their  former  haunts.  One  of  the  direct  advantages 
to  the  convicts  working  in  these  camps,  must  be  the  training  they 
receive  in  cleanliness  and  sanitary  precautions  of  every  kind.  Con- 
sider that  most  of  them  are  from  the  slums  of  cities,  that  few  of 
them  have  ever  received  training  of  any  sort  in  the  proper  care  of 
themselves  physically,  and  you  cannot  fail  to  realize  how  much 
they  must  gain  from  the  practical  lessons  they  receive  in  assist- 
ing in  the  locating  and  management  of  the  camps.  The  careful 
choice  of  a  site,  the  precautions  taken  in  guarding  the  spring  or  well 
from  which  the  water  supply  is  obtained,  the  disposal  of  all  sewage, 
the  cleanliness  of  the  kitchen  and  the  utensils  used  and  the  isolation 
of  any  member  of  the  camp  suspected  of  any  infectious  disease — 


272  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

these  are  all  points  on  which  the  State  officers  have  expended  much 
time  and  many  thousands  of  dollars  to  bring  forcibly  home  to  their 
uneducated  citizens,  and  in  no  way  could  a  class  most  needing  such 
education  receive  it  more  thoroughly  or  clearly  than  in  a  well  ordered 
road  camp.  Another  important  advantage  derived  from  working 
prison  labor  on  public  highways,  is  that  it  brings  the  average  citi- 
zen in  touch  with  the  situation,  thus  giving  him  an  entirely  differ- 
ent point  of  view;  he  is  able  to  see  for  himself  that  very  few  of  the 
convicts  are  dangerous  and  that  many  of  them,  if  given  a  chance, 
will  make  good  citizens.  Changes  are  undoubtedly  needed  in  the 
management  of  our  prison  labor,  but  it  is  difficult  to  lay  down  any 
one  rule  and  say  that  if  you  follow  this  you  will  get  the  best  results 
for  the  men,  and  therefore  for  the  State  as  a  whole. 

The  Superintendent  of  the  Penitentiary  proposes  to  make  an  ef- 
fort to  get  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  to  provide  an  appropriation 
with  which  to  pay  each  prisoner  who  obeys  the  rules  five  cents  for 
each  day's  work.  This  will  amount  to  something  like  $15  per  annum 
for  each  prisoner  and  it  is  proposed  to  pay  that  amount  to  the  pris- 
oner on  the  completion  of  his  sentence.  This  will  permit  the  dis- 
charged prisoner  to  have  a  small  amount  of  money  to  start  with  on 
his  release,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  some  such  law  will  be  enacted 
at  the  next  session  of  the  Legislature,  for  according  to  our  present  law, 
the  prisoners  are  discharged  without  help  of  any  kind  other  than 
their  transportation,  except  such  as  is  voluntarily  given  by  the  ser- 
geant or  men  in  charge  of  the  road  work. 

I  would  like,  however,  to  suggest  for  your  consideration,  the 
following  plan  which  could  be  followed  to  advantage  in  this  State, 
that  is,  grouping  your  prison  population  into  four  classes: 

First.     Long  term  and  dangerous  men. 

Second.     Short  term  men. 

Third.     Trusties. 

Fourth.     Paroled  men. 

The  first  class  shall  include  all  murderers  and  all  prisoners  whose 
records  are  known  to  be  bad  and  all  prisoners  sentenced  for  third 
offences. 

These  men  are  to  be  dressed  in  stripes  and  worked  in  stockades 
and  under  guard  in  State  stone  quarries.  This  material  is  to  be 
supplied  to  the  counties  of  the  State  to  be  used  in  the  construction 
of  their  roads.  It  would,  of  course,  be  necessary  to  locate  these 
quarries  advantageously  and  with  good  transportation  facilities.  It 
would  also  be  necessary  to  secure  low  transportation  rates  from  the 
railroad  companies  to  insure  an  economical  distribution  of  the  ma- 
terial. 

The  second  class,  to  be  composed  of  short  term  men,  men  con- 
victed for  the  first  time,  and  such  men  from  class  I  as  by  experi- 
ence you  would  find  that  you  could  trust  even  a  little,  these  men  to 
be  dressed  in  blue  or  brown  and  distributed  throughout  the  State 
to  the  various  county  road  camps  and  to  be  worked  under  guard  in 
the  grading  and  construction  of  the  county  roads. 


CONVICT  LABOR  IN  COLORADO  273 

The  third  class,  to  be  composed  of  trusties,  or,  if  you  please, 
Honor  men,  and  to  be  taken  from  class  II,  these  men  to  wear  an 
ordinary  khaki  suit  and  to  be  worked  without  guards  and  used  as 
rollermen,  enginemen,  cooks,  yardmen  in  the  State  and  county 
camps,  in  small  gangs  to  shape  road  and  spread  stone,  in  building 
concrete  bridges,  culverts  and  headwalls,  and  in  every  way  made  to 
feel  that  they  are  in  places  of  trust  and  above  all  that  they  are  being 
trusted.  We  have  considered  the  matter  of  working  prisoners  in 
large  forces,  without  guards,  as  is  being  done  in  some  of  the  Western 
States,  but  have  not  yet  been  able  to  devise  a  plan  which  appeared 
feasible  with  the  class  of  prisoners  we  have  in  our  camps,  though 
we  may  be  able  to  do  so  later. 

The  fourth  class,  paroled  men.  These  men  to  be  taken  from  class 
III  and  paroled  for  good  behavior  at  some  period  of  their  sentence, 
I  would  suggest  at  the  expiration  of  half  of  their  time.  These  men 
to  wear  ordinary  clothing  and  to  be  assigned  to  the  maintenance 
department  of  the  State  or  county,  to  be  used  as  patrolmen  on  main- 
tenance of  the  roads  or  on  such  other  maintenance  work  as  may 
seem  best.  These  men  to  be  furnished  with  proper  quarters  and 
paid  a  monthly  wage,  and  where  practical,  given  a  house  and  small 
plot  of  ground  and  urged  to  have  their  families  with  them,  these 
men  to  be  a  regular  part  of  the  State  or  county's  free  labor  road 
system,  the  only  difference  being  that  they  shall  be  required  to  re- 
port monthly  to  some  general  head. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  discussion  on  this  paper  was  to  have  been 
opened  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Maloney,  State  Highway  Engineer  of  Colorado. 
Mr.  Maloney  is  unable  to  be  present  but  has  sent  his  paper  in,  which 
will  be  read. 

CONVICT  LABOR  IN  COLORADO 

JAMES  E.  MALONEY 
Secretary-Engineer  State  Highway  Commission 

In  discussing  the  very  interesting  paper  of  Mr.  Coleman,  to  my  mind, 
the  question  resolves  into  a  general  proposition  for  improving  the 
condition  of  the  prisoners,  and  at  the  same  time  performing  some 
useful  work  for  the  State. 

In  considering  the  question  of  convict  labor,  it  is  well  to  keep  in 
mind  these  two  propositions;  one,  the  regeneration  of  the  convict 
himself  and  his  future  welfare,  and  the  other,  the  financial  benefit 
to  the  State.  If  it  is  possible  to  accomplish  both  of  these  points, 
then  indeed,  is  the  practice  of  working  convicts  on  the  roads,  a 
benefit  to  both  the  State  and  the  prisoners. 

The  selection  of  the  trusties  and  the  placing  of  the  men  at  the 
various  tasks  are  functions  which  belong  to  the  warden  of  the  Pen- 
itentiary, who  is  in  direct  touch  with  the  men,  and  through  his 


274  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

study  of  human  nature  is  enabled  to  pick  out  the  men  best  suited 
for  the  different  positions. 

In  Colorado,  in  addition  to  the  various  tasks  for  the  upkeep  of 
the  Institution,  such  as  the  laundry,  hostlers,  gardeners,  etc.,  the 
State  has  a  farm  of  several  hundred  acres,  on  which,  during  the 
summer  season,  many  of  the  prisoners  are  employed. 

In  addition  to  this,  starting  from  the  year  1899,  the  employment 
of  the  prisoners  upon  the  State  highways  has  been  gradually  ex- 
tended, until  at  this  time  pur  present  warden,  T.  J.  Tynan,  has 
seven  road  camps  at  work  in  various  parts  of  the  State,  employing 
an  average  of  250  prisoners  in  total  at  these  seven  camps. 

The  first  work  in  1899  was  done  in  the  upper  Arkansas  River 
Valley,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Buena  Vista,  under  the  bill  intro- 
duced in  the  Legislature  by  Senator  T.  J.  Ehrhart.  In  this  year 
considerable  work  was  also  done  in  Fremont  County  by  the  con- 
victs. Later,  in  1905,  a  bill  was  introduced  by  Senator  Lewis,  and 
another  one  in  1907  by  Senator  Barella,  the  latter  bill  providing  for 
a  convict  built  road  from  the  New  Mexico  State  line  at  the  south, 
to  the  Wyoming  State  line  on  the  north.  The  Lewis  bill,  is  the  one 
under  which  our  convicts  are  now  being  successfully  worked  on  the 
roads  under  the  present  administration.  Copy  of  this  bill  follows: 

S.  B.  No.  224,  by  Senator  Lewis. 
AN  ACT 

Providing  for  the  working  of  the  convicts  in  Colorado  State  Penitentiary 
upon  the  public  roads  and  highways  within  any  county  and  upon  the  streets 
and  alleys  within  the  cities  and  incorporated  towns  located  in  the  State  of 
Colorado. 

Be  it  Enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Slate  of  Colorado.  SECTION  1. 
Upon  the  written  request  of  a  majority  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners 
of  any  county  in  the  State  of  Colorado,  the  Warden  of  the  Colorado  State 
Penitentiary,  situated  at  Canon  City,  ID  Fremont  County,  shall  detail  such 
convicts  as  in  his  judgment  shall  deem  proper,  not  exceeding  the  number 
specified  in  said  written  request,  to  work  upon  such  public  roads  and  highways 
of  such  county  or  streets  and  alleys  of  any  city  or  incorporated  town  within 
such  county  as  shall  be  designated  in  said  written  request  of  said  county 
commissioners;  Provided,  That  such  county  shall  pay  all  additional  expense 
of  guarding  said  convicts  while  working  upon  said  public  roads  and  highways 
within  such  county,  and  shall  furnish  all  tools  and  materials  necessary  in  the 
performance  of  said  work;  And,  Provided,  That  when  said  work  is  done  within 
the  limits  of  any  city  or  incorporated  town  within  such  county,  or  city  or 
incorporated  town  where  said  work  shall  be  done  shall  likewise  pay  all  addi- 
tional expenses  of  guarding  such  convicts  while  performing  said  work  and 
shall  furnish  all  necessary  material  used  in  said  work. 

SECTION  2.  Said  convicts  when  employed  under  the  provisions  of  Section 
1  of  this  act  shall  not  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  building  any  bridge  or  struc- 
ture of  like  character  which  requires  the  employment  of  skilled  labor. 

SECTION  3.  The  Board  of  Penitentiary  Commissioners  are  hereby  em- 
powered to  adopt ^a  special  rule  applicable  solely  to  convicts  employed  on  the 
public  work  herein  authorized  and  contemplated,  whereby  convicts  so  em- 
ployed shall  be  granted  additional  good  time  allowance,  conditioned  upon 
their  good  behavior  and  cheerful  compliance  with  all  rules  that  may  be  made 
by  said  board  or  said  superintendent  for  the  management  and  control  of 
convicts  so  employed. 


CONVICT  LABOR  IN  COLORADO  275 

SECTION  4.  All  acts,  or  parts  of  acts,  in  conflict  herewith  are  hereby 
repealed. 

SECTION  5.  In  the  opinion  of  the  General  Assembly,  an  emergency  exists; 
therefore,  this  act  shall  take  effect  and  be  in  force  from  and  after  its  passage 

Approved  April  11,  1905. 

Work  was  started  on  the  main  State  road  from  Trinidad  to  the 
New  Mexico  line,  and  finished  in  1907  by  Warden  Cleghorn.  The 
famous  "Sky  Line  Drive"  at  Canon  City  was  also  completed  under 
Mr.  Cleghorn's  administration,  and  the  development  of  the  system 
of  working  convicts  without  gun  guards  and  solely  upon  honor  was 
started  by  Mr.  Cleghorn.  Our  present  warden,  T.  J.  Tynan,  took 
charge  of  the  work  in  1909,  and  has  extended  and  developed  the 
system,  until  at  this  time  it  is  one  of  the  very  successful  adjuncts 
of  the  State  system  of  road  work. 

It  has  been  stated  by  one  of  the  superintendents  of  the  convict 
camps,  that  "The  use  of  this  labor  not  only  cheapens  the  construc- 
tion to  the  State,  but  takes  the  men  out  into  God's  sunshine,  where 
the  steady  employment  and  wholesome  life  of  the  road  camps  are 
accomplishing  wonders  in  arousing  energy  and  ambition,  and  some 
of  these  men  have  never  before  realized  that  they  were  capable  of 
doing  an  honest  day's  work.  Prison  labor  has  some  disadvantages. 
The  men  from  all  walks  of  life  are  thrown  together,  and  in  most 
cases  they  have  to  be  taught  the  use  of  the  road  builder's  tools,  but 
as  the  work  progresses,  the  majority  of  them  learn  to  take  an  inter- 
est and  pride  in  their  work." 

The  convict  camps  are  made  up  of  all  nationalities  and  races, 
many  Mexicans  and  negroes  being  among  them.  The  desire  to  take 
advantage  of  the  opportunities  offered  by  the  work  upon  the  roads, 
is  shown  by  all  the  prisoners,  and  the  great  majority  of  them  soon 
exhibit  a  very  keen  interest  in  the  work.  All  classes  of  crimes  have 
been  represented  by  the  convicts  worked  upon  the  roads.  It  has 
not  been  found  desirable  or  necessary  to  divide  the  convicts  irto 
classes,  segregated  according  to  the  character  of  the  crime,  ard  if 
there  is  any  division  to  be  made  between  the  prisoners,  it  should 
be  based  upon  the  individual  characteristics  of  the  prisoners,  rather 
than  upon  the  crime  for  which  he  has  been  convicted. 

The  State  does  not  pay  the  convicts  any  salary  or  per  diem  for 
their  labor,  but  they  receive  credits,  which  enable  the  prisoner  to 
cut  his  minimum  sentence  in  half.  Any  attempt  to  escape  or  violate 
the  established  rules  results  in  the  loss  of  all  credits,  and  instead 
of  cutting  his  time  practically  in  half,  he  has  to  serve  his  full  maxi- 
mum sentence.  There  are  no  armed  guards  used  in  any  of  these 
camps,  the  men  being  placed  entirely  upon  their  honor,  and  I  believe 
this  is  one  reason  for  the  very  satisfactory  results  obtained  by  the 
present  warden.  If  you  use  armed  guards  to  restrain  the  prisoners 
from  any  attempt  to  escape,  then  why  exact  any  promises  from 
the  men,  but  if  you  accept  a  promise  from  them,  to  the  effect  that 
they  will  not  attempt  to  escape,  then  they  should  be  trusted.  Other- 


276  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

wise,  the  moral  effect  of  their  promise  is  absolutely  lost.  Under 
our  present  system,  the  attempts  to  escape  have  not  been  over 
1  per  cent,  and  when  99  per  cent  of  the  men  keep  their  word,  it 
stamps  the  system  as  successful. 

The  typical  organization  of  the  convict  road  camp  is  about  as 
follows: 

The  camp  is  under  the  charge  of  a  superintendent,  who  is  assisted 
by  one,  two  or  three  foremen,  as  the  size  of  the  camp  may  require. 
These  men  are  all  the  salaried  officials  there  are  connected  with  the 
camp.  An  average  of  25  to  50  prisoners  may  be  detailed  to  any 
one  camp.  In  all  of  the  camps  of  the  State  the  quarters  are  pro- 
vided by  the  county  and  State  Road  Fund,  as  distinguished  from 
the  Penitentiary  Fund.  This  equipment  consists  of  wall  tents  of 
extra  heavy  canvas,  with  flies,  and  in  case  of  winter  quarters  the 
walls  of  the  tents  being  boarded  and  papered,  and  stoves  provided. 
The  men  sleep  in  separate  bunks  in  tents  provided  for  that  purpose, 
about  4  to  8  to  a  tent.  There  is  a  superintendent's  tent,  necessary 
shelter  for  the  stock,  etc.,  and  in  fact,  the  equipment  is  the  same 
as  would  be  used  by  a  contractor  prosecuting  the  same  piece  of 
work,  except  that  the  men  are  better  provided  with  shelter,  clothes, 
and  food. 

The  sanitary  conditions  are  looked  after  very  carefully ;  the  cleanli- 
ness of  the  camp,  and  the  physical  well-being  of  the  men  are  espe- 
cially looked  after  by  those  in  charge  of  the  work.  Sanitary  pre- 
cautions and  close  inspection  of  the  health  of  the  men  are  points 
which  are  conducive  to  better  work. 

The  stock  necessary  for  the  hauling  of  supplies  to  the  camp,  or 
for  working  upon  the  roads  is  also  supplied  by  the  County  and 
State  Road  Fund.  An  outfit  for  camp  purposes  may  run  from 
$1000  to  $2000,  not  including  the  cost  of  the  stock.  Clothes  for 
the  prisoners  are  supplied  by  the  Penitentiary.  A  prisoner's  trans- 
portation is  furnished  by  the  counties,  except  where  a  prisoner  is 
returned  to  the  Penitentiary  for  any  infraction  of  the  rules,  or 
attempt  to  escape,  in  which  case  the  Penitentiary  stands  the  expense. 
No  armed  guards  of  any  kind  are  used  at  any  of  Colorado's  con- 
vict camps.  As  a  general  rule,  the  night  watchman  is  one  of  the 
prisoners. 

The  pay  of  the  superintendent  runs  from  $100  to  $125  per  month. 
For  assistant  foremen,  the  salary  runs  from  $75  to  $90  per  month. 

In  the  last  two  years  the  prisoners  have  constructed  a  total  of 
about  one  hundred  miles  of  road. 

Under  the  law,  the  control  of  the  convicts  is  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  the  warden  and  penitentiary  officials,  the  supervisors  and  foremen 
being  appointed  by  them,  and  this  is,  I  believe,  the  proper  method, 
as  the  prisoner  is  in  the  custody  of  the  warden,  and  the  warden  is 
responsible  for  him  during  the  term  for  which  he  is  sentenced. 

The  State  Highway  Commission  has  assisted  the  counties  and 
prison  officials  in  the  establishment  and  employment  of  the  road 


CONVICT  LABOR  IN  COLORADO  277 

camps  by  apportioning  funds  to  the  counties  for  the  construction  of 
certain  pieces  of  the  connecting  State  Highways,  and  enabling  the 
counties  to  equip  and  maintain  the  camps.  The  position  of  the 
Highway  Commission  in  connection  with  the  convict  road  construc- 
tion is  purely  advisory;  the  matter  of  the  engineering  assistance 
and  suggestions  being  made  through  the  county  commissioners, 
who  are  the  active  executives  in  dealing  with  the  warden  of  the 
Penitentiary. 

In  regard  to  the  actual  costs  of  maintenance  for  these  camps,  I 
submit  the  following  statements,  which  include  four  camps,  as 
follows : 

No.  1.  Two  camps  for  the  season  of  1913  and  1914;  No.  3.  One 
camp  from  June,  1913  to  October,  1914;  No.  4.  One  camp  during 
1913  and  1914— total  24  months. 

In  the  first  two  camps  during  1913  from  October  1912  to  July  1, 
1913,  or  ten  months,  the  total  cost  was  $6284.74  (equipment  not 
included).  The  total  number  of  days  in  that  period  of  time  was 
308.  The  total  number  of  days  worked  was  248.  The  average  cost 
of  food  per  man  per  day  was  31J  cents;  the  average  cost  per  man 
per  day  was  61J  cents;  this  includes  all  salaries,  repairs,  stock  feed, 
etc;  and  the  average  cost  per  man  per  day  actually  worked  on  the 
roads  was  77  cents.  The  average  number  of  men  in  camp  for  this 
time  was  40,  about  eight  of  these  being  used  about  the  camp.  The 
average  number  of  head  of  stock,  8;  average  cost  per  mile  of  road 
built,  $2513.89;  they  having  completed  2?  miles  of  mountain  side 
hill  work,  16  feet  in  width. 

In  this  second  camp  for  the  season  of  1914,  or  from  August  1, 
1913,  to  September  1,  1914,  being  13  months,  inclusive,  the  total 
number  of  days  was  396.  The  total  number  of  days  worked  was 
296  J.  The  average  number  of  men,  33;  the  average  number  of  head 
of  stock,  6;  the  average  cost  per  man  per  day  for  food  was  37.6  cents, 
and  the  average  total  cost  per  man  per  day  was  89.15  cents;  the  aver- 
age cost  per  mile,  $3163.60,  a  total  length  of  3.67  miles  having 
been  finished  during  the  season  at  a  total  cost  of  $11,613.96.  The 
average  cost  per  man  per  day  actually  at  work  on  road,  $1.50. 
This  includes  a  drilling  outfit,  which  cost  $2000. 

The  work  consisted  of  mountain  sidehill  and  some  very  heavy 
rock  for  about  1J  miles;  the  balance  was  earth  and  loose  rock,  moder- 
ately heavy  timber  clearing;  the  roadway  averaged  16  feet  in  width. 

In  the  third  camp,  the  work  started  June  10,  1913  and  extended 
to  October  1,  1914  inclusive,  making  a  total  of  15  months.  During 
this  time  some  6?  miles  has  been  completed,  at  a  total  cost  of 
$29,164.38.  This  includes  about  $1800  for  a  portable  drilling  plant, 
and  gives  an  average  cost  of  $4487  per  mile.  Of  this  work  about 
4  miles  is  in  heavy  rock  work,  and  about  1J  miles  in  heavy  earth 
and  gravel,  and  1  mile  of  light  earth  work. 

In  the  next  camp  the  convicts  have  been  at  work  for  the  past 
four  seasons,  and  their  work  is  mostly  in  open  prairie  country,  and 


278  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

has  consisted  -ef  a  great  deal  of  work  with  blade  graders  and  trac- 
tion engine  haul  for  the  graders,  and  also  horse  haulage  for  the 
dirt,  and  the  grading  and  scraping  machines.  The  average  number 
of  men  employed  has  been  25 ;  the  average  number  of  horses  employed 
has  been  16;  the  total  miles  of  road  improved  has  been  94;  the  total 
number  of  bridges  and  culverts  built  by  the  convicts  was  60;  and 
the  total  miles  surfaced,  61.  The  average  cost  of  this  work  to  the 
county  for  the  past  four  seasons  has  been  approximately  $1150 
per  mile,  including  bridges  and  culverts. 

In  estimating  the  comparative  value  of  the  convict  labor  as  against 
the  free  labor,  it  would  be  essential  to  have  the  yardage  moved  and 
to  have  the  classification  of  material.  As  in  the  case  where  the 
counties  do  their  work  by  day  labor,  the  engineer  does  not  always 
cross-section  the  work,  simply  placing  the  center  and  grade  stakes 
for  the  use  of  the  superintendent,  and  an  occasional  cross-section 
stake,  giving  the  width  and  general  outline. 

This,  however,  is  not  sufficient  to  fully  calculate  the  yardage  on 
any  of  these  pieces  of  work.  A  comparative  idea  may  be  had  by 
the  actual  cost  of  labor  per  day  per  man  actually  at  work  on  the 
road.  This  runs  from  77  cents  to  $1.50  per  day;  and  having  this 
figure  prepare  the  relative  efficiency  of  the  labor  as  between  the 
prisoner  and  the  ordinary  road  laborer.  I  believe  this  work  of  the 
prisoners  will  show  an  average  saving  of  about  25  per  cent  for  the 
conditions  under  which  they  have  been  worked  in  this  State.  In 
some  cases  a  much  larger  saving  than  this  is  shown,  and  in  other 
cases  the  saving  is  smaller.  In  starting  an  outfit  for  this  kind  of 
labor  many  drawbacks  will  be  encountered  at  the  beginning,  espe- 
cially in  the  selection  of  men  to  superintend  the  camp,  and  this  is 
an  important  position,  but  once  started  they  can  be  kept  running 
smoothly. 

In  conclusion,  I  can  say  that  our  experience  with  this  method  of 
employment  for  the  prisoners  committed  to  the  Penitentiary  or 
Reformatory,  has  been  entirely  satisfactory. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mr.  E.  R.  Morgan,  State  Road  Engineer  of 
Utah,  will  continue  the  discussion  on  this  paper. 

MR.  MORGAN:  You,  no  doubt,  have  observed  that  in  Mr.  Cole- 
man's  opinion  the  use  of  convict  labor  has  two  main  purposes, 
namely,  the  utilization  of  their  energy  from  an  economic  point  of 
view,  and  the  uplift  of  the  prisoner  from  a  humanitarian  point  of 
view.  The  fundamental  conception  of  the  problem  will  likely  be 
accepted  by  all.  Using  it  as  a  basis,  the  conclusion  is  justified  that 
the  system,  which  has  been  in  use  in  Virginia  and  is  yet,  at  least  to 
some  extent,  is  not  an  efficient  one,  as  it  must  be  apparent  that  a 
contractor  is  chiefly  concerned  with  the  economic  phase  of  the  ques- 
tion. It  is  probably  true  that  whatever  consideration  the  question 
of  benefit  to  the  prisoner  receives  from  the  contractor  is  incidental, 


DISCUSSION  279 

and  contingent  upon  the  pecuniary  benefit  he  is  to  get  from  the  use 
of  the  convict's  energy. 

Convict  labor  must  be  entirely  in  the  control  of  the  State  or  the 
county  concerned,  and  used  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  such  com- 
munity, and  the  convicts.  The  intention  of  the  officials  of  the 
State  of  Virginia  to  obtain  a  monetary  consideration  for  the  con- 
victs is  commendable  for,  no  doubt,  even  a  small  sum  of  money  at 
the  expiration  of  their  terms  would  tend  to  prevent  their  committing 
further  crimes  during  the  period  in  which  they  should  be  endeavoring 
to  place  themselves  on  a  self-sustaining  basis.  The  amount  of  money 
set  aside  from  the  funds  of  a  community,  county  or  other  political 
sub-division  on  account  of  services  performed  by  convicts,  should 
be  materially  increased;  part  of  it  to  be  retained  by  the  State  for 
expenses  of  prosecution,  keep,  etc. ;  part  to  be  paid  to  the  dependents 
rendered  so  by  the  crimes  committed  by  the  respective  prisoners; 
and  the  remainder  to  be  paid  to  the  prisoners  at  the  expiration  of 
their  sentences. 

As  mentioned  by  Mr.  Coleman,  there  is  no  doubt  that  convict 
labor  can  be  more  advantageously  prosecuted  if  the  convicts  are 
properly  classified.  The  classification,  however,  in  my  opinion, 
should  be  made  with  reference  to  the  character  of  the  men;  if  work- 
ing in  separate  camps  and  with  reference  to  the  kind  of  service  they 
are  capable  of  giving,  if  laboring  in  the  same  camp. 

Utah  is  yet  struggling  with  the  A  B  C's  of  convict  labor.  Never- 
theless, I  believe  that  to  note  what  we  have  done  in  this  matter  will 
be  helpful  in  the  discussion  of  the  question. 

The  Legislature  of  Utah  in  1909  enacted  a  law,  which  provided 
that  prisoners  in  the  State  prison  may  be  required  to  work  on  the 
roads  under  regulations  made  by  the  State  Board  of  Corrections. 
Boards  of  County  Commissioners  wishing  the  services  of  the  con- 
victs were  required  to  make  application  for  them  to  operate  them 
under  the  State  Board  of  Corrections  without  financial  assistance 
from  the  State  for  their  subsistance  while  at  work.  Convict  labor 
on  the  roads  in  Utah  was  hitherto  untried,  and  the  results  were 
unknown.  The  inducements  by  the  law  for  the  use  of  convicts 
on  the  roads  were  thought  to  be  small,  and  therefore,  the  law  failed. 
In  1911,  the  Legislature  enacted  a  law  giving  the  State  Road  Com- 
mission, and  the  State  Board  of  Corrections  control  of  convict  labor 
on  State  roads.  The  supervision  of  the  work  was  given  to  the  State 
Road  Commission.  Power  was  granted  to  the  State  Board  of  Par- 
dons to  give  privileges  to  convicts  who  perform  service  upon  roads, 
public  buildings  or  grounds,  especially  a  reduction  of  sentence,  con- 
ditioned upon  their  good  behavior  and  efficient  service  while  so 
employed.  Twenty  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated  for  the  use 
of  the  warden  in  the  purchase  of  camp  equipment  and  supplies, 
paying  for  the  service  of  extra  guards,  and  the  transportation  of 
men  and  camp  equipment.  There  was  also  appropriated  for  the 
use  of  the  State  Road  Commission  the  sum  of  $40,000  for  the  pur- 
chase of  construction  equipment. 


280  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

In  May  and  June  of  1911,  the  State  Road  Commission  purchased 
equipment  amounting  to  about  $15,000,  and  work  was  commenced 
in  July.  The  work  undertaken  was  a  macadam  road  in  Box  Elder 
County.  Between  40  and  50  convicts  were  employed  on  the  road. 
They  were  directed  by  a  construction  superintendent  who  was 
assisted  by  4  guards.  The  road  was  first  graded,  cobble  stones  were 
gathered  from  the  adjacent  hillsides,  crushed  and  delivered  on  to 
the  road  by  teams,  spread,  rolled  and  sprinkled,  after  which  the 
drains  were  made.  From  this  statement,  it  will  be  seen  that  a 
variety  of  service  was  rendered,  some  of  which  was  skilled.  There 
were  built  2.5  miles  of  road  at  a  cost  of  about  $2000  per  mile.  For 
camp  purposes  in  this  work,  the  use  of  a  5-acre  tract  of  land  was 
obtained.  The  kitchen,  dining  and  sleeping  tents  were  enclosed 
in  a  stockade  made  by  building  a  barbed  wire  fence,  10  feet  high, 
around  a  125-foot  square.  The  wire  was  spaced  4  inches.  The 
prisoners  were  guarded  day  and  night.  Each  line  of  fence  forming 
the  enclosure  was  illuminated  at  night  by  carbide  lights.  During 
the  operations  of  this  camp,  two  men  escaped  from  the  enclosure 
but  were  recaptured. 

In  December,  1911,  about  20  trusties  were  taken  to  Washington 
County  and  worked  until  about  the  middle  of  the  following  April, 
during  which  time,  they  were  not  guarded  closely  and  no  man  tried 
to  escape.  This  is  mentioned  in  order  that  the  progress  in  convict 
management  may  be  noted. 

In  August,  1913,  the  State  Road  Commission  more  than  doubled 
its  construction  equipment.  The  convict  camp  was  enlarged  to 
about  70  men,  and  the  construction  of  the  concrete  road  undertaken. 

The  population  at  the  Utah  State  Prison  varies  between  275  and 
300  men.  About  40  of  these  are  working  outside  the  prison  walls, 
on  the  grounds  and  farm.  In  order  to  obtain  70  other  men  who 
could  be  trusted  and  who  were  capable  of  performing  the  desired 
service,  considerable  care  and  judgment  was  required.  A  number 
of  long  term  men  including  murderers,  burglars,  and  holdups  were 
selected.  At  the  camp,  the  dining,  sleeping  and  kitchen  tents  were 
located  within  a  square  surrounded  by  a  single  smooth  wire  which 
was  illuminated  at  night  by  carbide  lights  at  diagonal  corners.  For 
the  safety  of  the  prisoners,  a  head  guard  was  made  responsible.  He 
was  assisted  at  night  by  4  guards.  The  prisoners  were  guarded  and 
directed  in  their  work  during  the  day  by  4  other  guards,  who  in  turn 
were  directed  by  the  head  guard  and  the  construction  superinten- 
dent. The  double  headed  organization  is  notable  and  objectionable 
from  the  standpoint  of  expense,  but  it  is  nevertheless  difficult  to 
obtain  guards  with  construction  ability  or  construction  superin- 
tendents who  will  assume  the  responsibility  of  convict  camp  discipline. 

Material  and  supplies  were  hauled  from  Salt  Lake  City  to  the 
road  by  convicts  a  distance  of  6  or  7  miles  without  an  accompanying 
guard,  so  it  will  be  seen  that  considerable  freedom  was  allowed  the 
prisoners. 


DISCUSSION  281 

About  4  miles  of  concrete  road  16  feet  wide  and  7  inches  thick 
were  constructed.  The  road  which  has  been  built  has  cost  about 
$8000  per  mile.  Prison  labor  has  lessened  the  cost  per  mile  from 
$1500  to  $2000. 

The  State  Board  of  Pardons  authorized  the  warden  to  allow  a 
commutation  of  sentence  of  10  days  for  every  30  days  the  prisoner 
spends  at  the  road  camp  regardless  of  whether  he  is  sick  or  whether 
the  weather  conditions  will  permit  of  the  work  being  prosecuted, 
conditioned,  however,  upon  the  faithful  observance  of  camp  rules. 
During  the  time  they  have  been  employed,  8  have  escaped  from 
camp,  5  of  which  have  been  recaptured,  a  very  enviable  record  from 
a  purely  prison  management  point  of  view. 

At  camp,  after  working  hours,  on  Sunday  and  holidays,  they  are 
permitted  to  play  ball,  pitch  horseshoes,  or  engage  in  other  recre- 
ative exercises.  About  20  good  magazines  are  furnished  regularly 
for  the  use  of  the  camp.  Daily  papers  are  allowed,  but  not  furnished. 

The  camp  at  present  is  provided  with  bathing  facilities  so  that 
every  man  may  bathe  daily  if  he  wishes  and  must  do  so  at  regular 
intervals. 

The  attitude  of  the  guards  toward  the  men  is  kind,  and  consider- 
ate. No  guard  is  allowed  to  use  profanity  when  addressing  a  con- 
vict. The  guards  and  the  construction  superintendent  instruct  the 
men  as  to  how  to  perform  the  required  service  in  a  considerate 
manner,  which  instruction  is  received  generally  in  the  same  spirit 
that  it  is  given. 

They  are  fed  plainly  but  substantially.  The  general  attitude  of 
the  men  toward  the  work  in  hand  and  the  conditions  generally  sur- 
rounding them  is  good.  They  frequently  manifest  interest  in  the 
work  and  rarely  does  discontent  spread  beyond  a  few. 

As  an  example  of  discontent  and  discipline,  the  following  was 
recently  observed.  A  number  of  teams  were  grading.  One  of  the 
drivers,  a  convict,  stopped  his  team  and  refused  to  proceed.  The 
guard  in  charge  directed  the  other  men  to  drive  their  teams  around 
his.  This  was  done  for  a  considerable  period  of  time,  after  which 
the  disgruntled  one  resumed  his  work  without  further  remark  from 
the  guard.  Had  the  convict  persisted  in  his  stubborn  attitude,  he, 
no  doubt,  would  have  been  returned  to  the  prison,  a  thing  most 
dreaded  by  one  privileged  to  perform  road  work. 

As  examples  of  interest  in  the  work,  the  following  is  mentioned: 
The  prisoner  operating  a  self-propelling  street  paver  on  the  concrete 
road,  who  by  the  way  was  incarcerated  for  taking  the  part  of  a  high- 
wayman, was  asked  how  he  was  getting  along.  The  reply  was, 
"all  right  except  my  engine  is  pounding  considerably.  I  will  fix 
it  during  part  of  my  noon  hour/'  The  concrete  mixer  man  on  the 
same  job  was  observed,  without  his  knowledge,  to  shake  his  head 
regretfully  when  he  discharged  from  the  mixer  a  batch  of  poorly 
mixed  concrete.  General  remarks  concerning  the  day's  work  are 
heard  from  time  to  time  expressing  regret  and  satisfaction  according 
to  what  was  accomplished. 


282  AMERICAN   ROAD  CONGRESS 

These  facts  are  very  important  from  a  humanitarian  point  of  view 
and  cannot  be  disregarded  when  pure  economics  are  being  considered. 

MR.  ATKINSON  (of  Louisiana):  I  would  like  to  ask  one  question; 
who  was  in  direct  charge  of  these  convicts  while  at  work?  Who 
has  the  direct  supervision  and  control? 

MR.  COLEMAN:  The  representative  of  the  Highway  Department, 
the  superintendent  or  the  engineer  appointed  by  the  Commission 
has  full  control. 

MR.  ATKINSON  :  And  the  captain  and  guards  are  under  his  orders 
and  instructions? 

MR.  COLEMAN:    Yes. 

MR.  ATKINSON  :  I  want  to  say  that  we  worked  convicts  in  Louisi- 
ana a  year  and  a  half  or  two  years,  but  the  captains  and  guards 
were  employed  by  the  Board  of  Control  and  the  engineer  in  charge 
did  not  have  direct  control  of  them,  yet,  we  got  along  nicely  and 
did  good  work;  in  fact  our  work  cost  us  under  the  convict  system 
about  50  per  cent  or  not  over  75  per  cent,  of  single  work  under 
contract,  and  it  has  been  proven  to  my  mind  that  the  system  of 
working  convicts  on  road  work  is  very  successful  and  is  a  very 
economical  way  of  building  roads.  Now  the  cost  to  maintain  these 
convicts  in  Louisiana  was  about  41  cents  per  man  per  day;  that 
includes  the  maintenance  of  convicts  and  the  guards'  salaries  and 
the  captain's  salary.  The  reason  I  asked  about  who  had  charge 
and  full  control  of  the  convicts  is  that  I  believe  we  could  have  gotten 
better  results  if  the  Engineering  Department  had  full  control  of 
convicts.  For  instance,  the  captain  may  have  3  or  4  flunkeys  to 
wait  on  him  and  members  of  the  guard  would  have  3  or  4  flunkeys 
and  out  of  40  or  50  men  there  may  be  10  or  15  idle  to  act  as  flunkeys, 
but  nevertheless  under  the  system  we  have  it  has  been  proven  to 
my  mind  that  the  convicts  can  be  worked  very  successfully  on  road 
work. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    Mr.  Johnson  of  Roswell,  New  Mexico. 

MR.  JOHNSON:  Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Highwaymen:  I  am  not 
a  highway  engineer  or  road  commissioner  but  I  have  a  bond  of 
relation  to  these  brethren.  You  heard  yesterday  of  the  system  of 
county  roads  at  Charlotte  and  in  Mecklenburg  County,  North 
Carolina.  My  wife's  father  was  the  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Road 
Commissioners  of  Mecklenburg  County  for  30  years  and  built  the 
first  mile  of  their  macadam  road,  which  was  the  first  mile  of  macadam 
road  built  in  the  South,  so  while  I  have  no  claim  to  a  relationship 
directly,  I  have  by  marriage.  I  am  a  minister  of  the  gospel;  forced 


DISCUSSION  283 

some  years  ago  to  give  up  the  work  of  an  active  city  pastorate  in 
Chicago  by  a  nervous  breakdown  and  compelled  to  live  outdoors. 
I  found  more  outdoors  in  New  Mexico  than  anywhere  else  and  have 
lived  there  for  the  last  several  years,  and  being  unable  to  take  up 
the  active  work  of  a  pastorate,  I  have  given  the  most  of  my  energies 
to  promoting  the  gospel  of  good  roads.     We  have  called  upon  the 
United  States  government  to  help  us  out  of  the  mud.     We  have 
appealed  to  the  boys  and  girls  of  our  high  schools  to  help  us.     We 
are  now  getting  the  cooperation  of  the  ladies  and  I  tell  you  it  is  time 
to  ask  the  ministers  and  priests  of  this   country  to  enlist  in  this 
campaign  for  good  roads.     Does  not  the  Good  Book  say  to  make 
the  crooked  straight  and  the  high  places  low  and  the  low  places  high 
and  to  make  smooth  the  way  of  the  Lord?    It  is  time  that  we  inter- 
preted that  rightly.     Does  it  not  say  that  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being  in  Him?    Well,  the  moving  is  pretty  tough  in  some  places 
and  therefore  good  roads  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  religion. 
I  want  to  speak  in  support  of  two  of  the  resolutions  adopted  here 
today  and  in  the  first  place  I  want  to  show  you  some  apples.     These 
apples  were  grown  a  few  miles  west  of  Roswell,  New  Mexico,  in  the 
White  Mountains,  at  an  elevation  of  5750  feet.     It  is  25  miles  from 
the  orchard  to  the  nearest  shipping  point.     The  United  States  gov- 
ernment has  established  the  Lincoln  National  Forest  there,  has  with- 
drawn the  area  from  settlement  and  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  tax 
it  to  build  roads,  and  those  apples  have  to  be  hauled  most  of  the 
25  miles  over  federalized  areas.      Now  I  am  feeding  apples  like 
these  to  the  hogs  out  in  Lincoln  County,  because  the  United  States 
government  has  not  thus  far  lifted  a  finger  to  improve  the  roads 
across  its  own  land.     Federal  aid  in  our  county  means  something, 
but  it  does  not  mean  what  it  means  in  this  convention.     It  means 
that  we  frontiersmen  out  in  New  Mexico  have  to  aid  the  United 
States  government  to  make  the  roads.     Last  summer  I  took  my  car 
and  three  men  and  went  and  fixed  the  impossible  places  on  Uncle 
Sam's  domain  in  the  Lincoln  National  Forest  on  my  way  to  my 
market  and  shipping  point,  and  I  then  went  over  to  the  next  county 
— I  am  set  behind  and  before  by  the  government ;  on  one  side  is  this 
Lincoln  National  Forest  and  on  the  other  the  Indian  reservation — 
and  I  went  over  to  O'Terrell  County  and  asked  the  National  Com- 
missioner if  they  would  fix  up  the  worst  places  on  the  Indian  reser- 
vation.    It  is  the  worst  piece  of  road  on  the  Southern  National 
Highway  which  crosses  it  from  here  clear  across  to  Santiago,  and 
we  have  been  trying  for  two  years  to  get  the  government  to  appro- 
priate the  money  to  fix  that  road  and  they  would  not  do  it.     So 
I  went  over  to  0 Terrell  County  got  $1000  of  their  county  road 
tax  and  fixed  that  place  on  Uncle  Sam's  Indian  reservation.     That 
is  federal  aid  in  my  county.      You  have  adopted  a  resolution  in 
which  you  have  joined  us  in  trying  to  get  the  United  States  govern- 
ment to  fix  up  the  federalized  areas.     There  are  over  200,000,000 
acres  of  land  withdrawn  from  settlement  in  the  United  States,  mostly 


284  AMERICAN   ROAD  CONGRESS 

in  the  West,  for  Indian  reservations,  forest  reserves  and  other  federal 
purposes.  You  can  go  halfway  across  the  350  miles  east  and  west 
across  New  Mexico,  on  those  federalized  areas,  and  two-thirds  of 
the  way  across  the  State  of  Arizona  on  them,  and  if  you  take  the 
map  of  the  United  States  and  look  at  those  colored  areas  which 
show  you  how  much  of  the  great  West  has  been  withdrawn  from 
entry  for  federal  purposes,  you  will  see  that  the  adoption  of  that 
resolution,  if  it  is  carried  into  effect,  will  mean  the  building  of  thou- 
sands of  miles  of  road  that  are  needed  on  these  great  through  routes 
to  get  yonder  to  the  Pacific  Coast  and  on  to  the  wonderland  of 
America,  and  I  want  you,  when  you  go  home,  to  take  these  resolu- 
tions, blue  pencil  them  and  send  them  to  your  representative  in 
Washington  and  ask  them  to  help  us  to  develop  the  great  West 
by  getting  appropriations  to  build  those  roads.  There  is  another 
point  I  want  to  emphasize  in  this  stretch  of  five  minutes;  I  listened 
here  to  that  magnificent  address  of  Senator  Hoke  Smith ;  I  listened  to 
that  splendid  address  of  the  President  of  the  Southern  Railway 
pleading  for  the  market  roads  from  the  farm  to  the  nearest  market 
or  shipping  point;  gentlemen,  that  is  true  of  one-half  of  the  United 
States,  but  you  may  draw  a  line  from  Winnipeg  down  to  Bismark, 
North  Dakota,  North  Platte,  Nebraska;  Amarillo,  Texas;  and  San 
Antonio  to  Corpus  Christi,  and  your  map  will  show  you  that  one- 
half  the  area  of  the  United  States  lies  west  of  that  line  and  the 
other  half  east.  You  can  call  the  eastern  half  the  leaky  half  of  the 
United  States,  because  it  rains  so  much  and  agriculture  is  the  main 
interest;  but  the  western  part  is  the  arid  or  semi-arid  West.  There 
are  indeed  exceptions,  there  are  magnificent  valleys  like  the  one 
in  which  Roswell  is  located,  with  its  600  artesian  wells.  We  have 
intensive  cultivation  of  the  soil,  vast  alfalfa  fields,  orchards  of  apples 
like  these,  40  miles  long  and  a  dozen  miles  wide,  but  speaking  gen- 
erally, about  one-half  of  the  United  States  depends  on  mining,  upon 
the  live  stock  industry  and  upon  the  presence  of  the  health  seekers 
and  the  tourists  for  its  prosperity.  That  happens  to  be  that  great 
West  and  we  are  vitally  interested  in  these  great  through  routes 
that  will  open  up  the  lines  of  communication  between  the  older  part 
of  the  country  that  we  call  our  home.  We  want  these  through  routes 
that  the  people  may  come  and  see  and  get  well  and  help  us  develop 
the  magnificent  boundless  resources  of  our  great  West.  We  say 
that  the  United  States  is  looking  at  this  proposition  with  one  eye 
when  it  ought  to  look  at  it  with  both  eyes.  When  we  find  that  the 
United  States  Office  of  Public  Roads  is  simply  a  branch  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  we  say  that  the  Office  of  Public  Roads  should 
be  a  department  by  itself  and  we  should  have  the  through  routes 
that  are  as  essential  to  the  development  of  our  great  country  as  it 
is  that  the  farmer  should  have  his.  We  want  you  to  have  your 
roads,  that  is  the  thing  for  Georgia  and  Iowa  and  the  farming  States, 
but  we  want  you  to  help  us  to  get  our  roads  that  are  vital  to  the 
development  of  our  country.  Gentlemen  I  thank  you. 


DISCUSSION  285 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  Committee  on  Resolutions  desire  to  make 
a  report,  after  which  we  will  take  a  recess  until  2  p.m. 

Mr.  W.  Tom  Winn,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions, 
presented  the  following  resolutions  which  were,  on  motion,  adopted. 

FEDERAL   COOPERATION 

Resolved,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  emphatically  endorse 
the  principle  of  federal  cooperation  toward  the  construction  of 
main  highways  and  thus  assist  the  several  States  to  build  the  main 
market  roads  in  the  one-half  of  the  country  which  is  devoted  to 
agriculture — and  to  build  through  main  roads  in  the  one-half  of  the 
country  which  is  not  predominantly  agricultural,  but  whose  pros- 
perity depends  upon  mining,  the  raising  of  live  stock,  and  the  pres- 
ence of  the  health  seeker  and  tourist. 

STATE   HIGHWAY   COMMISSIONS 

WHEREAS,  The  American  Road  Congress  believes  in  and  has  long 
urged  all  States  to  enact  uniform  road  legislation,  and 

WHEREAS,  Experience  has  abundantly  demonstrated  that  effici- 
ency and  economy  are  not  obtained  in  the  construction  and  upkeep 
of  main  roads,  except  by  the  cooperation  of  the  States  through  skilled 
departments,  and 

WHEREAS,  Forty  of  the  forty-eight  States  have  enacted  State 
legislation;  Georgia,  Indiana,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Tenn- 
essee, Arkansas,  Florida  and  Texas,  being  the  exceptions,  and 

WHEREAS,  Federal  aid  and  cooperation  is  near  at  hand,  and  it  is 
probable  that  States  having  no  highway  departments  will  be  unable 
to  participate  in  such  aid,  therefore  be  it, 

Resolved,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  in  annual  convention 
assembled  in  the  city  of  Atlanta  embracing  several  thousand  dele- 
gates representing  every  State,  reaffirm  its  belief  that  State  Road 
Departments  and  State  Aid  are  essential  to  secure  efficiency  and 
economy,  and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  copies  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  the  governors 
of  all  States  and  to  their  various  highway  officials  and  that  they  be 
urged  to  promptly  commend  such  laws  to  the  legislatures  in  their 
respective  States. 

LINCOLN  HIGHWAY 

Resolved,  That  the  Lincoln  Highway  Association  be  commended 
for  its  successful  voluntary  effort  in  arranging  with  counties,  cities 
and  townships  for  a  connected  series  of  roads  across  the  United 
States,  thus  providing  a  definite  and  continuous  route  to  be  used 
wholly  or  in  part  by  those  who  wish  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
agricultural,  mining  and  scenic  advantages  of  their  own  land. 


286  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

« 

PUBLIC   SAFETY 

Resolved,  That  the  American  Road  Congress  deplore  the  frequent 
accidents  on  the  public  highways  and  urge  upon  the  various  highway 
officials  or  other  authorities  throughout  the  United  States  the  enact- 
ment of  the  necessary  rules  and  regulations  to  insure  the  public 
safety. 

ROADS  IN  FEDERAL  RESERVATIONS 

Resolved,  That  the  federal  government  be  urged  to  build  high- 
ways across  all  Indian  and  forest  reservations  and  all  other  feder- 
alized  areas,  where  such  connecting  links  are  essential  parts  of 
established  through  routes  of  travel. 

COURTESIES 

Resolved,  That  the  sincere  thanks  of  the  American  Road  Congress 
be  extended  to  the  State  of  Georgia,  the  county  of  Fulton,  the  city 
of  Atlanta  and  to  the  public  press  for  their  active  cooperation,  gen- 
erous hospitality,  and  assistance  generally  in  making  this  the  most 
successful  Road  Congress. 

November  12,  2  P.  M. 
DR.  JOSEPH  HYDE  PRATT,  CHAIRMAN 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  first  paper  on  the  program  this  afternoon 
is  "Road  Work  by  the  Army,"  by  Major  Amos  A.  Fries,  U.S.A. 

ROAD  WORK  BY  THE  ARMY 

MAJOR  AMOS  A.  FRIES 
Corps  of  Engineers,  U.S.A . 

This  subject  might  be  construed  in  two  different  ways;  first,  by 
the  builder,  as  referring  to  the  construction  of  roads,  and  second, 
by  the  man  on  foot,  as  referring  to  the  use  made  of  the  roads.  This 
last  view  is  the  one  army  men  will  appreciate  most.  To  the  weary 
soldier  carrying  his  bed,  board,  and  weapons,  the  road  he  is  travel- 
ling over  is  a  matter  of  supreme  importance.  This  importance 
arises  both  from  a  consideration  of  his  own  personal  comfort,  and 
from  his  ability  or  inability,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  get  into  a  favor- 
able position  for  battle. 

Rapid  marching  has  saved  the  lives  of  many  soldiers,  and  won 
many  battles.  Napoleon  in  his  many  campaigns  was  the  first  great 
exemplar  of  this  fact,  and  an  able  example  of  it  in  our  own  day  was 
Stonewall  Jackson's  Shenandoah  Valley  campaign  in  1862.  Indeed, 
the  Civil  War  furnished  many  examples  of  rapid  marches  that  vitally 
influenced  the  fortunes  of  battles. 


ROAD   WORK   BY  THE  ARMY  287 

And  just  recently  we  have  had  some  very  brilliant  exhibitions  of 
rapid  marching  in  the  European  War  now  in  progress.  The  advance 
of  the  Germans  through  Belgium  almost  to  the  gates  of  Paris,  as 
well  as  their  later  retreat  to  the  line  now  held  by  them  furnished 
a  brilliant  example  of  two  things:  thorough  preparation  beforehand, 
and  the  rapid  movement  of  very  large  armies.  This  was  true  not 
only  of  the  German  armies,  but  of  the  French,  English  and  Belgians, 
both  in  retreat  and  on  the  offensive. 

Without  good  roads  such  rapid  movements  of  vast  armies  would 
have  been  impossible.  And  thus  again  we  see  another  example  of 
how  the  arts  of  peace  aid  in  the  prosecution  of  war,  or  perhaps  we 
ought  to  put  it  the  other  way,  how  the  arts  of  war  make  for  comfort 
in  peace.  Why?  Because  the  first  great  builders  of  roads — the 
Romans — developed  the  art  for  the  very  purpose  of  moving  their 
armies  rapidly  to  any  threatened  frontier,  and  it  was  from  them 
that  the  English,  French  and  Germans  got  their  first  lessons,  and 
their  inspiration  for  good  roads.  And  here  we  come  to  a  truth 
that  all  we  universal  peace  advocates — which  all  true  army  men 
are — must  bear  in  mind,  that  is,  that  almost  every  art  that  makes 
for  progress  and  comfort  in  peace  has  its  uses  in  war.  This  is  as 
true  of  powder  as  of  roads,  of  tempered  steel  as  of  the  clothing  we 
wear  on  our  backs.  And  until  we  can  persuade  the  other  fellow  to 
abandon  all  thought  of  their  use  for  war,  we  must  continue  to  plan 
and  prepare  to  use  them  ourselves  in  self  defense,  or  else  bow  to  the 
man  who  does  use  them  for  war  purposes.  Perhaps  you  think  the 
statement  that  all  true  army  men  are  for  universal  peace  a  case  of 
poetic  license,  but  most  assuredly  it  is  not. 

The  most  advanced  teachers  who  are  fighting  the  vices  that  cor- 
rupt and  kill,  including  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors,  depejid  upon 
instilling  into  the  mind,  particularly  of  the  young,  the  horrors  of 
succumbing  to  the  vices  they  are  attacking.  Is  it  any  wonder 
then  that  the  army  man  with  a  loving  wife  and  children  is  for  peace, 
when  all  his  study  and  observation  impress  upon  him  the  hell  that 
war  is.  But  slavery,  to  an  independent  man,  is  a  worse  hell  than 
war,  and  so  the  army  man  prepares  for  war  hoping  it  may  never 
come,  but  with  the  feeling  that  if  the  time  should  come  when  his 
country's  freedom  is  menaced  he  can  strike  a  telling  blow  for  home 
and  fireside. 

This  is  a  good  deal  of  a  digression  from  "  Road  Work  in  the  Army," 
yet  we  all  need  once  in  a  while  to  stop  and  realize  how  much  our 
works  built  during  peace  for  peaceful  purposes  will  aid  us  to  repel 
aggression  in  war,  providing  we  are  prepared  for  war,  or  if  we  are  not 
prepared  how  much  the  same  works  may  aid  an  enemy  in  over- 
coming us. 

Road  work  in  the  army!  No  attempt  will  be  made  to  outline  the 
history  of  such  work,  as  this  was  done  in  an  able  manner  by  Colonel 
Spencer  Cosby,  of  the  Corps  of  Engineers,  in  an  address  delivered 
before  the  Second  American  Road  Congress,  held  at  Atlantic  City, 


288  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

New  Jersey,  October  4,  1912,  and  published  in  the  proceedings  of 
that  Congress,  and  in  the  Professional  Memoirs,  Corps  of  Engineers, 
U.  S.  Army,  for  July  and  August,  1914. 

Briefly  then,  the  army,  and  particularly  the  Corps  of  Engineers, 
has  been  engaged  upon  various  classes  of  road  work  from  the  very 
beginning  of  our  national  life.  These  roads  have  varied  from  the 
crudest  trails  constructed  under  fire  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy 
to  some  of  the  finest  roads  and  streets  constructed  anywhere  in 
the  country.  Roads  built  by  army  men  are  found  all  over  the 
United  States,  and  our  foreign  possessions — in  the  tropics,  in  Cuba, 
the  Philippines  and  Panama,  in  the  frozen  North  in  Alaska,  in  the 
lowlands  of  our  coast,  and  in  the  mountains  of  Yellowstone  Park. 

As  the  writer  is  at  present  in  charge  of  road  work  in  Yellowstone 
Park  it  is  believed  a  brief  discussion  of  that  work  will  prove  inter- 
esting, since  the  conditions  of  work  are  unique,  due  to  the  high 
altitude  of  the  park,  and  its  location  in  the  midst  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  right  in  the  path  of  the  storms  that,  starting  from  Alaska 
sweep  first  southward,  and  thence  eastward  across  the  United  States, 
only  to  disappear  in  the  storm-lashed  Atlantic. 

To  begin  with,  there  are  the  tourists — God  bless  them — who 
alone  make  roads  in  the  park  a  necessity,  and  who  are,  to  say  the 
least,  an  awful  nuisance  to  working  parties,  and  the  cause  of  a  great 
increase  in  cost  in  many  classes  of  construction.  This  arises  from 
the  fact  that  the  best,  and  in  many  cases,  about  the  only  work- 
ing season,  coincides  with  the  tourist  season.  Then  too,  there  are 
no  automobiles,  no  railroads  and  no  trolleys  to  facilitate  and  cheapen 
the  supply  and  distribution  of  materials,  and  for  hauling  away 
excavated  material  of  all  kinds.  Here  the  horse  is  supreme!  mules, 
even,  being  rare. 

Every  State  has  its  own  problems  in  road  construction,  as  is 
proper,  but  Yellowstone  Park,  being  a  national  institution,  would 
appear  to  have  them  all,  which,  while  it  may  be  proper  all  right, 
is  most  disconcerting  to  the  engineer  trying  to  build  and  maintain 
roads.  Since  without  money  there  would  be  no  road  problems,  and 
since  Congress  is  the  source  from  which  money  for  Yellowstone 
Park  comes,  we  will  begin  there. 

The  Congressional  problem  arises  from  fiscal  year  appropriations; 
that  is,  the  money  becomes  available  July  1st,  if  appropriated  be- 
fore that  date,  and  if  not,  then,  from  the  date  of  the  appropriation, 
and  must  be  spent  by  June  30th  the  following  year  or  revert  to  the 
Treasury.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  a  year  is  a  year  whether 
beginning  in  January  or  July,  but  circumstances,  like  everything 
else  in  the  park,  are  extraordinary.  There  are  few  places  where 
4  feet  of  snow  will  fall  in  three  or  four  days  only  to  be  washed  away 
by  24  to  36  hours  of  violent  thunder  showers,  and  yet  that  is  what 
happened  September  12  to  20,  this  year. 

One  year  the  spring  will  be  early,  and  work  can  be  begun  over 
most  of  the  park  in  May  and  last  into  November,  and  the  next  work 


ROAD   WORK   BY   THE   ARMY  289 

can  only  be  carried  on  at  a  few  places  before  June  30,  and  may  be 
stopped  entirely  early  in  October.  At  the  best  the  winters  are 
long  and  cold,  and  thus  the  second  problem  is  what  really  makes  a 
problem  of  fiscal  year  appropriations.  Where  work  can  be  carried 
on  for  six  months  one  year  and  only  three  the  next  one  needs  to  be 
an  Isaiah  to  tell  what  to  do.  If,  as  occasionally  happens,  the  appro- 
priation is  made  later  than  July  1st,  the  season  is  shortened  just 
that  much  more.  That  was  what  happened  this  year,  the  season 
being  shortened  almost  six  weeks,  and  it  has  been  even  worse  on  some 
previous  occasions. 

If  appropriations  were  made  available  until  spent  the  amounts 
unexpended  during  a  short  season  could  be  carried  over  into  a  longer 
one  with  great  economy.  As  it  is  now,  the  engineer  must  push 
work  in  short  seasons  in  bad  weather  when  highly  efficient  work  is 
impossible,  or  else  turn  most  of  his  appropriation  back. 

Once  again,  the  winters  are  long  and  hard,  and  are  usually  ac- 
companied with  very  heavy  snow-fall  over  nearly  all  portions  of  the 
park.  In  the  higher  altitudes  the  ground  begins  to  freeze  the  last  of 
September,  and  is  often  not  completely  thawed  out  until  late  in  June 
of  the  following  year. 

As  in  all  mountain  roads  grades  are  fairly  frequent,  and  while 
kept  to  the  minimum  in  the  park  there  are  quite  a  number  of  6  and 
8  per  cent  ones,  with  many  of  lesser  degree.  Due  to  the  heavy 
freighting  in  the  fall  and  again  early  in  the  spring  the  snow  in  the 
middle  of  the  road  is  packed  down  and  melted  first,  thus  causing 
most  of  the  water  to  run  down  the  middle  of  the  road — a  frequent 
cause  of  serious  injury  to  the  natural  soil  surfaces  that  predominate 
throughout  the  park. 

The  tourist  season  lasts  from  June  15  to  September  20,  and  this 
corresponds  to  the  best  working  season,  and  in  many  years  to  the 
entire  working  season.  The  travel  is  heavy  even  in  poor  years, 
which  naturally  interferes  greatly  with  the  improvement  of  existing 
roads.  For  instance,  every  bridge  rebuilt  requires  that  it  be  con- 
structed at  a  site  different  from  the  old  one,  or  else  that  a  temporary 
bridge  be  built  so  teams  can  get  around  it.  In  fact,  all  road  work 
must  be  carried  on  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  tourist  coaches, 
and  since  only  horses  are  used,  and  many  grades  are  steep,  with  deep 
canyons  on  one  side,  and  mountains  or  walls  of  rock  on  the  other, 
extreme  care  must  be  used  with  all  machinery  and  tools  that  might 
frighten  the  animals.  In  most  places  this  means  night  work  with 
road  rollers  and  similar  machinery,  or  the  abandonment  altogether 
of  their  use. 

Tourists  make  park  roads  necessary,  and  they  being  mostly  natural 
born  Americans  have  the  right  to  kick  if  things  are  not  satisfactory, 
and  many  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity.  It  was  for  this 
reason  that  some  years  ago  the  government  began  sprinkling  the 
main  traveled  roads,  and  of  course  once  begun  it  has  had  to  be  con- 
tinued. And  it  is  right  too,  but  nevertheless  it  is  quite  a  problem 


290  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

to  sprinkle  100  to  130  miles  of  roads,  and  do  it  efficiently  on  $15,000 
to  $18,000  per  year. 

If  anyone  doubts  the  propriety  of  sprinkling  let  him  follow  a 
long  line  of  coaches  over  some  hill  that  is  not  sprinkled,  and  if  he  isn't 
converted  it  can  only  be  because  he  is  so  optimistic  or  angelic  that 
his  days  on  earth  are  numbered. 

Oil  has  been  under  consideration  as  a  dust  preventive  for  some 
time,  and  has  been  tried  a  little  the  past  summer,  but  arrange- 
ments to  do  the  oiling  were  completed  very  late  and  only  3  miles  of 
road  were  oiled.  That  3  miles,  however,  indicated  quite  clearly 
that  results  will  not  justify  the  cost  unless  the  roads  are  shaped  and 
rolled  hard  just  before  oiling.  Early  next  spring  some  gravel  mac- 
adam will  be  given  an  oil  and  broken  stone  finish  so  as  to  form 
an  oil  macadam  by  the  penetration  process. 

As  discussed  later  the  high  cost  of  freight,  both  outside  the  park 
by  rail,  and  inside  the  park  by  animal  drawn  freight  wagons  makes 
oiling  very  expensive  as  a  general  proposition.  And  as  if  cold  weather 
late  in  the  spring  and  early  in  the  fall  were  not  bad  enough  the 
rapid  evaporation  caused  by  an  atmospheric  pressure  of  about  11J 
pounds  per  square  inch  reduces  penetration,  and  may  make  advis- 
able the  use  of  a  lighter  oil  than  has  been  found  best  for  road  work 
in  localities  comparatively  near  sea  level.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
oil  will  work  successfully  on  roads  in  the  park,  though  experiment 
alone  will  determine  the  best  kind  of  oil  to  use. 

As  found  out  in  other  localities  oil  on  any  but  macadam  of  some 
sort  is  at  best  only  a  temporary  expedient,  and  this  brings  us  to 
another  serious  park  road  problem. 

The  ancient  mariner  sang:  " Water,  water  everywhere  and  not  a 
drop  to  drink,"  but  the  park  engineer  sighs  and  says:  "Rock,  rock 
everywhere  and  hardly  a  stone  fit  for  road  surfacing."  This  is 
scarcely  conceivable  in  the  heart  of  the  Rockies,  but  it  is  a  sad  truth 
nevertheless.  There  are  long  stretches  of  road  where  no  good  rock 
is  found,  and  where  reasonably  good  gravel  is  almost  unknown. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  a  few  places  where  there  are  unlimited 
amounts  of  good  stone,  but  without  power  vehicles  of  some  sort  the 
cost  of  freighting  metal  more  than  a  couple  of  miles  is  prohibitive. 

The  next  problem  is  the  large  force  of  engineers,  overseers,  la- 
borers and  teams  and  the  excessive  amount  of  plant  required,  con- 
sidering the  funds  available,  all  caused  by  a  very  short  working 
season.  Every  construction  engineer  knows  that  a  new  crew  works 
at  barely  50  per  cent  efficiency  for  the  first  week  or  two,  and  if  the 
crew  puts  in  only  seven  or  eight  weeks  the  cost  takes  another  jump. 
Furthermore,  unless  wages  considerably  above  those  ordinarily 
paid  outside  are  offered  few  good  men  can  be  induced  to  come  into 
the  park,  and  up  goes  the  cost  another  notch. 

The  park  proper  is  almost  three  times  as  large  as  the  State  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  has  very  nearly  300  miles  of  roads,  of  which 
265  may  be  called  main  lines.  Besides  these  there  are  approxi- 


ROAD   WORK   BY   THE   ARMY  291 

t 

mately  100  miles  of  roads  in  the  Forest  Reserve  east  and  south  of 
the  park  that  are  more  or  less  improved,  and  maintained  as  a  part 
of  the  park  system. 

Supervision  becomes  a  serious  problem,  and  as  the  appropria- 
tions allow  of  the  carrying  over  of  only  a  small  force  through  the 
long  winters  second  grade  foremen  and  overseers  must  be  taken, 
or  considerably  higher  wages  than  those  paid  elsewhere  must  be 
offered  as  an  inducement  to  good  men  to  come  for  the  summer, 
and  even  then  the  lack  of  steady  employment  deters  the  great 
majority. 

As  previously  stated,  nearly  all  machinery  is  handled  by  teams, 
and  as  there  is  neither  forage  nor  food  to  be  had  in  the  park  all 
men  and  animals  must  be  subsisted,  and  as  freight  is  slow  and  ex- 
pensive the  question  of  supply  alone  is  a  very  live  issue.  The  govern- 
ment freight  rate  in  the  park  is  26.8  cents  per  ton  mile,  and  as  the 
average  distance  from  railroad  connections  to  working  points  is 
50  miles  the  cost  for  freight  alone  on  materials,  food  products  and 
forage  used  in  the  park  is  approximately  $13.40  per  ton.  Rail- 
road freight  rates  outside  the  park  are  high,  due  partly  to  the  lack 
of  both  rail  and  water  competition,  but  more  to  the  distance  of  the 
park  from  centers  of  manufacture  and  commerce,  the  least  distance 
to  such  centers  being  about  1000  miles. 

As  mentioned  briefly  early  in  this  article  the  exclusive  use  of  ani- 
mal transportation  in  the  park  has  made  the  use  of  gasoline  or 
steam  driven  machinery  difficult,  and  except  for  minor  items  the  use 
of  power  driven  machinery  and  vehicles  during  the  tourist  season 
has  to  be  confined  to  the  night  time.  While  this  increases  the 
cost  somewhat  it  is  the  belief  of  the  writer  that  the  use  of  such 
machinery  and  vehicles  should  be  increased,  even  if  all  have  to  be 
operated  at  night. 

Unless  motor-propelled  vehicles  are  allowed  in  the  park  the  cost 
of  freighting  cannot  be  materially  reduced,  and  this  brings  up  an- 
other question  of  great  interest  to  the  general  public  and  to  those 
engaged  in  the  business  of  feeding  and  transporting  tourists  in  the 
park — that  is — whether  automobiles  shall  be  allowed  to  use  the  park, 
or  whether  it  shall  continue  to  be  kept  exclusively  for  the  use  of 
animal  drawn  vehicles.  As  this  is  not  an  engineering  question  it 
will  not  be  gone  into  further  than  to  say  that  there  are  strong  argu- 
ments on  both  sides,  as  anyone  will  find  who  studies  the  question 
deeply. 

The  original  idea  of  the  park  was  to  keep  it  as  nearly  in  its  natural 
state  as  possible,  and  many  feel  that  motor  propelled  vehicles  would 
aid  in  destroying  this  primitive  condition.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  greater  speed  and  comfort  in  traveling  in  automobiles, 
besides  the  possibility  of  accommodating  a  greater  number  of  tour- 
ists. However,  it  is  questionable  whether  the  decreased  cost  in 
transportation  by  automobiles  over  that  for  animal  drawn  vehicles 
will  be  a  great  inducement  to  the  traveling  public,  since  the  greatest 


292  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

cost  to  the  average  tourist  is  the  railroad  expenses  incurred  in  going 
to  and  returning  from  the  park. 

The  total  spent  on  the  roads  in  the  park  is  $2,425,315.00,  of  which 
less  then  $3,500  per  mile  is  for  construction,  the  remainder  being  for 
maintenance.  As  park  work  began  over  thirty  years  ago,  and  as 
the  roads  have  been  kept  open  for  traffic  all  that  time  the  cost  is 
reasonable  for  the  character  of  the  country  through  which  the  roads 
have  been  constructed.  There  are  a  number  of  difficult  sections 
where  the  cost  per  mile  has  been  many  times  the  average,  this  of 
course  being  made  up  for  in  less  difficult  country.  Another  factor 
that  must  be  kept  in  mine  is  that  the  appropriations  at  first  were 
very  small,  and  in  order  to  build  roads  to  reach  the  different  points 
of  interest  they  had  to  be  built  in  the  cheapest  manner,  which  usually 
consisted  in  cutting  out  trees  and  brush,  removing  boulders  and 
building  bridges.  Grades  are  often  very  steep,  and  when  money 
became  available  for  better  construction  these  earlier  roads  had  to  be 
abandoned,  and  of  course  the  money  spent  on  them  was  lost,  except 
that  the  public  had  the  use  of  the  old  roads  during  their  existence, 
and  were  thus  enabled  to  see  the  park,  where  otherwise  they  could 
not  have  done  so. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  present  road  system  is  ex- 
cellent, and  the  original  cost  moderate,  credit  for  this  being  due 
mainly  to  two  prominent  engineer  officers  of  the  army,  Gen.  Dan 
C.  Kingman,  Chief  of  Engineers,  and  Gen.  H.  M.  Chittenden, 
retired.  To  General  Kingman  is  due  the  credit  for  originating  the 
idea  of  constructing  a  belt  line  road  to  connect  the  various  points 
of  interest,  and  afford  means  for  making  a  complete  circuit  of  the 
interesting  points  without  traveling  over  more  than  a  few  miles  of 
road  the  second  time.  In  the  four  years  General  Kingman  was  in 
charge  of  the  park  roads,  1883  to  1887,  appropriations  were  small, 
but  the  system  was  started,  and  later  ably  carried  into  execution  by 
Gen.  H.  M.  Chittenden. 

The  roads  as  built  were  surfaced  with  the  natural  material,  such 
as  gravel,  earth,  or  rock  nearest  at  hand,  and  in  general  they  have 
served  their  purpose  well. 

As  the  park  furnishes  some  of  the  most  unique  classes  of  scenery 
found  anywhere  in  the  world,  and  certainly  in  the  United  States, 
and  as  it  is  a  magnificent  summer  resort  the  time  seems  to  have  ar- 
rived when  the  government  can  afford  to  spend  such  sums  as  may  be 
necessary  to  make  the  main  roads  at  least  into  first-class  highways. 

This  is  entirely  outside  of  the  question  whether  the  roads  shall  be 
used  for  automobiles  or  be  continued  for  animal  drawn  vehicles 
only,  since  in  either  case  the  roads  should  be  first-class.  The  cost 
will  be  considerable  for  the  reasons  before  mentioned,  though  judg- 
ing from  past  results  this  cost  will  not  be  so  very  much  more  than 
for  the  same  class  of  roads  in  localities  where  nearly  everything  that 
is  difficult  to  obtain  in  the  park  is  close  at  hand.  In  this  connection 
it  should  be  said  that  Congress  has  been  liberal  in  recent  years, 


ROAD    WORK    BY   THE   ARMY  293 

and  is  showing  a  desire  to  put  the  roads  in  first-class  condition  as 
fast  as  funds  can  be  spared  from  the  national  treasury. 

The  study  of  how  best  to  expend  these  funds  is  an  interesting  and 
serious  one,  and  is  being  prosecuted  with  as  much  speed  as  natural 
conditions  warrant.  The  park  to  any  one  who  has  not  seen  it  is  a 
revelation,  and  as  it  is  a  national  institution  it  would  seem  proper 
for  the  writer  to  urge  all  those  who  have  not  seen  it  to  do  so  at  their 
earliest  convenience,  though  the  roads  may  not  yet  be  the  boule- 
vards that  are  found  in  city  parks  throughout  the  country. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  come  now  to  a  subject  that  is  one  of  the 
most  important  in  highway  work,  and  that  is,  the"  question  of  con- 
tract work.  The  first  paper  is  by  John  J.  Ryan,  Secretary,  New 
York  State  Road  Builders'  Association.  Mr.  Ryan  is  unable  to  be 
present  and  has  delegated  the  reading  of  the  paper  to  Mr.  T.  Hugh 
Boorman,  a  highway  engineer  of  New  York,  and  a  delegate  appointed 
by  Governor  Glynn.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Mr.  Boor- 
man, of  New  York. 

MR.  BOORMANN  :  I  believe  that  the  time  has  about  arrived  when 
we  shall  have,  as  they  have  in  France,  a  Federal  supervision  of  roads. 
It  is,  to  my  mind,  the  one  safe  and  proper  way  of  attaining  what 
this  country  should  have,  as  we  have,  thank  God,  everything  else 
of  the  very  best.  In  reading  this  paper  from  Mr.  Ryan,  I  wish  to 
state  that  Governor  Glynn  and  Mrs.  Glynn  both  would  have  been 
very  glad  to  have  been  with  you.  Governor  Glynn  has  done  ex- 
cellent work  during  the  short  time  that  he  has  been  the  chief  mag- 
istrate of  the  State,  and  it  is  worthy  of  much  commendation.  This 
question  of  convict  labor  he  has  taken  up  with  excellent  results. 
After  these  preliminary  remarks  I  will  get  to  the  subject  of  Con- 
tract Work.  I  may  say  that  here  I  am  especially  interested,  be- 
cause this  paper  is  on  the  line  of  what  I  claim  are  constructors  and 
not  contractors.  Any  old  bootblack  can  become  a  contractor; 
any  fellow  that  has  failed  in  the  shoe  business  or  even  in  the  pulpit 
can  become  a  contractor  and  lay  cement  sidewalks  and  patent 
pavements,  but,  as  you  will  hear  from  Mr.  Ryan's  lips,  he  is  a  de- 
scendant of  constructors;  you  will  hear  his  views,  in  which  I  entirely 
coincide.  He  uses  the  word  throughout,  "real  contractors,"  when 
I  should  put  "constructors."  I  think  you  will  see  that  the  term 
"constructors"  is  really  the  more  applicable. 


294  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

POSSIBLE  LINES  OF  IMPROVEMENT  IN  HIGHWAY 
CONTRACT  WORK 

BY  JOHN  J.  RYAN 

Secretary,  New  York  State  Road  Builders  Association 

Real  contractors  and  real  engineers  are  born  not  made.  A  real 
contractor  intuitively  knows  when,  where  and  how  to  do  the  right 
thing;  a  real  engineer  knows  how,  when  and  where  to  plan  the  right 
thing  to  be  done.  A  good  contractor,  even  though  tied  up  to  a 
poor  engineer,  will  be  able  to  worry  through  and  do  good  work;  a 
first-class  engineer,  with  a  green  contractor,  will  be  able  to  complete 
a  contract  and  show  good  results  at  the  end,  but  when  an  incom- 
petent engineer  and  a  haphazard  contractor  find  themselves  on  the 
same  job,  then  there  is  trouble. 

Unfortunately,  in  the  highway  contracting  business  there  are  a 
number  of  careless  contractors  and  incompetent  engineers,  and  for 
this  reason,  special  attention  should  be  given  by  States,  counties 
and  municipalities  toward  improving  the  methods  of  planning,  let- 
ting, constructing  and  completing  highway  contracts. 

Inasmuch  as  this  article  will  deal  with  State  and  county  roads, 
the  suggestions  will  be  from  the  view  point  of  the  contractor  as  to 
possible  improvement  in  connection  with  State  and  county  highway 
contracts. 

When  it  has  been  decided  by  the  officials  of  any  State  or  county 
to  build,  or  to  improve  a  highway,  the  first  step  is  to  have  a  pre- 
liminary survey  made,  in  order  to  ascertain  the  cost,  so  as  to  arrange 
for  an  appropriation  covering  the  proposed  improvement. 

In  the  past  it  has  been  the  general  idea  that  a  preliminary  survey 
was  merely  an  order  from  the  Highway  Department  to  send  out  a 
crew  of  young  engineers  on  a  cross  country  run.  When  this  crew 
of  sprinters  started  out  on  their  preliminary  survey  they  were 
allowed  so  many  days,  and  generally  this  time  allowance  was  so 
short  that  when  the  crew  reached  the  road,  the  survey  resolved 
itself  into  one  hundred  yard  dashes  with  hurdles  thrown  in.  There 
was  so  much  surface  skimming  done  that  when  the  note-books  made 
up  by  these  engineers  were  returned  to  the  office,  they  were  found 
full  of  inaccuracies. 

No  time  was  spent  by  this  marathon  crew  in  seeking  out  infor- 
mation as  to  soil  conditions,  bad  drainage,  water  flow  of  streams, 
property  lines,  deposits  of  road  making  materials,  kind  and  amount 
of  traffic,  type  of  feeder  roads,  or  any  of  the  conditions  which  might 
have  some  effect  on  the  selection  of  the  proper  type  of  road  to  suit 
that  locality.  Many  a  highway  contract  has  been  let  where  the 
type  of  road  called  for  local  materials,  and  no  information  has  been 
given  as  to  where  these  materials  might  be  found  in  an  acceptable 
quality.  Special  attention  should  be  given  by  the  survey  party, 


IMPROVEMENT    IN   HIGHWAY   CONTRACT   WORK  295 

and  it  would  well  repay  the  Highway  Departments,  to  see  that 
these  deposits  of  materials  be  sought  out  and  properly  located,  in 
order  that  a  correct  estimate  be  made  of  the  cost  of  the  road.  With 
a  full  and  complete  preliminary  survey,  the  highway  officials  would 
be  in  a  position  to  select  the  proper  type,  make  an  accurate  estimate 
of  the  cost,  furnish  the  bidders  with  detailed  information  concerning 
the  materials  to  be  used,  and  arrange  to  take  care  of  the  conditions 
affecting  the  life  of  the  road; 'in  short,  cut  the  cloth  to  fit  the  form. 

More  roads  go  to  pieces  on  account  of  poor  judgment  in  the  selec- 
tion of  type  of  road,  than  by  poor  workmanship  on  the  part  of  the 
contractor.  Yet,  when  one  of  these  carelessly  selected  unfit  types 
of  road  disintegrates,  everybody  jumps  on  the  contractor  and  the 
engineer,  even  when  they  have  followed  the  specifications  to  the 
letter. 

When  it  has  been  decided  to  have  a  highway  contract  letting, 
the  Department  should  consider  seasons  for  such  lettings.  The  late 
fall,  winter  and  early  spring  are  the  best,  inasmuch  as  the  con- 
tractor has  practically  closed  up  his  work,  and  has  plenty  of  time 
to  go  over  new  jobs,  and  be  in  a  position  to  bid  intelligently  on  these 
contracts.  The  State  or  county  would  gain  more  by  having  lettings 
at  these  times,  as  they  would  receive  more  bids  and,  undoubtedly, 
fairer  prices  for  work. 

In  connection  with  the  letting  of  roads  there  seems  to  be  a  reluc- 
tance on  the  part  of  most  Highway  Departments  to  furnish  infor- 
mation to  bidders.  Never  yet  has  a  State  or  county  lost  money 
by  allowing  a  contractor  to  know  in  advance  all  that  there  was  to 
be  known  about  a  contract  which  was  advertised  for  letting.  In 
New  York  State  it  has  been  the  practice,  after  advertising  highway 
contracts,  to  furnish  the  contractors  with  the  engineer's  figures 
showing  how  the  engineer  has  arrived  at  his  estimate  by  computing 
basic  prices,  with  profit  allowance.  While  some  of  the  Old  Guard 
of  contractors  state  that  they  prefer  no  engineer's  estimates  to  be 
given,  yet,  in  general,  the  road  builder  in  New  York  State  looks 
for  these  estimates  on  each  road,  and  checks  up  the  same  with  his 
own  idea  of  cost  prices,  making  allowance  for  methods  and  super- 
vision. It  has  yet  to  be  found  that  the  State  of  New  York  lost  any 
money  by  this  procedure;  rather  has  it  benefited  by  it,  because  the 
contractor  when  furnished  with  full  information  as  to  the  contract, 
is  in  a  position  to  bid  closer  and  know  what  he  is  doing  when  bidding. 
This  idea  of  giving  the  contractor  every  assistance  possible  before 
the  letting,  has  brought  about  the  circulation  of  tabulated  sheets 
which  show  the  item  prices  on  each  contract,  and  also  state  the 
amount  of  appropriation  and  amount  of  engineer's  estimate.  These 
tabulated  sheets  are  of  great  help  to  the  material  and  machinery 
men,  and  inasmuch  as  the  shipping  points  are  shown,  the  contractors 
are  not  guessing  at  the  cost  of  imported  materials,  but  have  their 
quotations  from  the  supply  or  machinery  men  days  before  the 
letting  occurs. 


296  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

On  the  day  appointed  for  the  letting,  the  bids  should  be  in  at  a 
specified  hour,  and  opened  at  that  time  and  read  publicty ;  reading 
every  item,  and  also  the  total  amount  of  contract  price.  This 
practice  advised  the  contractor  immediately  whether  his  is  a  low 
bidder  or  not,  and  he  is  in  a  position  to  make  arrangements  about 
plant,  materials  and  labor,  pending  the  official  award.  This  award 
should  not  be  held  up  more  than  twenty-four  hours,  unless  for  some 
unforeseen  cause.  It  ought  not  to  take  over  twenty-four  hours  to 
make  a  recapitulation  of  any  number  of  highway  bids.  In  New 
York  State,  where  on  one  day  they  have  as  many  as  thirty  roads 
with  three  hundred  bidders,  the  checking  up  is  done  at  the  same 
time  the  bids  are  read,  and  the  award  is  made  that  day  or  the  next 
morning.  This  allows  the  contractor  to  arrange  for  his  bonds  and 
the  other  necessities  in  connection  with  the  preliminary  part  of  his 
contract. 

Performance  bonds  for  highway  contracts  should  not  be  over  50 
per  cent  of  the  contract  price.  These  bonds  become  a  liability 
when  the  contractor  signs  them,  and  while  it  may  be  called  paper 
liability,  yet  it  has  effect  upon  his  credit  and  sometimes  acts  as  a 
hindrance  in  securing  other  contracts.  In  some  States  they  ask 
for  a  bond  of  100  per  cent,  which  is  quite  needless,  and  an  inheri- 
tance of  old  and  obsolete  requirements.  When  a  contract  and  bond 
have  been  signed  by  the  contractor,  and  filed  and  approved  by  the 
proper  highway  officials,  the  contractor  is  generally  ready  to  start 
things.  He  wants  to  be  moving.  It  is  not  natural  for  the  con- 
tractor to  be  hanging  around  the  office.  His  work  is  energetic,  and 
he  wants  to  be  doing  something.  This  is  the  time  where  the  accu- 
rate preliminary  survey  will  show  that  certain  materials  have  been 
tested  and  some  found  acceptable.  The  location  of  these  acceptable 
materials  designated,  Mr.  Contractor  is  now  in  a  position  to  locate 
his  machinery,  make  up  his  organization  and  get  ready  to  start  his 
job.  Just  before  he  gets  this  job  started,  however,  it  is  necessary 
for  the  Department  to  have  a  representative  on  the  work,  and  this 
representative  must  have  some  consideration.  He  is  the  mouth- 
piece for  the  Highway  Department,  and  care  should  be  taken  in 
his  selection,  so  that  this  mouthpiece  be  neither  dumb,  tongue  tied 
nor  voluble. 

The  growth  of  highway  construction  in  United  States  has  been 
so  great,  it  has  been  almost  impossible  to  find  enough  engineers 
who  have  a  practical  knowledge  of  road  construction.  For  the  most 
part,  the  road  engineers  are  school  boys  plucked  from  technical 
schools  and  from  civil  service  examinations,  without  an  idea  of 
practical  road  building,  and  sent  out  on  the  job  armed  with  a  book 
of  specifications  and  set  of  blue  prints.  These  young  men  are  apt 
to  be  so  afraid  of  themselves  on  account  of  their  inexperience,  they 
generally  are  so  stiff  that  they  lean  backward.  If  there  could  only 
be  a  sort  of  preparatory  school  for  young  engineers  who  have  been 
appointed  to  the  Highway  Department,  and  these  engineers  could 


IMPROVEMENT   IN   HIGHWAY   CONTRACT   WORK  297 

be  given  a  few  months  of  drilling  in  common  sense  interpretation 
of  specifications,  and  then  sent  as  assistants  to  old,  practical  engi- 
neers, who  would  be  able  to  show  them  by  their  good  example,  that 
the  engineer  on  the  highway  job  is  not  supposed  to  be  a  detective, 
but  an  advisor  and  director,  then  there  would  be  less  friction  and 
more  and  better  roads  built. 

The  accumulation  of  useless  and  obsolete  machinery  by  the  road 
contractor  is  one  of  the  curses  of  the  road  building  business.  Every 
change  of  administration,  every  change  of  highway  officials,  brings 
about  some  new  type  of  road  advertised  without  any  test  or  experi- 
ment. The  contractor  who  secures  it,  finds  that  when  he  is  ready 
to  start  work,  he  must  go  out  and  buy  this  or  that  kind  of  machinery, 
when  he  already  has  carloads  of  machinery  rusting  and  falling  away 
in  some  storehouse  or  yard.  It  is  hoped  by  the  active  road  builder, 
that  some  day  there  will  be  a  millenium,  when  the  types  of  roads 
will  be  settled  upon,  and  everything  standardized  so  that  the  machin- 
ery that  is  used  in  building  them  may  be  standardized  also,  and  the 
contractor  not  put  to  the  continued  expense  of  buying  new  machinery 
and  throwing  away  the  old.  The  depreciation  of  machinery  is  big 
enough  without  having  a  loss  on  account  of  the  constant  changes  in 
types  of  construction. 

Suppose  the  contractor  with  a  contract  on  his  hands  has  worked 
his  way  through  the  initial  stages,  by  locating  his  plant  and  organi- 
zation on  the  job;  suppose  he  has  met  his  engineer,  with  the  hope 
that  he  will  find  him  of  some  breadth  and  capacity;  suppose  work 
is  started  and  the  machinery  put  in  operation,  and  everything  run- 
ning smoothly;  then  comes  some  little  question  as  to  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  specifications,  here  your  Mr.  Road  Engineer,  if  he  be 
one  of  those  near-sighted,  hair  splitting,  afraid-of-his-life  young  men, 
he  will  get  so  fine  in  his  decisions  that  he  will  forget  all  about  the 
fact  that  he  is  building  roads,  and  will  try  to  build  watches.  These 
watch  builders  are  the  bane  of  highway  construction.  Never  yet 
was  a  road  built  by  a  watch  builder.  A  road  has  to  be  built  by  a 
road  builder.  You  cannot  have  hair  line  decisions  on  road  work. 
No  blame  for  this  can  be  applied  to  the  Highway  Departments.  The 
trouble  is  the  dearth  of  good,  practical  and  competent  road  engineers. 
The  failure  of  an  engineer  on  the  job,  to  make  timely  decisions  in 
reference  to  materials  or  questions  that  come  up  in  the  course  of 
construction,  has  brought  about  losses  in  highway  construction,  not 
only  to  the  contractor,  but  to  the  Department. 

The  monthly  estimate  is  the  vital  thing  to  the  contractor.  There 
can  be  no  successful  contract  without  prompt  monthly  estimates. 
They  must  not  be  irregular  or  pruned.  Monthly  payments  to  the 
builder  are  as  food  to  the  body. 

In  some  States  90  per  cent  of  the  monthly  estimates  taken  about 
the  twentieth  of  the  month  are  paid  before  the  first  of  the  next 
month,  that  is,  practically  all  monthly  estimates  are  paid  within 
ten  days.  That  is  a  fact,  and  records  in  the  New  York  State  High- 


298  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

way  Department  will  show  these  statements  to  be  true.  If  New 
York  State  can  do  it,  other  States  can  do  it.  It  only  means,  make 
the  engineer  keep  up  to  his  job,  and  make  the  contractor  keep  up 
to  his. 

When  the  first  monthly  estimate  comes  around  the  contractor,  if 
he  is  a  real,  live  contractor,  will  have  his  cost  data  and  his  monthly 
reports  figured  so  that  he  knows  how  much  work  has  been  done,  and 
how  much  it  has  cost  him,  and  he  is  then  in  a  position  to  take  up 
the  matter  with  the  engineer.  Together  they  can  check  up  and 
agree  upon  what  the  estimate  should  be,  so  that  there  will  be  no 
deficiency  when  the  check  comes  to  the  contractor.  Every  con- 
tractor should  keep  accurate  account,  by  daily  time  reports,  of  every 
one  on  his  payroll,  of  the  time  and  amount  of  work  done.  Only  in 
this  way  can  he  keep  tabs  on  his  job  and  be  in  a  position  to  put 
up  a  fight  for  what  is  his  when  the  estimate  time  comes  around. 

If  more  attention  was  paid  by  road  builders  to  cost  data,  there 
would  be  fewer  disagreements  with  engineers  about  how  much  was 
coming  to  them.  The  right  kind  of  an  engineer  is  only  too  glad  to 
check  up  with  the  right  kind  of  a  contractor.  Of  course,  there  are 
exceptions  where  this  checking  might  lead  to  some  wrong  doing, 
but  today,  this  is  almost  impossible,  and  on  good  straight  contract 
work  the  final  estimates  would  show  over-paying  and  would  bring 
out  the  fact  that  there  had  been  collusion.  Item  prices  and  pub- 
licity tend  toward  minimizing  the  chances  of  collusion  between  the 
engineer  and  contractor. 

When  it  comes  to  the  completion  of  a  highway  contract  there 
should  be  no  delay  in  its  acceptance.  The  engineer  should  follow 
the  contractor's  work  with  his  final  cross  sections,  and  be  ready  to 
send  in  the  final  quantities,  in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  speedy 
payments. 

One  of  the  great  drawbacks  to  the  highway  contracting  business  is 
the  long  delay  in  final  payments  on  roads.  The  contractor  is  some- 
times held  up  for  months,  and  in  addition  to  the  10  or  15  per  cent 
of  retained  money,  there  is  generally  the  last  monthly  estimate.  This 
is  apt  to  have  a  contractor  tied  up  and  his  credit  questioned  by 
banks,  material  and  machinery  men.  The  margin  of  profit  is  too 
small  to  allow  of  long  deferred  final  payments.  The  contractor  is 
advancing  most  of  the  money,  and  with  the  large  retained  per- 
centages, he  is  handicapped  in  arranging  for  new  work,  and  paying 
off  the  liabilities  which  have  accumulated  on  the  previous  contract. 
Up  to  a  short  time  ago,  it  was  the  practice  in  several  States  for 
the  engineers  out  on  highway  work  during  the  summer,  to  hold 
back  their  final  cross  sections  and  quantity  sheets  until  they  were 
called  into  the  main  office  for  winter  work.  They  hung  on  to  these 
estimates  like  grim  death  in  order  to  string  out  their  time  during 
the  winter.  Mr.  Road  Contractor  was  wearing  a  path  to  the  High- 
way Department  trying  to  get  the  money  due  him.  This  was  unfair 
to  the  contractor,  and  to  those  depending  upon  him  for  payment 
of  accounts. 


IMPROVEMENT  IN   HIGHWAY   CONTRACT   WORK  299 

The  road  builder  who  knows  that  his  final  moneys  will  be  paid 
to  him  within  thirty  or  sixty  days  after  the  acceptance  of  his  con- 
tracts, is  in  a  position  to  do  better  work  and  at  a  little  less  money 
than  the  man  who  is  paying  interest  notes  in  the  banks,  and  on 
notes  to  machinery  men,  and  having  a  hard  time  to  meet  the  payrolls 
on  other  work. 

In  some  States  the  Highway  Department  has  made  a  record  in 
the  way  they  have  handled  these  final  payments,  and  the  contractors 
in  these  States  are  the  best  in  the  business.  It  is  a  fact  that  when 
the  Highway  Department  tries  to  help  the  contractor,  the  contractor 
is  there  to  help  the  Department. 

Contractors  do  not  get  together  as  often  as  they  ought.  Road 
officials  and  engineers  have  conventions,  State  and  national.  No 
body  of  men  engaged  in  the  same  line  of  business  ever  assembled 
without  some  good  coming  to  the  individuals.  Exchange  of  ideas 
in  reference  to  methods  of  supervision,  operation  of  machinery, 
manipulation  of  materials,  etc.,  is  bound  to  help  the  practical  end 
of  road  building. 

Highway  contracting  today  is  an  industry  large  and  extensive. 
It  will  be  greater  in  the  coming  years.  The  interest  in  good  roads 
in  States  just  awakening,  is  going  to  mean  more  highway  contracts, 
more  highway  contractors,  and  more  highway  engineers.  Highway 
improvement  is  being  benefited  by  the  interest  shown  in  it  by  the 
public ;  and  it  is  by  such  conventions  as  this,  where  officials,  engineers 
and  contractors  discuss  subjects  of  common  interest,  that  improve- 
ment along  standard  lines  of  highway  contract  work  will  be  secured. 


DISCUSSION  OF  POSSIBLE  LINES  OF  IMPROVEMENT 
IN  HIGHWAY  CONTRACT  WORK 

L.  D.  SMOOT 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works,  Jacksonville,  Fla. 

Real  contractors  and  real  engineers  are  born  not  made.  A  real 
contractor  intuitively  knows  when,  where  and  how  to  do  the  right 
thing;  a  real  engineer  knows  how,  when  and  where  to  plan  the  right 
thing  to  be  done.  A  good  contractor,  even  though  tied  up  to  a 
poor  engineer,  will  be  able  to  worry  through  and  do  good  work;  a 
first-class  engineer,  with  a  green  contractor,  will  be  able  to  com- 
plete a  contract  and  show  good  results  at  the  end,  but  when  an  in- 
competent engineer  and  a  haphazard  contractor  find  themselves  on 
the  same  job,  then  there  is  trouble. 

Unfortunately,  in  the  highway  contracting  business  there  are  a 
number  of  careless  contractors  and  incompetent  engineers,  and  for 
this  reason,  special  attention  should  be  given  by  States,  counties 
and  municipalities  toward  improving  the  methods  of  planning, 
letting,  constructing  and  completing  highway  contracts. 


300  AMERICAN    ROAD   CONGRESS 

Inasmuch  as  this  article  will  deal  with  State  and  county  roads, 
the  suggestions  will  be  from  the  view  point  of  the  contractor  as 
to  possible  improvement  in  connection  with  State  and  county  high- 
way contracts. 

When  it  has  been  decided  by  the  officials  of  any  State  or  county 
to  build,  or  to  improve  a  highway,  the  first  step  is  to  have  a  pre- 
liminary survey  made,  in  order  to  ascertain  the  cost,  so  as  to  arrange 
for  an  appropriation  covering  the  proposed  improvement. 

In  the  past  it  has  been  the  general  idea  that  a  preliminary  sur- 
vey was  merely  an  order  from  the  Highway  Department  to  send 
out  a  crew  of  young  engineers  on  a  cross  country  run.  When  this 
crew  of  sprinters  started  out  on  their  preliminary  survey  they  were 
allowed  so  many  days,  and  generally  this  time  allowance  was  so 
short  that  when  the  crew  reached  the  road,  the  survey  resolved  it- 
self into  one  hundred  yard  dashes  with  hurdles  thrown  in.  There 
was  so  much  surface  skimming  done  that  when  the  note-books 
made  up  by  these  engineers  were  returned  to  the  office,  they  were 
found  full  of  inaccuracies. 

No  time  was  spent  by  this  marathon  crew  in  seeking  out  informa- 
tion as  to  soil  conditions,  bad  drainage,  water  flow  of  streams, 
property  lines,  deposits  of  road  making  materials,  kind  and  amount 
of  traffic,  type  of  feeder  roads,  or  any  of  the  conditions  which  might 
have  some  effect  on  the  selection  of  the  proper  type  of  road  to  suit 
that  locality.  Many  a  highway  contract  has  been  let  where  the 
type  of  road  called  for  local  materials,  and  no  information  has  been 
given  as  to  where  these  materials  might  be  found  in  an  acceptable 
quality.  Special  attention  should  be  given  by  the  survey  party, 
and  it  would  well  repay  the  Highway  Departments,  to  see  that 
these  deposits  of  materials  be  sought  out  and  properly  located, 
in  order  that  a  correct  estimate  be  made  of  the  cost  of  the  road. 
With  a  full  and  complete  preliminary  survey,  the  highway  officials 
would  be  in  a  position  to  select  the  proper  type,  make  an  accurate 
estimate  of  the  cost,  furnish  the  bidders  with  detailed  information 
concerning  the  materials  to  be  used,  and  arrange  to  take  care  of 
the  conditions  affecting  the  life  of  the  road;  in  short,  cut  the  cloth 
to  fit  the  form. 

More  roads  go  to  pieces  on  account  of  poor  judgment  in  the  se- 
lection of  type  of  road,  than  by  poor  workmanship  on  the  part  of 
the  contractor.  Yet,  when  one  of  these  carelessly  selected  unfit 
types  of  road  disintegrates,  everybody  jumps  on  the  contractor 
and  the  engineer,  even  when  they  have  followed  the  specifications  to 
the  letter. 

When  it  nas  been  decided  to  have  a  highway  contract  letting, 
the  department  should  consider  seasons  for  such  lettings.  The 
late  fall,  winter  and  early  spring  are  the  best,  inasmuch  as  the  con- 
tractor has  practically  closed  up  his  work,  and  has  plenty  of  time 
to  go  over  new  jobs,  and  be  in  a  position  to  bid  intelligently  on 
these  contracts.  The  State  or  county  would  gain  more  by  having 


IMPROVEMENT   IN   HIGHWAY   CONTRACT   WORK  301 

lettings  at  these  times,  as  they  would  receive  more  bids  and,  undoubt- 
edly, fairer  prices  for  work. 

In  connection  with  the  letting  of  roads  there  seems  to  be  a  re- 
luctance on  the  part  of  most  Highway  Departments  to  furnish  in- 
formation to  bidders.  Never  yet  has  a  State  or  county  lost  money 
by  allowing  a  contractor  to  know  in  advance  all  that  there  was  to  be 
known  about  a  contract  which  was  advertised  for  letting.  In  New 
York  State  it  has  been  the  practise,  after  advertising  highway  con- 
tracts, to  furnish  the  contractors  with  the  engineer's  figures  show- 
ing how  the  engineer  has  arrived  at  his  estimate  by  computing  basic 
prices,  with  profit  allowance.  While  some  of  the  old  guard  of 
contractors  state  that  they  prefer  no  engineer's  estimate  to  be 
given,  yet,  in  general,  the  road  builder  in  New  York  State  looks  for 
these  estimates  on  each  road,  and  checks  up  the  same  with  his  own 
idea  of  cost  prices,  making  allowance  for  methods  and  supervision. 
It  has  yet  to  be  found  that  the  State  of  New  York  lost  any  money  by 
this  procedure;  rather  has  it  benefited  by  it,  because  the  contractor 
when  furnished  with  full  information  as  to  the  contract,  is  in  a  posi- 
tion to  bid  closer  and  know  what  he  is  doing  when  bidding.  This 
idea  of  giving  the  contractor  every  assistance  possible  before  the 
letting,  has  brought  about  the  circulation  of  tabulated  sheets  which 
show  the  item  prices  on  each  contract,  and  also  state  the  amount 
of  appropriation  and  amount  of  engineer's  estimate.  These  tabu- 
lated sheets  are  of  great  help  to  the  material  and  machinery  men, 
and  inasmuch  as  the  shipping  points  are  shown,  the  contractors 
are  not  guessing  at  the  cost  of  imported  materials,  but  have  their 
quotations  from  the  supply  or  machinery  men  days  before  the 
letting  occurs. 

On  the  day  appointed  for  the  letting,  the  bids  should  be  in  at 
a  specified  hour,  and  opened  at  that  time  and  read  publicly;  read- 
ing every  item,  and  also  the  total  amount  of  contract  price.  This 
practice  advised  the  contractor  immediately  whether  his  is  a  low 
bid  or  not,  and  he  is  in  a  position  to  make  arrangements  about 
plant,  materials  and  labor,  pending  the  official  award.  This  award 
should  not  be  held  up  more  than  twenty-four  hours,  unless  for  some 
unforeseen  cause.  It  ought  not  to  take  over  twenty-four  hours  to 
make  a  recapitulation  of  any  number  of  highway  bids.  In  New  York 
State,  where  on  one  day  they  have  as  many  as  thirty  roads  with 
three  hundred  bidders,  the  checking  up  is  done  at  the  same  time  the 
bids  are  read,  and  the  award  is  made  that  day  or  the  next  morning. 
This  allows  the  contractor  to  arrange  for  his  bonds  and  the  other 
necessities  in  connection  with  the  preliminary  part  of  his  contract. 

Performance  bonds  for  highway  contracts  should  not  be  over  50 
per  cent  of  the  contract  price.  These  bonds  become  a  liability 
when  the  contractor  signs  them,  and  while  it  may  be  called  paper 
liability,  yet  it  has  effect  upon  his  credit  and  sometimes  acts  as 
a  hindrance  in  securing  other  contracts.  In  some  States  they 
ask  for  a  bond  of  100  per  cent,  which  is  quite  needless,  and  an  in- 


302  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

heritance  of  old  and  obsolete  requirements.  When  a  contract 
and  bond  have  been  signed  by  the  contractor,  and  filed  and  ap- 
proved by  the  proper  highway  officials,  the  contractor  is  generally 
ready  to  start  things.  He  wants  to  be  moving.  It  is  not  natural 
for  the  contractor  to  be  hanging  around  the  office.  His  work  is 
energetic,  and  he  wants  to  be  doing  something.  This  is  the  time 
where  the  accurate  preliminary  survey  will  show  that  certain  ma- 
terials have  been  tested  and  some  found  acceptable.  The  location 
of  these  acceptable  materials  designated  Mr.  Contractor  is  now  in  a 
position  to  locate  his  machinery,  make  up  his  organization  and  get 
ready  to  start  his  job.  Just  before  he  gets  this  job  started,  how- 
ever, it  is  necessary  for  the  department  to  have  a  representative 
on  the  work,  and  this  representative  must  have  some  consideration. 
He  is  the  mouthpiece  for  the  Highway  Department,  and  care  should 
be  taken  in  his  selection,  so  that  this  mouthpiece  be  neither  dumb, 
tongue-tied  nor  voluble. 

The  growth  of  highway  construction  in  United  States  has  been 
so  great,  it  has  been  almost  impossible  to  find  enough  engineers 
who  have  a  practical  knowledge  of  road  construction.  For  the 
most  part,  the  road  engineers  are  school  boys  plucked  from  tech- 
nical schools  and  from  civil  service  examinations,  without  an  idea 
of  practical  road  building,  and  sent  out  on  the  job  armed  with  a 
book  of  specifications  and  set  of  blue  prints.  These  young  men 
are  apt  to  be  so  afraid  of  themselves  on  account  of  their  inexperi- 
ence, they  generally  are  so  stiff  that  they  lean  backward.  If  there 
could  only  be  a  sort  of  preparatory  school  for  young  engineers  who 
have  been  appointed  to  the  Highway  Department,  and  these  engi- 
neers could  be  given  a  few  months  of  drilling  in  common  sense  in- 
terpretation of  specifications,  and  then  sent  as  assistant  to  old, 
practical  engineers,  who  would  be  able  to  show  them  by  their  good 
example,  that  the  engineer  on  the  highway  job  is  not  supposed  to 
be  a  detective,  but  an  adviser  and  director,  then  there  would  be  less 
friction  and  more  and  better  roads  built. 

The  accumulation  of  useless  and  obsolete  machinery  by  the  road 
contractor  is  one  of  the  curses  of  the  road  building  business.  Every 
change  of  administration,  every  change  of  highway  officials,  brings 
about  some  new  type  of  road  advertised  without  any  test  or  ex- 
periment. The  contractor  who  secures  it,  finds  that  when  he  is 
ready  to  start  work,  he  must  go  out  and  buy  this  or  that  kind  of 
machinery,  when  he  already  has  carloads  of  machinery  rusting 
and  falling  away  in  some  storehouse  or  yard.  It  is  hoped  by  the 
active  road  builder,  that  some  day  there  will  be  a  millennium,  when 
the  types  of  roads  will  be  settled  upon,  and  everything  standard- 
ized so  that  the  machinery  that  is  used  in  building  them  may  be 
standardized  also,  and  the  contractor  not  put  to  the  continued 
expense  of  buying  new  machinery  and  throwing  away  the  old.  The 
depreciation  of  machinery  is  big  enough  without  having  a  loss  on 
account  of  the  constant  changes  in  types  of  construction. 


IMPROVEMENT  IN  HIGHWAY  CONTRACT  WORK  303 

Suppose  the  contractor  with  a  contract  on  his  hands  has  worked 
his  way  through  the  initial  stages,  by  locating  his  plant  and  or- 
ganization on  the  job;  suppose  he  has  met  his  engineer,  with  the 
hope  that  he  will  find  him  of  some  breadth  and  capacity;  suppose 
work  is  started  and  the  machinery  put  in  operation,  and  every- 
thing running  smoothly;  then  comes  some  little  question  as  to 
the  interpretation  of  the  specifications,  here  your  Mr.  Road  Engi- 
neer, if  he  be  one  of  those  near-sighted,  hair  splitting,  afraid-of- 
his-life  young  man,  he  will  get  so  fine  in  his  decisions  that  he  will 
forget  all  about  the  fact  that  he  is  building  roads,  and  will  try  to 
build  watches.  These  watch  builders  are  the  bane  of  highway 
construction.  Never  yet  was  a  road  built  by  a  watch  builder. 
A  road  has  to  be  built  by  a  road  builder.  You  cannot  have  hair 
line  decisions  on  road  work.  No  blame  for  this  can  be  applied  to  the 
Highway  Departments.  The  trouble  is  the  dearth  of  good,  prac- 
tical and  competent  road  engineers.  The  failure  of  an  engineer 
on  the  job  to  make  timely  decisions  in  reference  to  materials  or  ques- 
tions that  come  up  in  the  course  of  construction,  has  brought  about 
losses  in  highway  construction,  not  only  to  the  contractor,  but  to  the 
departments. 

The  monthly  estimate  is  the  vital  thing  to  the  contractor.  There 
can  be  no  successful  contract  without  prompt  monthly  estimates. 
They  must  not  be  irregular  or  pruned.  Monthly  payments  to  the 
builder  are  as  food  to  the  body. 

In  some  States  90  per  cent  of  the  monthly  estimates  taken  about 
the  twentieth  of  the  month  are  paid  before  the  first  of  the  next 
month,  that  is,  practically  all  monthly  estimates  are  paid  within 
ten  days.  This  is  a  fact,  and  records  in  the  New  York  State  High- 
way Department  will  show  these  statements  to  be  true.  If  New 
York  State  can  do  it,  other  States  can  do  it.  It  only  means,  make 
the  engineer  keep  up  to  his  job,  and  make  the  contractor  keep  up 
to  his. 

When  the  first  monthly  estimate  comes  around  the  contractor, 
if  he  is  a  real,  live  contractor,  will  have  his  cost  data  and  his  monthly 
reports  figured  so  that  he  knows  how  much  work  has  been  done, 
and  how  much  it  has  cost  him,  and  he  is  then  in  a  position  to  take 
up  the  matter  with  the  engineer.  Together  they  can  check  up  and 
agree  upon  what  the  estimate  should  be,  so  that  there  will  be  no 
deficiency  when  the  check  comes  to  the  contractor.  Every  con- 
tractor should  keep  accurate  account,  by  daily  time  reports,  of 
every  one  on  his  payroll,  of  the  time  and  amount  of  work  done. 
Only  in  this  way  can  he  keep  tabs  on  his  job  and  be  in  a  position 
to  put  up  a  fight  for  what  is  his  when  the  estimate  time  comes  around. 

If  more  attention  was  paid  by  road  builders  to  cost  data,  there 
would  be  fewer  disagreements  with  engineers  about  how  much 
was  coming  to  them.  The  right  kind  of  an  engineer  is  only  too 
glad  to  check  up  with  the  right  kind  of  a  contractor.  Of  course, 
there  are  exceptions  where  this  checking  jj  might  lead^to  some 


304  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

wrong  doing,  but  today,  this  is  almost  impossible,  and  on  good 
straight  contract  work  the  final  estimates  would  show  over-paying 
and  would  bring  out  the  fact  that  there  had  been  collusion.  Item 
prices  and  publicity  tend  toward  minimizing  the  chances  of  collusion 
between  the  engineer  and  contractor. 

When  it  comes  to  the  completion  of  a  highway  contract  there 
should  be  no  delay  in  its  acceptance.  The  engineer  should  follow 
the  contractor's  work  with  his  final  cross  sections,  and  be  ready 
to  send  in  the  final  quantities,  in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  speedy 
payments. 

One  of  the  great  drawbacks  to  the  highway  contracting  busi- 
ness is  the  long  delay  in  final  payments  on  roads.  The  contractor 
sometimes  held  up  for  months,  and  in  addition  to  the  10  or  15 
per  cent  of  retained  money,  there  is  generally  the  last  monthly 
estimate.  This  is  apt  to  have  a  contractor  tied  up  and  his  credit 
questioned  by  banks,  material  and  machinery  men.  The  margin 
of  profit  is  too  small  to  allow  of  long  deferred  final  payments.  The 
contractor  is  advancing  most  of  the  money,  and  with  the  large 
retained  percentages,  he  is  handicapped  in  arranging  for  new  work, 
and  paying  off  the  liabilities  which  have  accumulated  on  the  previous 
contract. 

Up  to  a  short  time  ago,  it  was  the  practice  in  several  States  for 
the  engineers  out  on  highway  work  during  the  summer,  to  hold 
back  their  final  cross  sections  and  quantity  sheets  until  they  were 
called  into  the  main  office  for  winter  work.  They  hung  on  to 
these  estimates  like  grim  death  in  order  to  string  out  their  time 
during  the  winter.  Mr.  Road  Contractor  was  wearing  a  path  to 
the  Highway  Department  trying  to  get  the  money  due  him.  This 
was  unfair  to  the  contractor,  and  to  those  depending  upon  him  for 
payment  of  accounts. 

The  road  builder  who  knows  that  his  final  moneys  will  be  paid 
to  him  within  thirty  or  sixty  days  after  the  acceptance  of  his  con- 
tracts, is  in  a  position  to  do  better  work  and  at  a  little  less  money 
than  the  man  who  is  paying  interest  notes  in  the  banks,  and  on 
notes  to  machinery  men,  and  having  a  hard  time  to  meet  the  payrolls 
on  other  work. 

In  some  States  the  Highway  Department  has  made  a  record  in 
the  way  they  have  handled  these  final  payments,  and  the  con- 
tractors in  these  States  are  the  best  in  the  business.  It  is  a  fact 
that  when  the  Highway  Department  tries  to  help  the  contractor, 
the  contractor  is  there  to  help  the  department. 

Contractors  do  not  get  together  as  often  as  they  ought.  Road 
officials  and  engineers  have  conventions,  State  and  national.  No 
body  of  men  engaged  in  the  same  line  of  business  ever  assembled 
without  some  good  coming  to  the  individuals.  Exchange  of  ideas, 
in  reference  to  methods  of  supervision,  operation  of  machinery, 
manipulation  of  materials,  etc.,  is  bound  to  help  the  practical  end 
of  road  building. 


HIGHWAY   ENGINEERING   EDUCATION  305 

Highway  contracting  today  is  an  industry  large  and  extensive. 
It  will  be  greater  in  the  coming  years.  The  interest  in  good  roads 
in  States  just  awakening,  is  going  to  mean  more  highway  con- 
tracts, more  highway  contractors,  and  more  highway  engineers. 
Highway  improvement  is  being  benefited  by  the  interest  shown 
in  it  by  the  public;  and  it  is  by  such  conventions  as  this,  where 
officials,  engineers  and  contractors  discuss  subjects  of  common 
interest,  that  improvement  along  standard  lines  of  highway  contract 
work  will  be  secured. 

Mr.  Shirley  takes  the  chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  subject  of  the  next  paper  is  Highway 
Engineering  Education,  by  Prof.  C.  M.  Strahan,  Dean  of  Engi- 
neering, University  of  Georgia.  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  introduce 
Professor  Strahan. 

HIGHWAY  ENGINEERING  EDUCATION 

C.  M.  STRAHAN 
Dean   of  Engineering,    University   of  Georgia 

A  friend  of  mine  from  Muscogee  County,  said  to  me  that  the  three 
fundamentals  of  building  good  roads  were  a  negro,  a  mule,  and  brains. 
I  take  it  that  we  are  now  concerned  with  the  question  of  the  kind 
of  brains  required  and  how  to  get  them.  The  universities  are  re- 
garded as  the  chief  brain  factories  of  the  country.  We  naturally 
look  to  them  for  road  building  brains — what  can  they  supply?  Or 
rather  what  ought  they  to  supply?  By  adopting  the  military 
analogy  we  may  possibly  classify  the  answer.  The  army  needs 
the  brains  of  the  general,  of  the  major,  of  the  lieutenant,  of  the 
non-commissioned  officer,  of  the  private — it  needs  them  for  infantry, 
for  cavalry,  for  artillery. 

We  cannot  expect  West  Point  to  turn  out  ready  made  generals — 
we  are  content  to  accept  second  lieutenants.  We  cannot  tell  which 
of  these  lieutenants  is  going  to  be  the  ultimate  general,  or  whether 
his  future  will  run  to  infantry,  cavalry,  or  artillery.  We  do  know 
that  experience  must  be  added  to  early  training  before  the  finished 
product  will  be  wrought. 

So  in  regard  to  the  education  of  highway  engineers,  the  university 
must  direct  its  undergraduate  effort  to  making  the  well  drilled  sub- 
officer  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  fundamental  truths  of  his  pro- 
fession capable  by  opportunity  and  experience  of  serving  in  a  specific 
arm  of  the  service  and  growing  more  and  more  into  perfect  power 
as  the  result  of  that  experience  and  his  personal  initiative.  The 
West  Point  graduate  is  not  a  specialist  in  infantry  maneuvers,  in 
cavalry  evolutions,  artillery  ballistics.  He  has  been  taught  the 
principles  and  chief  practices  of  them  all.  He  specializes  after- 
ward. His  ultimate  efficiency  as  a  higher  officer  lies  in  his  ability 


306  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

to  direct  his  energy  wisely  in  relation  to  the  whole  army  and  to  the 
exigencies  of  that  part  of  the  fight  in  which  he  is  actually  engaged. 

The  young  highway  engineer  enlists  in  one  grand  division  of  the 
great  civil  engineering  army.  He  is  required  to  serve  in  one  com- 
pany of  this  division.  He  hopes  for  promotion.  Manifestly  his 
training  should  be  broad  enough  to  include  not  simply  the  work  of 
his  company  but  of  his  whole  division.  But  even  then  suppose  he 
is  a  misfit!  He  may  properly  belong  to  the  Sanitary  Corps.  The 
university  must  bear  this  in  mind,  both  for  him  and  for  the  high- 
ways. It  must  remember  that  the  item  of  experience,  the  item 
of  personality,  powerfully  modify  the  quality  of  brain  product. 
Fortunately  justice  can  usually  be  done  to  both  sides  if  a  too  narrow 
undergraduate  training  is  avoided.  There  underlies  the  whole  field 
of  civil  engineering  knowledge  a  limited  number  of  sound  physical, 
mathematical  and  chemical  ideas.  To  select  and  emphasize  these 
fundamentals,  to  vitalize  them  by  an  adequate  but  too  multiplied 
number  of  variety  of  practical  applications  is  the  real  problem  of  the 
engineering  school. 

The  same  kind  of  moments  and  shears  are  at  work  in  the  highway 
bridge  as  in  all  bridges.  The  construction  details  differ.  A  limited 
number  of  typical  bridge  designs,  not  every  possible  design,  has  place 
in  the  undergraduate  course.  The  same  principles  of  drafting  cover 
the  railroad  map,  the  architect's  plans  and  the  highway  lay-out.  The 
same  principles  of  mathematics  apply  to  quantitative  estimates 
whether  of  masonry,  or  water,  or  earth  work.  The  natural  proper- 
ties and  suitabilities  of  stone,  of  brick,  of  cements  and  concretes, 
of  sand,  of  clay,  of  metals,  are  fundamental  to  the  selection  for 
structural  use  of  any  kind.  The  special  adaptability  of  each  or  in 
combination  is  perfected  in  the  engineer  by  research  and  structural 
experience.  The  university  can  here  give  valuable  partial  demon- 
strations and  data  up  to  a  certain  point.  It  can  reveal  the  labo- 
ratory point  of  view  through  experiments  and  tests  on  the  more 
important  materials.  The  engineering  experiment  station  and 
testing  laboratory  with  their  trained  specialists  must  continue  this 
research  work. 

The  broad  principles  and  significant  facts  of  hydraulics  are  also 
fundamental  to  the  highway  engineer  as  to  any  other  engineer.  Let 
him  understand  these  principles  and  he  will  readily  grasp  the  coast- 
ing of  his  road  surfaces,  the  undermining  of  his  bridge  piers,  the 
capacities  of  his  side  ditches  and  culverts.  The  writer  forbears  to 
press  this  line  of  thought  further. 

Engineering  efficiency  of  the  individual  then  consists: 

1.  In  broad  and  firm  grasp  of  the  physical,  chemical,  quantitative 
and  qualitative  relations  of  natural  and  manufactured  materials 
and  of  the  forces  at  work  on  them. 

2.  The  utilization  and  management  of  men,  of  motive  power, 
of  machinery  to   accomplish   definite   structural   ends  with   these 
materials. 


DISCUSSION  307 

There  are  three  principal  things  to  be  done: 

1.  Certain  field  operations  in  laying  out  the  proposed  work. 

2.  Certain  office  drawings  and  calculations  to  make  clear  the  pur- 
pose and  the  construction  contemplated. 

3.  The  actual  performance  of  the  construction  by  the  best  agencies 
and  materials. 

The  university  can  give  insight  into  materials  of  important  kinds, 
it  can  give  training  in  typical  surveys,  in  office  drawings,  in  mathe- 
matical calculations,  in  principles  of  design  and  in  theories  of  the 
action  of  forces.  It  cannot  give  experience  and  judgment  in  the  con- 
trol of  labor  or  the  final  economics  of  motive  power  and  machinery. 
The  writer  would  therefore  be  content  to  turn  out  highway  second 
lieutenants  with  the  possibility  of  their  becoming  by  experience, 
majors  in  earth  roads,  colonels  in  concrete  roads  and  chiefs  of  staff 
on  highway  commissions.  He  would  rely  on  the  graduate  school, 
the  research  laboratory  and  the  field  construction,  to  effect  the 
successive  promotions  from  grade  to  grade. 

He  would  avoid  the  inadequate  foundation  in  the  young  highway 
engineer's  mental  training  as  zealously  as  in  the  road  he  is  expected 
to  construct. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Gentlemen,  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing 
Mr.  D.  J.  Morrison,  of  Mississippi. 

MR.  MORRISON:  Gentlemen,  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  as 
chairman,  the  Mississippi  delegation  to  this  convention  appointed 
by  our  governor. 

The  thought  has  come  to  my  mind  by  the  speeches  and  the  general 
type  and  character  of  the  delegation  represented  here  that  the 
momentous  question  before  this  Congress  and  the  American  people 
is  transportation  and  its  methods. 

Without  transportation  the  past  would  be  forgotten,  the  present 
grow  dim,  and  the  future  be  blotted  out.  Transportation  is  the  con- 
necting link  between  sorrow  and  happiness,  between  failure  and 
success,  between  ignorance  and  intelligence,  between  darkness  and 
light,  between  heathenism  and  civilization,  between  despair  and 
hope,  between  war  and  peace  and  between  death  and  life.  Transpor- 
tation first  led  our  primitive  ancestor  from  his  benighted  hut  along 
a  stony  footpath  to  the  brook  for  water,  or  over  the  bosom  of  some 
lonely  lake  in  his  boat  of  bark  or  skin  in  quest  of  food  to  the  great 
double  track  trunk  railway  lines  of  today,  or  to  the  mighty  steam- 
ships that  traverse  the  seas  and  touch  all  the  remotest  lands  of  the 
world.  Transportation  transformed  the  call  of  communication  of 
this  ancestor  of  ours  to  his  neighbor  across  the  brook  to  the  wire- 
less voice  of  the  Marconi  system  of  telegraphy  heard  now  across  the 
oceans  and  seas  by  every  land  of  the  globe.  Transportation  trans- 
formed the  falcon  or  the  carrier  pigeon  to  the  armoured  airships 
of  today.  In  proportion  as  the  method  of  transportation  is  intensi- 


308  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

fied  its  use  is  diminished.  Wireless  telegraphy  is  the  most  intense 
physical  mode  of  transportation  and  closely  approaches  the  swift- 
ness and  speed  of  human  thought.  Wireless  telegraphy,  airships, 
waterships,  telephones,  telegraphs,  electric  and  steam  railways  all 
are  intensified  methods  of  transportation,  and  in  their  use  are  more 
or  less  diminished  in  comparison  to  the  great  public  highways  of  our 
country  upon  which  the  masses  must  depend  for  their  mode  of  trans- 
portation, and  over  which  must  be  transformed  from  the  fields 
food  and  clothing  to  the  teaming  millions  of  the  world. 

Is  it  not  amazing  and  incomprehensible  with  such  a  stupendous 
factor  as  good  roads  to  increase  the  wealth  of  our  nation,  and  raise 
the  standard  of  our  citizenship  to  such  a  high  efficiency  our  Federal 
Government  has  done  so  little  to  aid  this  department.  Why  should 
not  Congress  long  ago  ranked  the  department  of  public  highways 
among  the  first  of  importance  of  her  economic  questions.  I  say 
this  is  strange  and  incomprehensible  when  Congress  has  done  so  much 
and  spent  so  much  money  in  other  ways.  Can  any  appropria- 
tion develop  greater  resources  and  wealth  or  reach  a  greater  number 
of  people  than  the  farmer  who  holds  the  real  wealth  of  the  nation, 
than  an  appropriation  for  improving  country  highways? 

Congress  appropriates  large  sums  annually  for  building  and  main- 
taining levees,  harbors,  canals,  and  railroads,  and  still  other  large 
sums  to  protect  our  health  in  the  pure  food  act,  in  the  quarantine 
act  to  protect  us  from  outside  competition  in  the  tariff  act,  to  pro- 
tect us  from  extortion,  transportation  rates  in  the  interstate  com- 
merce act.  Much  money  is  spent  by  other  acts,  namely — to  teach 
us  how  to  grow  two  blades  of  grass  where  one  grew,  two  ears  of  corn 
where  one  grew,  two  bales  of  cotton  where  one  grew,  how  to  kill  the 
lady-bug,  the  potato  bug,  the  Egyptian  moth,  the  boll  weevil, 
and  many  other  acts  looking  to  protect  and  better  the  condition  of 
the  farmer.  The  Federal  Government  pays  large  sums  to  railroad 
companies  for  transporting  the  mail  over  their  roads,  yet,  how  many 
dollars  are  paid  by  the  Federal  Government  for  building  and  main- 
taining public  roads  over  which  thousands  of  tons  of  mail  is  trans- 
ported daily  by  the  parcel  post  and  rural  delivery  routes.  This 
seems  that  the  Federal  Government  has  subsidized  our  public  roads 
and  appropriated  their  use  for  the  mail  service  without  paying  a 
dollar  for  the  privilege  to  the  country  through  which  they  pass. 
To  the  contrary  the  United  States  claims  the  supreme  right  of  way 
over  them. 

Our  congressmen  and  senators  are  directly  responsible  for  these 
inequalities  of  rights  and  benefits  and  the  representatives  of  our 
legislature  are  under  the  same  indictment. 

The  solution  of  building  good  roads  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  this  country  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  especially 
the  farmer,  who  has  always  been  the  idol  and  hero  of  the  politicians' 
campaign,  until  the  election  is  over.  Let  the  eternal  question  burn 
its  way  into  the  legislature  and  Congress  by  the  voters,  "Will  you  if 


DISCUSSION  309 

elected  support  State  and  national  aid  for  public  highways."  When 
this  is  done  we  will  be  sure  to  get  this  all  important  aid. 

The  Southern  States  need  good  roads  more  now  than  ever,  since 
cotton  has  ceased  to  be  the  wealth  of  our  crop,  on  account  of  the 
boll  weevil. 

A  bale  of  cotton  under  normal  conditions  is  worth  $50.00  and 
weighs  500  pounds.  To  equal  this  value  of  $50.00  in  native  hay 
we  have  a  weight  of  10,000  pounds,  and  in  corn  a  weight  of  6,000 
pounds.  Forced  to  largely  abandon  raising  cotton  we  must  raise 
products  of  higher  tonnage,  and  the  transportation  of  this  high  ton- 
nage is  the  factor  that  demands  immediately  a  larger  field  of  im- 
proved highways  for  the  South. 

A  Mississippi  highway  association  growing  out  of  this  Congress 
among  the  delegates  appointed  by  Governor  Brewer  has  been  formed, 
and  I  have  the  honor  of  being  its  president,  and  I  hope  that  when  our 
next  legislature  meets  you  will  find  Mississippi  transferred  from  the 
delinquent  list  and  among  those  States  who  have  a  Highway  De- 
partment. 

Gentlemen,  as  chairman  of  the  Mississippi  delegation  I  submit  to 
you  the  following  report  of  what  our  State  has  done  in  four  years 
even  without  a  public  highway  department  from  which  I  could 
gather  data.  This  report  does  not  include  work  done  by  tax  levy, 
but  only  that  by  bond  issue. 

Amount  of  money  raised  by  bond  issue $5,920,500 .00 

Number  of  miles  of  gravel  roads  built 717 .41 

Number  of  miles  of  macadam  roads  built 137 . 13 

Number  of  miles  of  sand,  clay  and  dirt  roads  built. . .  .  5381 .00 

Number  of  miles  of  concrete  roads  built 31 .00 

Number  of  miles  of  different  kinds  of  roads  now  under 
contract...  .  3272.00 


9518.54 
Approximate  amount  of  money  on  hand  for  future  con- 


tract or  uncompleted  contracts $1,139,500 .00 


THE  CHAIRMAN:  Continuing  the  subject  of  highway  engineer- 
ing education,  I  now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  Prof.  Hector 
J.  Hughes,  Chairman  of  the  School  of  Engineering,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. 

PROFESSOR  HUGHES:  Engineering  education  is  usually  taken  to 
mean  the  technical  education  comprised  in  a  limited  period  of  four 
years,  more  or  less,  pursued  at  a  scientific  school  or  college;  and 
it  is  my  conviction  that  many  of  the  difficulties  which  confront  us 
in  connection  with  this  subject  are  due  to  a  point  of  view  which 
leads  us  to  look  upon  this  period,  which  is  only  a  short  step  in  the 
process  of  education,  as  its  end  and  goal.  Moreover,  although  engi- 
neers and  administrators  and  engineering  teachers  know  pretty  well 


310  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

what  is  essential  and  desirable  for  young  students  intending  to 
enter  upon  highway  work,  there  is  a  considerable  divergence  of 
opinion  as  to  the  best  way  to  organize  instruction;  and  there  are 
also  many  limitations  imposed  upon  the  technical  schools  by  factors 
and  influences  beyond  their  control. 

We  are  at  present  confronted  with  a  demand  for  trained  high- 
way engineers  much  larger  than  the  supply.  This  is  partly  because 
the  field  is  new,  and  experienced  men  are  relatively  scarce,  and 
partly  because  the  engineering  schools  have  not  developed  their 
highway  work  as  well  as  older  subjects  of  instruction.  Moreover,  this 
very  lack  of  experienced  highway  engineers,  accentuates  the  deficien- 
cies of  young  graduates  when  they  enter  this  field  because  they  are, 
at  the  beginning  of  their  careers,  called  upon  for  a  degree  of  skill 
and  knowledge  of  practice  which  is  to  be  gained  only  by  experience, 
and  to  fill  places  which  in  other  fields  are  commonly  held  by  older 
men.  We  should  meet  the  immediate  demands  thoroughly,  and 
train  our  students  to  profit  by  this  present  opportunity;  but  we 
should  not  forget  that  the  condition  is  abnormal,  nor  embark  upon 
educational  policies  which  may  result,  sooner  or  later,  in  conditions 
which  may  be  disadvantageous  to  the  engineers  themselves,  as  well 
as  to  the  community  which  they  serve. 

We  too  often  discuss  engineering  courses  as  if  the  education  of 
engineers  were  comprised  in  the  short  period  spent  in  a  technical 
school,  and  plan  the  subjects  of  study  as  if  young  graduates  were 
finished  products.  If  they  often  fall  into  that  fatal  mistake  them- 
selves, they  are  hardly  to  be  blamed;  yet  we  know  right  well  that 
they  are  only  beginners  in  their  profession,  that  their  education 
begins  with  their  first  mental  impressions  in  infancy,  that  their 
character  and  their  habits  of  work  and  thought  are  more  or  less 
determined  before  they  enter  college,  and  if  their  education  is  to 
end  when  they  graduate,  as  sometimes  happens,  time  and  money 
and  effort  have  been  wasted  in  starting  them  on  ineffectual  and 
disappointing  careers. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  expect  that  young  engineering  graduates 
should  leave  the  technical  schools  mentally  equipped  to  enter  upon 
practice  in  any  one  of  the  several  closely  allied  fields  of  work,  with 
the  expectation  that  continued  further  study  combined  with  ex- 
perience will  lead  to  expertness  and  suitable  rewards.  When  there 
were  only  a  few  special  fields  of  engineering,  the  task  of  the  schools 
was  simple,  but  with  the  growing  and  inevitable  development  of 
specialties,  the  schools  are  facing  difficult  problems  in  trying  to 
meet  the  demand  for  more  specialized  training  without  sacrificing 
subjects  which  are  commonly  held  to  be  both  fundamental  and  in- 
dispensable. The  problem  reduces  itself  in  the  last  analysis,  to  the 
best  use  of  time  and  money;  the  time  required  to  complete  not  only 
a  technical  course,  but  also  the  whole  course  of  schooling,  the  money 
spent  in  providing  educational  opportunities,  and  in  supporting 
students  a  considerable  period  of  their  life  in  unproductive  effort. 


DISCUSSION  311 

Engineering  students  of  this  country  rarely  carry  their  schooling 
beyond  the  four-year  undergraduate  courses  of  the  engineering 
schools.  A  small  percentage  of  our  engineering  students  go  to  col- 
lege before  entering  upon  their  professional  studies,  another  small 
percentage  take  an  additional  year  or  more  of  advanced  specialized 
engineering  work;  this  small  but  important  class  should  be  well  pro- 
vided for,  but  the  four-year  undergraduate  courses  are  our  chief 
concern. 

The  average  age  of  entrance  to  the  technical  schools  is  probably 
between  18  and  19  years,  and  the  age  of  graduation  between  22 
and  23  years;  and  the  four  years  in  the  schools  comprise  in  reality 
only  four  periods  of  about  thirty  weeks  each,  with  perhaps  an  addi- 
tional ten  weeks  in  the  summer,  making  the  whole  period  specifi- 
cally devoted  to  what  we  call  a  technical  training,  about  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  weeks,  or  two  and  a  half  full  years.  About  one- 
half  of  this  period  is  allotted  to  subjects  which  are  not  technical, 
although  many  of  them  are  necessary  preparation  for  applied  science 
or  engineering  subjects  which  we  are  accustomed  to  look  upon  as 
the  real  technical  training.  In  these  four  years,  or  to  be  more  exact 
two  and  a  half  years,  students  are  expected  to  become  intelligent 
observers,  industrious,  clear  and  logical  thinkers;  to  learn  to  ex- 
press themselves  correctly  and  clearly  in  speech,  in  writing  and  in 
drawing;  to  acquire  skill  in  the  use  of  mathematics  and  mechanics; 
to  get  a  fundamental  knowledge  of  four  or  five  physical  sciences 
and  be  trained  in  laboratory  methods;  also  to  become  thoroughly 
grounded  in  the  applied  sciences  (that  is,  the  engineering  subjects 
of  one  general  field  of  engineering),  and  to  acquire  some  skill  in 
the  use  of  engineering  instruments.  To  this  is  usually  added  the 
study  of  one  or  two  foreign  languages,  sometimes  economics,  litera- 
ture and  history. 

As  highway  engineers,  they  should  learn  of  the  materials,  proc- 
esses and  methods  used  in  all  kinds  of  roads  and  pavements;  they 
should  be  trained  in  making  physical  and  chemical  tests  of  road 
materials,  and  interpreting  these  tests;  they  should  be  trained  in 
location  and  design,  in  writing  specifications;  and  should  know 
something  about  road  economics  and  administration,  and  road  laws, 
and  be  familiar  with  good  practice  in  general. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  enumerate  these  subjects  to  show  that 
the  proper  accomplishment  of  all  the  training  desirable  is  not  pos- 
sible within  the  limited  period  available.  The  necessary  stress 
under  which  the  students  work  often  defeats  the  very  object  of 
their  education,  namely,  a  thorough  training  of  the  mind. 

The  technical  schools  have  met  the  demand  for  specialization 
in  several  ways.  (1)  By  establishing  advanced  graduate  courses 
which  recognize  the  fact  that  to  be  effective,  specialized  work  should 
be  based  upon  thorough  training  in  fundamentals.  Such  courses 
are  naturally  only  available  for  those  who  have  completed  the 
undergraduate  work.  While  this  method  solves  the  problem  for 


312  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

those  few  who  can  afford  the  time  and  money,  it  does  not  solve 
the  problem  for  the  average  student.  There  should  be  a  few  schools 
well  equipped  and  well  manned  to  provide  this  class  of  instruction 
for  very  promising  men,  and  for  those  who  wish  to  return  from 
practice  to  acquire  additional  special  knowledge  in  the  fields  into 
which  choice  or  circumstances  have  placed  them.  But  it  is  not  a 
general  solution,  even  if  students  could  accept  it,  certainly  not 
unless  it  could  be  accomplished  without  increasing  the  age  of  gradua- 
tion, which  is  very  high  at  the  present  time. 

(2)  A  second  method  is  to  add  to  the  technical  programs,  courses 
giving  the  salient  points  of  special  fields,  as  the  demand  for  one 
after  another  arises,  attempting  to  keep  more  or  less  intact  the 
fundamentals  of  the  original  programs. 

(3)  The  third  method  is  to  offer  optional  groups  of  study  in 
special  fields,  eliminating  part  of  the  subjects  formerly  required  of 
all  students. 

The  second  method  is  not  satisfactory  in  general,  as  it  often 
results  in  eliminating  much  of  the  desirable  drill  in  fundamentals 
and  in  replacing  it  with  informational  courses,  rules  of  thumb,  and 
hand-book  designing,  routine  drafting,  and  the  mechanical  per- 
formance of  laboratory  exercises. 

The  third  way  is  probably  the  best  that  can  be  done  if  we  must 
specialize  in  the  time  allotted  to  the  undergraduate  courses.  By 
this  plan  students  can  acquire  a  fundamental  knowledge  of  the 
mechanics,  and  a  good  beginning  in  one  field  of  engineering  with- 
out sacrificing  vigorous  mental  training.  But  under  such  speciali- 
zation the  students  are  too  often  inadequately  prepared  to  enter 
advantageously  other  fields  than  the  one  which  they  have  chosen; 
and  if  they  do  not  select  the  fields  where  the  opportunities  of  their 
own  future  may  lead  them,  they  may  be  permanently  handicapped 
by  the  narrowness  of  their  training. 

A  study  of  the  catalogues  of  engineering  schools  will  convince 
anyone  that  some  schools  have  met  this  matter  of  specialization 
squarely,  that  many  have  not,  and  that  some  programs  are  a  com- 
promise between  an  attempt  to  specialize  and  still  to  retain  all  the 
fundamental  subjects.  It  is  not  uncommon  that  students  carry 
ten,  twelve  or  even  more  separate  courses  simultaneously  through  a 
term  of  fifteen  weeks.  These  courses  vary  from  a  lecture  of  one 
hour  per  week  in  each  subject  to  drafting  or  laboratory  courses  of 
six  hours  or  more  a  week.  Some  of  the  courses  neither  require  mental 
effort,  nor  produce  any  mental  reaction,  and  in  many  instances 
the  programs  are  so  crowded  that  there  is  little  opportunity  for 
mental  digestion.  We  are  in  theory  at  least  training  young  men 
to  solve  engineering  problems,  and  if  they  are  not  trained  to  think, 
the  very  end  of  education  is  defeated.  Too  often  all  but  the  most 
vigorous  students  take  degrees  and  enter  upon  their  professional 
work  filled  with  undigested  facts,  but  little  competent  to  meet  and 
solve  real  problems. 


DISCUSSION  313 

It  seems  pertinent  to  raise  the  question  whether  many  existing 
programs  in  our  engineering  schools  are  not  more  or  less  haphazard 
development  from  courses  originally  designed  to  train  students  pri- 
marily for  corporation  service.  What  we  need  at  the  present  time,  as 
a  prominent  engineer  recently  said,  is  to  educate  engineers  for  public 
service  as  well  as  for  corporation  service.  They  should  have  the 
technical  subjects,  but  they  should  also  have  training  hi  business 
administration,  financing,  in  organization,  and  the  principles  of 
accounting,  and  in  matters  which  pertain  to  the  commercial,  indus- 
trial and  civic  institutions  of  the  country.  And  above  all  they 
should  be  fitted  to  take  up  engineering  problems,  not  only  from  a 
technical  standpoint,  but  also  with  the  broadest  and  soundest  con- 
sideration of  all  the  elements  involved. 

But  it  will  be  asked  how  can  we  do  all  that  is  now  being  required 
in  the  time  available,  and  add  more  to  it.  Perhaps  we  cannot, 
but  we  can,  I  think,  improve  the  training  of  our  students  without 
adding  to  their  years  of  study  or  increasing  the  age  of  graduation. 
Under  the  existing  conditions  of  entrance,  and  with  the  preparation 
which  students  ordinarily  have  upon  entering  college,  the  betterment 
of  the  technical  course  is  to  be  found  in  the  simplification  of  the 
programs,  in  the  elimination  of  over-specialization,  in  a  more  thorough 
correlation  of  subjects,  and  in  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  subjects 
attempted.  And  by  specialization,  I  do  not  refer  merely  to  new  fields; 
I  believe  it  is  entirely  possible  to  over-specialize,  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  students,  in  certain  elementary  subjects,  such  as  drafting  and 
surveying,  and  in  the  most  advanced  subjects,  such  as  railroading  and 
structures.  It  is  quite  possible  to  provide  within  the  limit  of  the 
four-years'  course,  a  well  balanced  program  which  will  give  civil 
engineering  students  about  an  equally  good  preparation  in  the  fields 
of  highway  work,  structural  work,  water  power,  railroad  and  sanitary 
engineering,  and  make  every  part  of  the  program  a  vigorous  course 
in  mental  training. 

I  think,  however,  that  if  we  stop  there  we  fall  short  of  solving 
our  problem.  We  are  too  much  given  to  thinking  in  terms  of  the 
four  years  of  the  technical  courses,  forgetting  the  other  twelve  or 
more  of  earlier  schooling,  and  the  years  of  study  which  should  fol- 
low in  the  career  of  every  engineer.  We  teachers  know  that  many,  if 
not  the  majority  of  students  enter  the  schools  with  careless  and  slov- 
enly mental  habits;  many  cannot  write  or  speak  correctly  and  clearly, 
and  many  cannot  do  arithmetic  or  elementary  mathematics  accu- 
rately. And,  although  considerable  effort  and  much  time  is  given 
during  the  four  years  to  correcting  early  acquired  habits,  engineers 
and  teachers  know  that  many  leave  the  schools  with  more  or  less  the 
same  unsatisfactory  qualities  that  they  had  when  they  entered. 
Moreover,  much  time  is  spent  in  college  in  repeating  subjects  which 
the  students  have  already  studied  long  enough  to  master  up  to  a 
certain  point,  but  which  they  have  not  mastered,  and  too  much  time 
is  given  to  studying  subjects  which  can  be  as  well  or  better  studied 


314  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

at  an  earlier  age.  Higher  standards  both  for  entrance  to,  and  gradua- 
tion from  our  technical  schools  should  be  more  uniformly  enforced. 

It  has  been  repeatedly  asserted  by  competent  educators  that  at 
least  two  years  can  be  saved  in  the  secondary  schools,  and  that  stu- 
dents can  be  graduated  two  years  earlier  from  college  if  a  better  co- 
ordination of  work  between  the  secondary  schools  and  the  colleges 
could  be  secured;  and  this  does  not  take  into  consideration  the  fact 
that  a  large  amount  of  time  is  wasted  for  the  older  boys  and  college 
students  in  the  long  summer  vacations.  Two  years  added  to  the 
productive  period  of  college  graduates  would  be  great  economic 
saving,  to  say  nothing  of  the  possibilities  it  would  offer  for  adding 
to  the  present  course  certain  studies  which  are  highly  desirable  and 
which  in  many  instances  could  be  added  if  it  were  not  for  this  waste 
of  time.  It  is  certainly  possible  to  fit  all  of  our  students  to  enter 
college  at  least  one  year  earlier  and  to  make  available  considerable 
time  out  of  the  four  years  for  such  studies  as  engineering  students 
ought  to  take  to  fit  them  for  the  business  and  administrative  duties 
which  they  may  be  called  upon  to  perform. 

A  radical  reform  in  the  use  of  time  during  the  years  of  schooling 
concerns  not  only  highway  education  but  all  education,  and  will  cer- 
tainly come  to  pass  under  the  stress  of  a  growing  economic  necessity, 
but  it  seems  to  me  that  these  reforms  should  be  hastened  by  every 
influence  that  engineers  and  others  interested  in  the  welfare  of  young 
men  can  bring  to  bear.  It  is  especially  important  in  engineering  be- 
cause the  majority  of  engineering  students  do  not  come  from  wealthy 
homes  and  the  cost  of  instruction,  as  well  as  the  cost  of  supporting 
them  while  they  are  not  earning,  is  a  very  heavy  tax  not  only  upon 
their  parents,  but  upon  the  community.  Moreover,  the  years  of 
apprenticeship  of  young  engineers  are  long  and  their  salaries  are 
small.  Students  should  enter  upon  their  work  not  only  as  early  as 
possible,  but  also  as  well  equipped  as  may  be,  not  only  for  highway 
engineering,  but  within  reasonable  limits  for  any  engineering  work 
that  the  chances  of  life  may  offer  them. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Next  on  the  program  is  the  Washington- 
Atlanta  Highway,  by  Charles  P.  Light,  Field  Secretary  of  the 
American  Highway  Association,  but  Mr.  Light's  duties  have  been 
so  numerous  that  he  has  asked  Mr.  George  C.  Scales,  Highway 
Engineer  of  the  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads,  to  take  his  place. 

MR.  SCALES:  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  I  know  you  missed 
a  treat  by  not  hearing  Mr.  Light,  as  I  am  a  very  poor  substitute 
for  him  when  it  comes  to  speaking.  I  will  try  in  as  few  words  as 
possible  to  tell  you  what  we  are  trying  to  do.  For  about  20  years 
the  Office  of  Public  Roads  has  been  building  object  lesson  roads  all 
over  the  United  States,  collecting  cost  data  and  having  bulletins 
printed  to  be  used  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  but  no  systematic 
attempt  at  maintenance  has  been  made  except  in  the  case  of  a  few 


DISCUSSION  315 

high  priced  roads.     The  American  Highway  Association  made  a 
proposition  to  the  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads  that  if  they  could  get 
about  1000  miles  of  roadway,  they  would  try  out  the  question  of 
maintenance;  the  Office  of  Public  Roads  to  detail  three  engineers  for 
the  work  and  the  American  Highway  Association  to  furnish  three 
automobiles  for  the  use  of  the  engineers.    The  road  from  Wash- 
ington to  Atlanta  was  selected.     It  is  a  road  that  comprises  about 
95  per  cent  of  all  the  types  of  road  in  the  United  States.    They 
wanted  to  get  the  cooperation  of  all  the  counties  along  the  line 
of  this  road,  because  the  United  States  was  not  going  to  spend  any 
money  whatever.     They  met  with  hearty  cooperation  and  inaugu- 
rated the  scheme,  and  in  May  appointed  three  engineers,  Mr.  Wins- 
low  for  the  northern  division,  myself  for  the  southern  and  Mr. 
Spoon  for  the  center.     The  idea  was  for  the  counties  along  this  road 
to  set  aside  a  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  maintenance  to  be  spent 
under  the   supervision   of  the   U.   S.   Government   engineers.     In 
Virginia  at  the  present  time  they  have  about  200  miles  of  275  under 
maintenance.     The  plan  has  just  been  started.     In  South  Carolina 
and  a  part  of  North  Carolina  they  have  about  50  miles.     On  my 
section  of  300  miles  in  Georgia  I  haven't  any  under  maintenance 
yet,  for  the  following  reasons:  the  counties  have  spent  about  $25,000 
so  far  in  widening  the  roads,  putting  in  pipes  where  they  form- 
erly had  wooden  culverts,  and  putting  on  soil.     In  the  next  three 
or  four  months  there  is  going  to  be  a  great  deal  more  money  spent 
and  I  did  not  want  to  put  them  under  maintenance  until  they  were 
in  such  shape  that  they  could  be  maintained.     The  original  idea 
was  to  have  a  single  road  from  Augusta  to  Atlanta,  but  there  was 
so  much  rivalry  that  they  finally  took  both,  so  the  line  split  at 
Thompson,  Georgia,  one  part  going  by  way  of  Washington,  Lex- 
ington, Athens,  Monroe,  Stone  Mountain,  and  the  other  by  way 
of   Warrenton,   Coffinsville,   and   Latonia.     The  roads   have   been 
greatly  improved  and  a  great  deal  of  interest  shown  by  all  these 
counties.     In  many  cases  roads  only  15  feet  wide  have  been  widened 
to  30  feet,  and  I  expect  within  the  next  six  months  those  roads  will 
be  in  such  shape  that  most  of  them  can  be  put  under  maintenance. 
The  proposition  is  entirely  a  novel  one  and  the  work  is  being  done 
entirely  by  counties;  no  money  is  being  spent  by  the  United  States 
whatever,  the  government  simply  furnishing  an  engineer.     In  this 
way  we  hope  to  demonstrate  that  it  is  better  to  keep  a  road  up 
than  to  let  it  go  to  pieces  and  try  to  re-build  it  at  large  expense.     The 
problem  of  maintenance  we  are  just  beginning  to  realize  is  as  im- 
portant as  that  of  construction,  and  that  as  soon  as  a  road  is  fin- 
ished, it  ought  to  be  put  under  maintenance.     I  thank  you  for  your 
attention. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:    That  concludes  the  program  for  the  afternoon. 
The  meeting  stands  adjourned  until  10  o'clock  tomorrow  morning. 


316  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

GEORGIA  DAY 

November  IS,  10  A.M. 

MR.  W.  TOM  WINN  IN  THE  CHAIR 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  the  meeting  will  please 
come  to  order.  We  are  going  to  shift  our  program  just  a  little,  be- 
cause one  or  two  of  our  speakers  have  been  detained  and  will  come 
in  later.  I  wish  to  introduce  to  you  for  the  first  address  of  the  morn- 
ing, Prof.  R.  D.  Kneale,  Associate  Professor  of  Civil  Engineering, 
Georgia  School  of  Technology,  who  will  speak  to  us  on  "The  Educa- 
tional Campaign  for  Road  Improvement." 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  CAMPAIGN  FOR  GOOD  ROADS 

PROF.  R.  D.  KNEALE 
Associate  Professor  of  Engineering,  Georgia  School  of  Technology 

The  writer  has  chosen  this  subject  because  he  believes  it  involves 
questions  infinitely  more  important  than  those  of  type  of  pavement, 
or  choice  of  machinery,  or  of  organization,  finance,  or  construction. 
He  believes  it  involves  the  question  of  whether  a  large  majority 
of  our  people  shall  take  an  abiding  and  an  intelligent  interest  in  our 
streets  and  highways,  or  whether  that  majority  shall  remain  in 
indifference  and  ignorance.  Approach  one  hundred  men  at  random 
on  our  streets  today  and  the  consensus  of  opinion  obtained  from 
them  would  point  to  looseness,  or  inefficiency,  or  graft  in  the  han- 
dling of  public  funds  for  road  purposes.  Rural  opinion  would  only 
emphasize  this  verdict,  for  the  soap-box  philosopher,  who  really 
crystallizes  rural  sentiment,  is  slow  to  appreciate,  slow  to  praise. 
Sometimes  the  only  cure  for  his  mature  prejudice  is  to  sell  him  an  au- 
tomobile. It  is  a  condition  that  exists  because  of  ignorance  and 
indifference,  and  it  is  unjust  and  wrong.  It  prevents  financing. 
It  prevents  construction.  It  prevents  progress.  It  should  be 
rectified.  The  writer  hopes  to  emphasize  a  basic  means  for  accom- 
plishing this  end. 

This  meeting  is  primarily  an  educational  one.  We  meet  here  to 
learn  and  to  teach;  to  know  and  to  be  known;  to  give  and  to  receive 
inspiration.  This  is  a  clearing  house  of  matters  pertaining  to  high- 
ways. Atlanta  invites  you  here  to  learn  of  her  greatness,  and  prog- 
ress, and  her  hospitality.  Upon  adjournment  the  proceedings  of  this 
congress  will  doubtless  be  compiled  and  any  one  of  us  sufficiently 
interested  may  secure  a  copy.  We  are  engaged  in  an  educational 
campaign  of  mutual  self-help.  It  is  an  educational  meeting  but  we 
reach  only  those  who  are  already  interested  in  the  good  road  move- 
ment. We  relieve  the  above  mentioned  evil  condition  almost  not 
at  all.  This  is  not  a  failure  on  our  part.  We  are  performing  the 


EDUCATIONAL  CAMPAIGN  FOR  GOOD  ROADS          317 

function  for  which  we  are  organized.  We  are  not  attempting  to 
reach  many  of  the  family  of  Mr.  Common  People. 

Other  road  organizations  are  also  filling  their  chosen  field  in  this 
campaign  of  education.  Chief  among  these  is  our  Office  of  Public 
Roads,  highly  efficient,  and  certainly  doing  a  splendid  work.  In 
the  interest  of  national  development  and  progress  this  organization 
should  be  allowed  to  rapidly  broaden  through  Congressional  appro- 
priations commensurate  with  the  paramount  importance  of  good  roads 
in  national  life.  The  large  majority,  however,  of  those  reached  by 
this  office  are  already  sufficiently  interested  to  attend  meetings,  to 
inspect  roads,  or  to  at  least  send  a  stamp  to  Washington.  The 
masses  of  our  population  are  not  interested,  and  their  attention 
cannot  well  be  forced  by  present  methods.  The  States  through  their 
commissions  are  ably  supplementing  the  work  of  the  Office  of  Public 
Roads,  and  they  are  reaching  about  the  same  class  of  people.  The 
press,  in  the  advance  ranks  of  civilizing  influences,  the  National 
Highways  Association,  the  American  Automobile  Association,  and 
other  organizations  are  doing  a  magnificent  work,  but  they  cannot 
cram  the  people  with  that  for  which  there  is  no  demand.  They  are 
meeting  the  growing  demand  for  knowledge,  and  they  are  forcing 
that  growth  to  some  extent,  but  of  necessity  they  fail  to  reach  the 
large  mass  of  indifferent  and  ignorant  to  whom  I  refer. 

Road  education  is  crammed  into  a  few  by  those  who  desire  to  sell 
road  machinery  and  materials,  or  by  real  estate  development  com- 
panies, technical  colleges  are  reaching  a  few,  but  the  mass  not 
reached  by  any  of  the  above  agencies  is  large.  It  numbers  a  great 
majority  of  our  hundred  millions,  and  under  the  present  method  of 
attack  the  diminution  of  that  majority,  though  increasing,  is  yet  too 
slow  for  so  great  a  cause.  The  reduction  of  that  majority  should 
be  hastened  by  striking  at  its  very  roots  through  the  public  school 
system. 

There  are  over  twenty-five  million  children  of  school  age  in  the 
United  States,  and  some  twenty  million  of  these  are  in  school  an  aver- 
age of  ninety  days  per  school  year.  Thirty-four  per  cent  of  these 
children  are  above  the  fifth  grade,  and  their  minds  are  keenly  sus- 
ceptible to  impressions  that  will  last  through  life.  The  social,  the 
financial,  and  the  political  phases  of  the  road  question  can  readily 
be  made  to  touch  their  lives  at  many  points  with  living  interest.  No 
pressure  will  be  required  to  keep  that  interest  alive,  only  a  hand 
guided  by  a  reasonable  intelligence.  If  pressure  is  needed  it  will 
be  to  bring  their  attention  back  to  the  dry  bones  of  the  three  R's. 
The  children  will  take  their  new  interests  into  the  home  to  arouse  a 
parent  who  can  be  reached  in  no  other  way.  If  the  danger  of  loosely 
spending  easy  money  lies  in  bond  issues,  the  child  can  grasp  the  idea. 
If  the  advantage  of  a  good  road  can  be  had  only  through  paying 
for  it  on  the  bond  issue  instalment  plan,  he  can  also  understand 
that.  The  consolidation  of  rural  schools  requires  good  roads  and 
forces  good  roads,  and  the  child  easily  sees  the  all  round  advan- 


318  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

tage  and  becomes  an  ardent  advocate.  In  fact  the  child  can  grasp 
to  some  extent  each  social,  financial,  and  political  phase  of  the  road 
question,  and  the  community  interest  in  a  common  good  will  make 
him  a  better  citizen.  His  grasp  will  develop  and  broaden  with 
years  until  he  takes  over  the  reins  of  finance  and  government. 
Then  there  should  be  no  lack  of  progress  through  ignorance,  and 
the  public  will  exercise  so  highly  intelligent  a  supervision  as  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  misuse  of  public  money.  What  an  oppor- 
tunity to  strike  at  the  roots  of  ignorance  at  the  rate  of  twenty  mil- 
lion a  year! 

It  may  be  urged  that  the  average  rural  teacher  is  too  immature, 
or  that  she  lacks  the  training  to  handle  so  great  a  subject.  She  was 
not  too  immature  to  learn  and  to  teach  something  of  physiology 
and  hygiene.  She  is  not  considered  too  poor  an  instrument  to 
advance  the  cause  of  scientific  agriculture.  Surely  a  person  can  grasp 
something  of  the  social  advantages  of  good  roads  as  readily  as  he 
can  the  physiological  function  of  a  human  organ,  or  nitrification  of 
legumes  through  bacterial  inoculation.  Besides,  the  ability  of 
rural  teachers  will  increase  materially  with  the  consolidation  of 
schools. 

To  initiate  this  educational  movement,  requires  no  new  organiza- 
tions, and  but  little  change  in  existing  ones.  The  Office  of  Public 
Roads  already  has  corps  of  expert  lecturers  and  demonstrators,  who 
are  campaigning  among  the  nation's  adults.  There  they  are  forced 
to  overcome  the  inertia  of  long  fixed  habits  of  thinking  before  they 
can  plant  seeds  of  interest  and  enthusiasm  for  good  highways. 
They  are  also  forced  to  overcome  a  certain  prejudice  against  out- 
side influence  in  local  affairs.  This  same  lecture  corps  could  reach 
meetings  of  educators  in  institutes,  and  in  city,  State,  and  national 
teachers'  organizations.  Bulletins  published  by  the  Office  of  Public 
Roads  could  be  re-edited  to  meet  school  requirements,  and  could  be 
used  as  free  text  books  for  talks,  round-table  discussions,  and  in- 
spection trips.  Bulletins  could  be  arranged  also  for  the  vocational 
courses  in  high  schools. 

We  who  are  attending  this  congress  want  good  roads.  We  have 
a  certain  appreciation  of  their  value  or  we  wouldn't  be  here.  We 
desire  to  enhance  the  value  of  our  city  lot.  We  desire  to  reduce  the 
loss  between  producer  and  consumer.  We  want  jobs.  We  want  to 
sell  equipment.  We  want  to  develop  our  community,  our  city,  our 
State.  We  want  national  development.  First,  last  and  always  we 
are  for  road  progress,  yet  progress  is  slow  unless  backed  by  an 
intelligent  and  an  interested  public  opinion.  There  is  no  great 
difficulty  in  constructing  a  highway  if  the  public  is  sufficiently  inter- 
ested to  finance  it.  If  the  money  is  raised  it  will  be  expended  by 
willing  hands.  If  there  is  inefficiency  in  the  use  of  the  money, 
that  evil  will  be  reduced  and  eliminated  with  the  increase  of  public 
intelligence  and  interest.  We  are  now  educating  a  number  of  adults, 
but  the  number  is  all  too  small  for  so  great  a  cause,  and  we  are  almost 


DISCUSSION  319 

entirely  ignoring  the  class  easiest  to  reach,  easiest  to  influence,  and 
many  millions  strong.  Their  stronghold  is  in  the  public  schools. 
Shall  we  storm  that  stronghold,  or  shall  we  continue  to  expend  all 
our  energy  upon  the  mature  prejudice  of  the  adult?  A  panacea 
for  many  road  ills  lies  with  the  public  school. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  "Convict  Labor  as  a  Factor  in  Road  Construc- 
tion." Judge  T.  E.  Patterson,  of  the  Prison  Commission  of  Georgia, 
will  open  the  discussion  on  this  subject. 

MR.  BLAIR:  Just  one  word.  I  don't  think  that  a  paper  of  the 
kind  we  have  just  heard  ought  to  be  passed  without  a  word  of  special 
recognition.  What  the  Professor  has  said  with  reference  to  supple- 
menting the  work  of  education  in  this  country  along  the  lines  of 
which  he  speaks — behind  that  he  has,  with  hidden  modesty,  failed 
to  say  one  word  that  ought  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  technical  and 
engineering  schools  of  this  country,  which  are  doing  the  very  work, 
so  far  as  they  can,  that  he  speaks  of.  I  think  that  acknowledgment 
ought  to  be  made  publicly,  because  the  moral  force  that  is  being 
exerted  by  the  technical  schools  in  this  country,  cultivating  the  very 
sentiments,  honesty  and  integrity  among  their  students,  ought  to 
receive  attention.  They  are  doing  a  great  work  in  this  country 
and  I  am  glad  to  give  attestation  to  that  fact. 

PROFESSOR  KNEALE:  I  neglected  to  say  something  of  the  work 
of  that  kind.  I  have  been  in  it  for  some  time.  Up  in  Montana 
we  carried  on  college  extension  work  through  the  University  of  Mon- 
tana, and  I  did  considerable  of  that  work  and  also  the  State  High- 
way Commissioner,  but  we  failed  to  reach  public  schools.  I  intended 
to  mention  the  work  the  colleges  and  universities  are  doing  in  that 
line,  but  so  far  I  believe  the  technical  schools  have  failed  to  a  large 
extent  to  reach  the  public  schools,  the  high  schools,  the  people  who 
come  together  in  road  meetings. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  much  obliged  to  Mr.  Blair  for  impressing 
that  thought  upon  us.  We  will  now  hear  from  Judge  Patterson. 

JUDGE  PATTERSON:  This  subject  was  intended  to  be  opened  by 
a  paper  from  General  Clifford  L.  Anderson,  on  "  Convict  Labor  as 
a  Factor  in  Road  Construction,"  and  the  discussion  of  that  paper 
opened  by  Chairman  R.  E.  Davidson,  of  the  Prison  Commission  of 
Georgia.  In  the  absence  of  General  Anderson,  who  has  been  ill 
for  some  days,  and  of  Mr.  Davidson,  I  will  endeavor  to  outline 
what  Georgia  is  trying  to  do  along  this  line.  Georgia  commenced 
this  work  30  years  ago  to  a  limited  extent;  about  20  years  ago,  to 
a  larger  extent,  and  about  six  years  ago,  all  the  convicts  were  taken 
from  the  lessees  who  had  been  working  them  in  lumber,  turpentine 
and  mining  camps,  brick  making,  etc.,  and  all  the  able-bodied  ones 
were  put  upon  the  public  roads  of  Georgia.  We  have  been  engaged 


320  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

all  over  the  State  since  that  time  in  constructing  public  roads  by  the 
use  of  convict  labor.  The  material  progress  that  Georgia  has  made 
within  these  past  six  years  in  the  construction  of  public  roads,  is 
the  highest  testimonial  that  can  be  made  for  the  system  that  is  now 
employed.  There  are  more  than  120  counties  in  Georgia  using  their 
pro  rata  of  the  State  convicts  upon  the  public  roads.  There  is  hardly 
a  county  in  Georgia  that  has  not  got  a  network  of  public  roads  that 
an  automobile  or  even  a  Ford  could  be  run  upon  at  a  rate  of  20  to 
30  miles  per  hour,  without  danger,  and  that  progress  has  been  made 
very  largely  in  the  last  six  years.  Six  years  ago  that  condition  did 
not  obtain  all  over  Georgia.  There  were  certain  counties  in  which 
the  roads  were  fairly  good,  but  in  the  large  majority  of  the  counties 
you  could  possibly  travel  over  them  to  some  extent  in  buggies  and 
wagons,  but  it  was  hard  to  get  automobiles  over  them.  The  first 
tours  that  were  made,  certain  counties  ahead  of  them  had  to  do  some 
patchwork  on  the  roads  so  they  could  go  over  them.  Now,  you 
can  go  in  any  direction  and  find  perfect  highways  all  over  the  State, 
and  that  condition  exists  through  the  use  of  convicts.  In  discussing 
this  convict  question,  you  have  to  consider  its  effect  on  the  convict 
as  well  as  the  value  of  his  work  to  the  community.  Modern  study 
in  penalogy,  or  criminology,  is  based  on  the  principle  that  confine- 
ment in  chain  gangs  or  penitentiaries  is  not  altogether  for  the  pur- 
pose of  punishment,  for  the  purpose  of  deterring  others  from  com- 
mitting crime,  but  to  reform  the  criminal  himself ,  if  possible.  Road 
work  I  think  does  that  to  a  greater  extent  than  any  system  of  con- 
vict management  known  to  man,  and  I  think  that  it  is  based  on  the 
principle  that  when  the  convict  is  worked  within  an  enclosure  or 
under  a  lessee,  he  feels  that  no  one  is  deriving  any  benefit  from  his 
work  except  private  gain  and  that  the  only  object  in  putting  him 
in  there  is  to  punish  him  for  his  crime.  You  can  go  and  preach  to 
him  and  tell  him  he  ought  to  be  a  better  man  and  he  will  listen  to 
you,  but  all  the  time  he  will  have  that  feeling,  "If  you  are  inter- 
ested in  me,  why  don't  you  make  some  other  provision  for  me? 
Why  do  you  want  to  keep  me  here  and  crush  me."  The  result  is 
that  all  over  the  world  there  is  what  is  known  as  a  criminal  class. 
They  get  into  prison,  they  get  out,  and  after  they  get  out  they  com- 
mit some  other  crime  and  get  back.  It  is  the  same  old  grind  over 
and  over,  until  we  have  built  up  what  we  refer  to  as  the  criminal 
class.  We  have  the  same  condition  in  our  cities;  you  can  go  to  a 
police  court  in  Atlanta  or  Macon,  Savannah,  Columbus,  or  any 
city  in  Georgia,  or  any  city  in  the  United  States,  and  the  police 
judge  will  tell  you,  as  man  after  man  will  come  up  before  him,  or 
woman  after  woman,  how  many  times  many  of  those  prisoners  have 
been  there  before.  He  sends  them  to  the  stockade,  they  serve  their 
time  and  are  released,  but  it  does  no  good;  they  go  right  back.  It 
was  formerly  that  way  in  the  penitentiary  system  of  Georgia.  I 
daresay,  under  this  system  in  the  last  six  years,  the  men  who  have 
been  convicted  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary  in  Georgia  and  served 


DISCUSSION  321 

out  their  time — not  15  per  cent  of  them  have  ever  returned  to  the 
penitentiary.  I  think  it  is  on  account  of  three  facts:  one  is  that 
they  see  that  the  public  is  getting  some  benefit  from  their  enforced 
labor;  some  individual  is  not  getting  it  all,  they  see  that  when  they 
get  out,  they  themselves  are  going  to  get  some  benefit  from  it  as  a 
member  of  the  community.  They  may  not  reason  that  out  just 
like  I  am  stating  it,  but  it  is  instinctive  in  the  human  heart  that 
whenever  a  man  works  he  wants  to  have  something  coming  to  him- 
self from  the  work  he  does;  that  is  characteristic  of  humanity,  and 
you  appeal  to  that  feeling  in  a  man,  and  from  that  you  build  char- 
acter. Another  thing,  they  are  worked  in  the  open;  the  finest  moral 
qualities  instilled  in  anybody  are  from  being  worked  in  the  open, 
in  the  sunshine  and  free  air,  and  next  to  the  soil.  I  think  you  will 
find  that  a  large  majoiity  of  the  leaders  of  the  world's  thought,  the 
leaders  in  commerce,  in  banking  and  in  all  branches  of  human  en- 
deavor— come  from  the  farm.  It  is  because  the  boys  on  the  farm 
are  raised  in  the  open,  next  to  the  soil;  they  acquire  from  that  con- 
dition surrounding  them  those  moral  qualities  that  make  good  citi- 
zens and  make  leaders  in  thought  and  in  action.  The  same  thing 
applies  to  a  convict;  he  is  worked  out  in  the  open  air,  he  is  worked 
in  the  sunshine;  he  gets  that  moral  stamina  in  him  that  aids  him 
when  he  gets  out,  to  make  a  man.  In  some  States,  Colorado  is  one 
of  them,  they  select  certain  convicts  for  road  work.  Some  of  the 
most  desperate  ones  they  don't  work  there.  They  keep  them  con- 
fined. In  Georgia  we  keep  all  of  them  on  the  public  roads  on  the 
theory  that  all  men  have  the  same  intuitive  instincts.  If  you  can 
give  him  a  basis  on  which  to  build,  there  is  hope  for  any  man,  and 
if  you  give  them  all  the  same  treatment,  you  have  a  chance  to 
redeem  them  all.  So  much  for  the  convict  road  work  as  a  moral 
force.  It  is  an  economical  force  because  the  community  is  neces- 
sarily compelled  to  support  these  fellows  anyway,  wherever  you  put 
them.  If  you  put  them  on  your  roads,  the  community  gets  a  benefit 
that  is  commensurate  with  the  outlay  of  money  for  their  support. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  describe  the  benefit  of  good  roads  to 
a  community;  your  being  here  at  this  convention  is  a  testimonial 
to  the  fact  that  you  know  that  good  roads  build  up  a  community 
and  add  to  its  prosperity,  its  social  advantages,  its  uplift  in  every 
way.  You  understand  those  things  better,  probably,  than  I  could 
tell  you.  Pardon  me  for  referring  to  the  Georgia  laws  in  this  con- 
nection. The  one  weakness  of  the  Georgia  system  is  the  lack  of 
in  working  their  roads,  the  lack  of  cooperation.  We  have  just  begun 
by  putting  in  a  State  highway  engineer,  Professor  Stanley,  of  Athens. 
The  law  provides  that  we  may  employ  four,  and  we  intend  to  do  so 
if  the  legislature  will  ever  provide  funds.  That  is  what  we  are 
working  for  now.  Our  idea  is,  that  if  we  have  this  corps  of  highway 
engineers  to  visit  counties,  and  show  the  men  in  charge,  the  county 
commissioners  and  the  wardens  and  superintendents  in  charge  of  the 
road  working  force,  what  can  be  done  with  the  convicts  they  have 


322  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

and  with  the  material  they  have,  we  will  be  doing  great  things  for 
them.  I  was  very  much  impressed  this  morning  by  Mr.  Adams' 
talk,  the  Commissioner  from  Polk  County.  We  wrote  to  all  the 
county  commissioners  of  the  State  when  we  started  to  put  in  this 
system  of  supervisors  and  Mr.  Adams  was  one  of  the  number  that 
o5d  not  think  it  would  work,  but  this  morning  he  got  up  and  ad- 
mitted that  he  had  been  visited  by  a  professor  of  engineering  from 
the  State  University  for  a  short  time  and  he  didn't  stay  long  enough. 
Just  a  short  visit  has  converted  him  to  the  fact  that  engineers  are 
almost  indispensable.  Then  our  idea  is  to  divide  the  State  into  four 
districts,  put  an  engineer  in  each  district,  and  have  an  annual  insti- 
tute in  each  district,  where  all  the  wardens  superintendents  and  road 
commissioners  can  get  together  and  discuss  with  these  four  engi- 
neers, all  the  problems  with  which  they  have  to  deal.  This,  to  my 
mind,  would  be  a  long  step  forward.  There  is  a  movement  on  foot 
to  establish  a  system  of  State  highways,  not  from  Atlanta  to  Savan- 
nah, but  to  go  into  all  Georgia  and  build  public  roads  between  the 
main  towns,  the  county  seats;  these  roads  to  be  built  and  main- 
tained by  the  State.  The  county  could  take  care  of  the  county 
roads,  the  laterals,  and  tributaries.  We  can  do  that  without  spend- 
ing any  more  money  than  is  being  spent  now;  we  can  do  it  with  the 
revenue  the  State  already  provides  for  this  work.  If  the  govern- 
ment ever  furnishes  any  additional  funds  for  building  these  roads, 
we  can  have  a  perfect  system.  It  is  right  for  the  government  to  do 
it,  they  improve  the  rivers  and  what  is  a  river  except  an  artery  of 
commerce?  They  improve  the  harbors  at  the  mouths  of  the  river. 
Why?  To  give  greater  facilities  for  commerce;  if  they  can  improve 
rivers  to  aid  commerce,  why  can't  they  improve  a  public  road  to 
aid  commerce?  One  is  just  as  much  an  artery  of  commerce  as  the 
other;  in  fact  the  road  is  more  an  artery  of  commerce  than  the  river; 
there's  ten  times  the  commerce  goes  over  every  road  in  Georgia 
as  goes  over  any  of  these  insignificant  rivers  that  the  government 
spends  thousands  and  thousands  of  dollars  upon.  The  government 
is  bound  to  assist  and  with  the  assistance  we  get  from  the  govern- 
ment and  the  taxes  now  distributed  to  the  various  counties  from 
the  automobiles,  we  will  have  the  funds  to  maintain  these  gangs 
and  Georgia  will  have  the  finest  system  of  public  roads  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  a  great  thing  we  are  undertaking,  but  we  are  going  to 
make  plans  to  get  the  necessary  legislation  when  our  legislature 
meets  next  summer. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Before  calling  upon  Governor-elect  Harris  I 
should  like  to  know  whether  anyone  wants  to  discuss  this  very 
important  subject,  or  ask  Judge  Patterson  any  questions.  I  am 
sure  that  his  position  on  the  Prison  Commission  and  his  contact 
with  convict  life  in  Georgia,  well  fit  him  to  give  any  information 
or  to  answer  any  question  that  might  be  asked.  Many  of  you  have 
visited  our  convict  camps,  and  have  no  doubt  learned  a  great  deal 
about  our  system. 


DISCUSSION  323 

A  MEMBER:  I  think  Mr.  Patterson  has  so  ably  discussed  the 
problem  that  there  are  no  questions  to  be  asked,  sir. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  If  there  are  no  questions  to  be  asked,  I  have 
the  great  honor  and  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  Judge  Nat  E. 
Harris,  Governor-elect,  to  whom  we  have  assigned  no  subject,  but 
have  given  the  entire  right-of-way  for  just  as  long  a  time  as  he  likes, 
because  if  you  have  ever  heard  him  speak  once,  you  will  know  that 
you  don't  have  to  put  a  limit  on  him  and  that  you  will  stay  until 
he  gets  through.  Judge  Harris. 

JUDGE  HARRIS:  Mr.  Chairman,  Gentlemen  of  the  Good  Roads  Con- 
gress, Fellow  Citizens:  That  was  a  very  nice  introduction  of  the 
Chairman  for  which  I  thank  him.  It  put  a  good  deal  of  responsi- 
bility on  me  too.  The  truth  is,  I  did  not  know  I  was  expected  to 
speak  in  this  gathering  until  a  day  or  so  ago  when  I  saw  the  program. 
I  had  written  to  my  friends  here  that  I  could  not  promise  to  attempt 
to  make  an  address,  but  stated  that  I  would  like  to  come  up  and 
look  into  your  faces  and  hear  somebody  talk  on  a  subject  I  knew 
was  of  great  interest  just  now,  so  I  might  find  out  what  it  meant, 
what  it  was  and  how  far  it  reached,  what  was  involved  in  it  and 
especially  what  you  knew  about  it.  This  was  the  idea  with  which 
I  came  to  this  convention. 

Now,  I  heard  one  of  your  speakers  refer  just  now  to  Judge  Patter- 
son's familiarity  with  the  convicts  of  the  State.  I  used  to  be  on  the 
bench  myself  and  sent  a  good  many  people  to  the  chain  gang  who 
are  working  on  the  roads  of  Georgia  today,  making  good  roads  for 
us.  During  the  past  summer,  if  you  will  permit  me,  when  I  was 
going  over  the  State  in  the  canvass  for  governor— by  the  way  one 
of  the  hottest  canvasses  we  ever  had  in  Georgia,  I  reckon,  for  the 
thermometer  rose  to  116  in  the  automobile  in  which  I  traveled  on 
one  occasion,  and  the  boys  frequently  asked  me  in  the  court  house, 
with  the  thermometer  at  106,  if  they  might  take  off  their  coats 
when  I  began  to  speak;  of  course  you  know  I  told  them  to  take  off 
their  coats  and  keep  them  off  till  the  day  of  the  election  for  me — 
I  say,  as  I  went  along  one  day  I  passed  a  chain  gang  that  was  work- 
ing on  the  public  roads,  when  one  man,  wearing  stripes,  stepped 
out  a  little  from  the  rest  of  the  gang  and  said,  "Judge  Harris,  I'm 
representing  you  here"!  I  found  out  on  enquiry  that  he  was  a  con- 
vict I  had  sentenced  while  on  the  bench,  so  I  want  this  Road  Congress 
to  understand  that  I  too  have  some  right  to  talk  on  the  subject  of 
road  building,  that  there  are  doubtless  many  able  bodied  workers 
in  the  chain  gangs,  sent  thereby  myself  who  are  doing  good  work  for 
Georgia,  and  laboring  to  make  good  roads  for  her  people,  for  the 
farmers  and  merchants  and  the  doctors  and  lawyers,  that  their 
business  may  be  worth  more  in  the  State  to  them  and  to  the  people 
who  depend  upon  them! 

I  came  to  this  State  about  fifty  years  ago;  I  started  out  from  a 


324  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

little  place  up  yonder  in  East  Tennessee,  called  Jonesboro,  the  oldest 
town  in  the  State.  I  traveled  down  along  the  slopes  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  entered  Georgia  first  in  Rabun  County,  then  came  on 
through  the  mountain  district,  riding  a  kicking  mule  on  the  way, 
while  my  brother  drove  a  wagon,  with  sure-footed  mules  too.  Look- 
ing back  over  these  fifty  years,  I  remember  how  the  trail  from 
Tennessee  ran  then  along  the  sides  of  the  mountain,  over  the  ridges 
and  the  valleys — nothing  but  a  trail.  The  inhabitants  said  I'd 
reach  the  Old  Federal  Road  after  awhile.  Well,  I  did  and  it  was  a 
road,  no  doubt,  but  it  was  a  road  you  wanted  to  get  out  of  as  quick 
as  you  could.  "Wherever  there  was  a  fork  in  it  and  you  took  one 
fork  and  went  a  little  distance  you  were  sorry  you  had  not  taken 
the  other.  We  often  turned  out  into  the  fields  to  avoid  the  road, 
because  one  could  get  along  there  better  than  in  the  road.  When 
I  reached  Georgia  and  looked  back  over  the  trail  I  had  followed,  I 
said  to  myself,  "I  will  write  a  book  and  call  it,  'Short  Cuts  on  a 
Journey  to  Georgia/  "  and  that  is  what  it  was,  for  I  was  all  the  time 
trying  to  avoid  the  windings  of  the  trail  and  get  down  here.  That 
was  fifty  years  ago ;  I  went  back  over  that  country  in  the  last  three 
or  four  months — I  came  down  over  the  same  mountain  cliffs  and 
hills  and  valleys,  but  I  saw  they  had  laid  out  turnpikes  where  the 
old  roads  ran.  I  traveled  in  an  automobile,  moving  from  place  to 
place  with  a  rapidity  that  would  have  made  our  ancestors  turn 
almost  crazy  and  feel  that  some  sort  of  magic  had  been  at  work  in 
the  world.  It  was  easy  traveling;  the  rocks  had  been  blasted  out 
of  the  roadway;  the  grades  all  laid  out  well,  and  I  said  to  myself, 
"  How  has  all  this  been  brought  about?"  I  see  a  man  in  the  audience 
who  could  answer  this  question.  He  has  furnished  plan  after  plan 
and  survey  after  survey  to  these  counties  through  which  I  traveled, 
and  their  nice  turnpikes  and  level  roadways  will  stand  the  storm 
for  many  a  day. 

Some  one  writing  on  roads,  said,  "The  degree  of  civilization  in 
a  country  may  be  ascertained  by  finding  out  the  state  of  its  public 
roads."  Is  that  so?  If  it  is,  I  am  ready  to  say  to  you  here,  in  a 
representative  capacity,  in  a  private  capacity,  or  in  any  other  capac- 
ity, that  Georgia  is  not  afraid  to  show  hands  with  most  of  you — 
that  we  have  started  in  this  State  a  pretty  good  system  of  roads 
and  we  hope  to  go  forward  until  we  even  take  the  front.  We  have 
aroused  competition  among  the  counties. 

Way  back  yonder  in  the  past,  you  know,  there  were  two  ways 
followed  in  road  working.  The  first  was,  where  the  county  com- 
pelled by  law,  had  four  days'  work  done  upon  the  roads  each  year — 
by  summoning  the  citizens  along  the  road  to  do  the  work,  or  in  lieu 
thereof  levied  a  small  commutation  tax,  that  was  never  collected 
or  if  collected,  rarely  applied:  the  second  system  existed  where  the 
county  could  keep  a  chain  gang  and  supplemented  the  intermittent 
road  hands  with  a  force  that  worked  all  the  year  round.  In  the 
course  of  time  the  legislature  gave  us  the  three  alternative  road 


DISCUSSION  325 

laws,  which  was  an  advance  on  the  former  times.  Now  we  have 
gone  still  higher  in  the  scale,  and  the  State  and  counties  have  all 
put  their  chain  gangs  to  work  exclusively  on  the  public  roads,  and 
a  system  of  improvement  has  been  inaugurated  that  will  really 
count  in  the  future,  and  promises  soon  to  justify  our  people  in 
claiming  that  this  great  old  State  shall  no  longer  stand  behind  her 
sisters  when  you  come  to  estimate  her  civilization  by  the  splendor 
of  her  public  roads. 

But  there  are  two  views  taken  of  the  progress  in  road  building. 
A  good  old  lady  who  lives  down  in  the  center  of  the  State,  whose 
memory  goes  back  to  the  old  system,  said  to  a  friend  lately:  "I 
don't  believe  in  these  new  scrapers  and  automobiles  for  our  public 
roads;  all  they  need  is  the  pine  top  and  the  hoe:  that  was  what  the 
people  used  in  the  old  days.  We  land  owners  have  to  pay  for  these 
new  things  and  in  this  way  the  folks  that  travel  get  the  advantage 
of  us."  The  old  lady  is  not  alone  in  her  views;  there  are  many  who 
feel  just  as  she  does,  so  it  will  be  necessary  to  educate  the  people 
till  they  realize  the  true  value  of  the  reform  that  is  going  on.  There 
are  not  wanting  those  who  will  complain  at  the  slightest  increase  of 
taxes,  consequently  it  is  the  more  important  that  the  people  gen- 
erally should  understand  how  the  building  of  the  roads,  by  adding 
values  to  real  estate  and  its  products,  gives  the  owners  in  return, 
something  with  which  to  pay  the  increased  taxes.  And  the  whole 
county  shares  in  the  benefits.  Why,  a  farmer  now  in  the  counties 
where  the  good  roads  policy  is  followed,  enjoys  all  the  advantages 
of  country  and  city  combined.  His  automobile  carries  him  from 
the  farm  to  the  city  and  from  the  city  to  the  farm  with  incredible 
ease,  while  his  telephone  brings  him  into  direct  communication  with 
the  great  centers  of  trade  as  well  as  with  his  own  neighbors  and 
friends  round  about. 

This  competition  among  the  counties,  to  which  I  referred  just 
now,  is  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in  our  good  roads  move- 
ment. The  smaller  counties  may  well  say  to  the  counties  with  great 
cities,  "  You  can  put  your  money  in  fine  public  buildings  and  parks 
and  streets,  but  we  will  put  ours  in  our  roadways,  and  make  them 
better  than  your  streets  so  that — bringing  our  produce  to  market 
easily — our  farms  shall  increase  in  value  as  your  own  real  estate 
ascends  in  the  same  scale."  And  this  idea  is  getting  more  familiar 
every  day.  I  used  "to  ride  the  circuit,"  as  we  lawyers  call  it— going 
around  the  counties  adjacent  to  Bibb,  where  I  live,  to  attend  the 
courts  and  keep  up  with  the  business  of  my  clients,  traveling  in  a 
buggy  or  on  horseback.  In  those  days  Bibb  County,  in  which  the 
city  of  Macon  is  located,  worked  her  chain  gang  on  the  public  roads. 
I  could  tell  the  exact  point  where  I  would  cross  the  line  into  the 
other  counties,  for  the  Bibb  roads  were  far  better  than  those  in  the 
adjacent  territory.  Now,  this  is  all  changed.  The  small  counties 
are  beating  Bibb,  for  they  have  chain  gangs  and  improved  road 
working  too;  you  can  tell  now  for  instance,  where  you  cross  the  line 


326  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

into  Twiggs,  because  Twiggs  has  better  roads  than  Bibb.  And  the 
challenge  is  out  to  Bibb,  "  You  may  beat  us  in  your  buildings  but 
we'll  beat  you  in  our  roads."  And  so  it  is,  through  the  State. 

I  am  proud  of  the  way  in  which  we  are  going  forward  in  Georgia, 
and  I  greet  you  all  today  in  her  name.  I  am  glad  to  be  a  part  of 
this  Congress,  to  look  in  your  faces  and  tell  you  that  this  old  Empire 
State,  is  awakening  on  this  great  question,  that  her  people  will  join 
you  in  the  crusade,  or  better,  the  evangel  in  favor  of  good  roads, 
and  try  to  bring  the  whole  country  to  understand  and  appreciate 
the  importance  of  the  subject. 

And  now,  my  friends,  I  want  to  say  a  few  words,  of  a  general 
nature,  on  the  advantages  of  good  roads  to  the  community.  These 
are  so  obvious,  and  this  Congress  has  been  urging  them  so  often, 
that  I  suppose  it  is  almost  a  work  of  superrogation  to  go  over  them 
again.  But  there  are  a  good  many  Georgians  in  this  audience,  and 
I  have  thought  it  might  not  be  out  of  place  to  repeat  the  argument 
in  their  presence.  The  truth  is,  the  whole  State  needs  good  roads, 
and  more  roads,  and  better  roads,  everywhere.  There  is  no  end  to 
such  improvements.  If  the  seaboard  is  to  be  brought  to  the  moun- 
tains, or  the  mountains  to  the  seaboard,  this  is  the  way  to  do  it. 
There  is  that  great  country  lying  below  us,  known  as  the  "Wire 
Grass," — I  love  to  talk  of  it  now,  because  it  was  once  under  the  ban — 
nothing  but  a  vast  pine  barren.  I  have  just  had  the  opportunity 
of  traveling  over  it,  and  can  appreciate  its  coming  strength  and 
greatness.  It  is  a  region  of  magnificent  possibilities. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Congress,  if  you  will  only 
give  that  "  Wire  Grass"  country  good  roads  and  reasonable  railroad 
facilities,  you  will  soon  see  an  Empire  developed  in  this  Empire 
State,  such  as  you  never  conceived  or  thought  of,  in  all  your  life! 
All  that  is  needed  to  insure  the  speedy  settling  up  of  those  vast 
level  areas  of  farming  lands  is  to  give  the  people  good  roads,  so 
that  more  inhabitants  may  come  in,  take  up  the  lands,  utilize  their 
unparalleled  productiveness,  and  make  the  country  worth  all  that  it 
ought  to  be  to  Georgia. 

It  is  rushing  forward  with  wonderful  strides  every  day,  and  this 
good  roads  gospel  is  taking  it  by  storm,  as  it  seems  to  be  taking 
the  State,  the  South,  yea,  even  the  whole  Nation.  But  to  restate 
the  argument: 

First:  A  good  road  enhances  the  value  of  the  lands  adjacent  to 
it.  This  is  an  A  B  C  doctrine.  While  the  tax  may  be  increased, 
the  owner  is  afforded  means  the  more  easily  to  make  the  money, 
so  that  he  does  not  feel  the  burden. 

Second:  The  facility  for  travel  and  transportation  enables  the 
citizens  along  the  road  to  live  with  greater  ease  and  more  comfort, 
to  transact  business  with  more  convenience,  and  with  the  auto- 
mobile, and  telephone,  makes  space  and  time  of  far  less  consequence 
in  the  affairs  of  life. 

Third:    The  good  road  tends  to  promote  intelligence,  for  it  en- 


DISCUSSION  327 

ables  the  children  to  reach  the  school  house,  with  greater  conveni- 
ence, so  as  to  secure  the  advantages  of  early  training  and  education. 
Rough  roads  are  sometimes  a  barrier  to  knowledge. 

Fourth:  The  good  road  promotes  both  social  and  religious  asso- 
ciation. Visiting  is  made  easier,  and  people  of  the  community,  or 
even  of  the  State,  are  made  better  acquainted,  and  see  more  of 
each  other. 

My  countrymen,  I  have  noticed  that  the  misunderstanding  in 
communities,  the  troubles  that  spring  up  and  beget  endless  suffer- 
ings among  our  people,  would  nearly  all  be  prevented  if  the  people 
only  knew  each  other  better.  This  is  so,  North,  South,  East  and 
West — it  is  so,  locally,  it  is  so  generally,  it  is  so  everywhere. 
If  the  people  at  large  are  given  the  facilities  for  travel  and  trans- 
portation they  will  come  together  oftener,  learn  to  know  each  other 
better,  and  harmony  will  reign  where  discord  now  prevails. 

Fifth:  The  good  roads  will  tend  to  preserve  the  health  of  the 
community.  You  can  provide  the  remedies  for  sickness  with  greater 
ease,  in  the  country.  I  heard  a  gentleman  say  not  long  ago,  that 
since  they  had  opened  the  turnpike  road  by  his  house  he  could  call 
a  doctor  from  town  and  get  him  to  the  place  in  an  emergency  within 
15  or  20  minutes,  though  he  lived  three  or  four  miles  away  from  the 
place. 

Sixth  and  last :  Good  roads  increase  the  population  of  the  country. 
The  more  good  roads  we  have  the  more  people  there  will  be  to  travel 
them.  Oh!  we  have  room  enough  here  for  any  ordinary  increase 
in  our  population.  We  do  not  object  to  the  coming  in  of  good 
settlers.  We  have  lands  enough  in  Georgia  to  house  and  feed  our 
own  people  with  their  natural  increase  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  to  come!  So  we  can  afford  to  divide  with  others,  for  none  of 
us  will  live  that  long. 

When  people  from  a  distance  come  to  see  us,  find  out  what  we 
have  here,  and  learn  that  we  have  the  best  public  roads  in  the 
country,  see  how  easy  it  is  to  go  from  place  to  place — why,  they'll 
know  that  we  are  up  to  date,  and  will  fall  in  love  with  our  good, 
old  honest  ways,  and  stay  with  us! 

There  is  sometimes  a  humorous  side  to  our  road  working.  While 
I  was  on  the  bench  a  mandamus  proceeding  was  brought  before 
me,  alleging  that  the  commissioners  of  one  of  the  counties  of  the 
circuit  were  not  working  one  of  the  main  thoroughfares  running  by 
the  homes  of  the  petitioners.  It  was  alleged  that  they  had  worked 
all  the  roads  of  the  county  except  the  one  in  question;  and  this  they 
had  worked  to  within  about  three  miles  of  the  county  line  and  then 
stopped.  It  seemed  that  just  across  the  county  line  there  was  a 
thriving  little  town  which  was  a  rival  of  the  county  site,  bidding  very 
vigorously  for  the  trade  and  business  of  the  citizens  round  about. 
So  the  commissioners,  standing  up  for  their  home  town,  let  the  road 
to  the  county  line  go  without  working  till  it  became  almost  impass- 
able, while  the  road  to  the  county  site  was  kept  in  splendid  condition. 


328  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

This  was  good  political  protection,  you  know,  but  the  cold  law 
would  not  stand  for  it.  Competition  in  business  and  equality  in 
transportation  are  the  favorites  of  our  statutes.  Nevertheless,  it 
was  a  practical  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  a  good  road  counts 
for  something  in  the  community. 

And  now  I  think  I  have  about  covered  what  I  wanted  to  say  to 
this  Congress.  My  recent  travel  over  Georgia  has  at  least  given 
me  some  experience  with  the  good  road  situation  in  the  State.  I 
recall  the  fact  that  several  times  when  I  hired  an  automobile  at 
one  county  site  to  go  to  another,  if  the  road  in  the  first  county  was 
rough  and  difficult,  and  after  crossing  the  line,  got  better,  and 
smoother  for  travel,  the  automobile  driver  would  apologize  for  his 
county,  and  say,  "We  can't  get  our  commissioners  to  take  the  right 
view  of  matters,  but  we  have  hopes  at  the  next  election  to  show  them 
a  few  things.'' 

So,  the  demand  for  good  roads  is  growing,  for  the  people  are 
finding  out  that  a  load  of  produce,  of  cotton,  or  corn,  or  any  farm 
product,  is  nearly  three  times  as  large  on  a  good,  modern,  well 
graded  turnpike  as  it  was  on  the  rough  highways  of  the  past.  And 
the  county  authorities  are  realizing  that  it  will  not  do  to  be  left 
behind  in  the  progress  of  the  times  on  this  subject. 

And  now,  my  friends,  I  repeat  that  I  am  proud,  as  the  next  execu- 
tive of  this  State,  to  come  before  this  Congress  and  speak  to  you. 
If  you  need  the  countenance  and  help  of  the  next  administration,  I 
assure  you  that  you  already  have  the  chief,  and  I  think  you  may 
count  on  the  assistance  of  the  legislature  to  do  whatever  is  necessary 
to  bring  the  subject  before  the  people  in  the  most  effective  light. 
Show  us  what  is  needed  and  we  will  try  to  put  our  shoulders  to  the 
wheel  so  as  to  push  this  old  Empire  State  forward,  until  her  name 
shall  ring  out  among  the  people  of  the  North  and  the  East  and  the 
West,  as  the  one  State  of  the  South  that  has  the  finest  laid  out  public 
roads  in  the  Union.  It  would  be  a  distinguished  honor  to  preside 
over  a  State  that  could  safely  point  to  her  roadways,  as  the  index 
of  the  highest  civilization  of  the  world! 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  appreciate  very  much  the  kindness  of  Gov- 
ernor Harris  in  coming  to  our  meeting  this  morning  and  adding  his 
presence  to  this  occasion.  The  next  speaker,  as  you  will  see  on  the 
program,  gentlemen,  is  Prof.  Charles  M.  Strahan,  Dean  of  Engi- 
neering, University  of  Georgia,  who  will  speak  on  the  subject  "Why 
Georgia  Builds  Top  Soil  and  Sand-Clay  Roads." 


TOP    SOIL  AND    SAND-CLAY    ROADS  329 

WHY  GEORGIA  BUILDS  TOP  SOIL  AND  SAND-CLAY  ROADS 

C.  M.  STRAHAN,  D.Sc.,  M.A.S.C.E. 

Dean  of  Engineering,  University  of  Georgia 

The  counties  of  Georgia  during  the  past  six  years  have  directed 
the  bulk  of  their  road  building  energy  to  the  construction  of  soil 
roads  of  various  kinds.  They  have  recognized  that  any  road  worthy 
the  name  must  have  a  reasonably  strong,  smooth,  and  durable 
wearing  surface.  They  have  secured  satisfactory  surfaces  by  the 
use  of  selected  top  soils,  of  semi-gravel,  of  sub-strata  of  sand-clay 
encountered  in  grading;  and  from  artificial  mixtures  effected  by 
claying  deep  sand  road  beds  and  by  incorporating  sand  in  sticky 
clay  road  beds.  Some  12,000  miles  of  improved  roads  have  been 
built  and  much  of  this  mileage  has  been  surfaced  with  one  or  more 
of  the  above  materials. 

There  are  four  principal  reasons  why  the  energy  of  Georgia  has 
gone  into  this  type  of  construction:  the  first  is  an  economic  reason; 
the  second  is  a  psychologic  reason;  the  third  is  a  geologic  reason; 
and  the  fourth  is  a  scientific  reason. 

First:  In  round  numbers,  Georgia,  with  $1,000,000,000  of  tax 
values  and  147  counties,  is  credited  with  84,000  miles  of  road. 
Exclusive  of  the  7  chief  city  counties,  the  average  county  shows 
approximately  $6,000,000  of  tax  values  and  600  miles  of  public 
highways. 

These  basic  financial  facts  have  compelled  the  counties  of  Georgia 
to  carefully  consider  their  financial  policies.  The  outcome  has  been 
that  while  highly  desirous  of  good  roads,  the  justifiable  basis  of 
expenditures  has  been  forced  below  $1000  per  mile.  Hence  they 
have  turned  to  the  local  soils,  intelligently  selected  and  used,  as 
the  first  step  and  only  possible  step  toward  extensive  highway  better- 
ment within  that  average  expenditure.  They  have  recognized  that 
the  elements  of  cost  for  a  road  program  are:  (1)  expert  supervision, 
(2)  preparation  of  the  road  material  for  use,  (3)  haulage  cost,  itself 
dependent  on  tonnage,  average  length  of  haul,  and  ease  of  loading 
and  unloading,  (4)  cost  of  spreading,  (5)  cost  of  consolidation  and 
shaping,  and  (6)  the  cost  of  maintenance.  In  all  of  these  items,  they 
have  felt  that  the  local  soils  with  short  hauls,  needing  no  crushing  or 
mixing,  handled  by  simple  tools  and  moderate  cost  machinery,  easily 
loaded  and  distributed,  consolidated  by  the  road's  own  traffic,  and 
all  done  chiefly  by  unskilled  labor,  presented  the  minimum  outlay 
for  equipment,  labor,  and  all  other  construction  costs.  Nor  have 
they  been  disappointed.  Total  costs  as  reported  from  various  coun- 
ties range  from  $300  to  $600  per  mile  according  to  the  particular 
material,  the  width  of  wheelway,  and  the  length  of  average  haul. 
They  contrast  the  resulting  roads  with  broken  stone  roads  at  from 
$5000  to  $8000  per  mile  and  figure  that  the  interest  on  the  latter 
investment  would  annually  build  a  mile  of  good  soil  road.  They 


330  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

compare  the  maintenance  figures  of  $10  to  $50  per  mile  with  the 
$100  per  mile  credited  to  macadam  roads  and  place  at  15  years  the 
life  of  each  type.  They  find  the  traffic  of  all  kinds  pleased  and 
contented,  and  see  no  undue  injury  wrought  by  the  automobile. 
They  feel  that  the  betterment  is  real  and  durable,  and  that  this 
type  of  road,  free  always  from  deep  mud  or  deep  sand,  has  at  least 
met  and  conquered  the  two  arch  enemies  of  highway  transportation. 

Second:  The  psychologic  reason  is  also  a  reason  of  practical 
politics.  It  consists  in  the  fact  that  taxpayers,  particularly  the 
rural  taxpayer,  become  rapidly  restive  unless  the  rate  of  road  build- 
ing and  the  consequent  spread  of  the  benefits  of  the  road  expendi- 
ture is  reasonably  rapid.  The  soil  roads  are  built  very  quickly. 
Counties  report  from  20  to  60  miles  annually.  In  five  years,  a  great 
change  is  wrought  in  the  traffic  conditions  of  any  county.  The 
restive  citizen  may  be  gracefully  bidden  to  wait;  and  his  powers  of 
revolution  are  inversely  as  the  annual  growth  of  improved  mileage. 
There  is  thus  a  better  chance  for  continuous  county  road  management. 

Third:  The  geologic  reason  rests  upon  the  vast  areas  of  under- 
lying siliceous  metamorphic  rock  in  North  Georgia,  upon  the  gravel 
soils  that  abound  along  the  edge  of  the  Coastal  Plain  in  Middle 
Georgia,  and  from  the  sand-clay  strata  which  underlie  so  many  of 
the  counties  of  the  Coastal  Plain  itself.  Many  of  the  resulting  clay 
soils  of  North  Georgia  are  abundantly  charged  with  coarse  sand  and 
decomposed  rock,  and  are  of  admirable  road  value.  Intelligent 
search  has  revealed  them  in  wide  distribution  and  of  exceptional 
wearing  qualities.  Gravelly  soils  and  sand  clay  top  soils  are  like- 
wise found  in  many  counties  along  the  Fall  Line  that  traverses  the 
State  from  Columbus  to  Augusta.  In  the  Coastal  Plain  counties, 
outcroppings  of  gravel  are  occasional,  outcroppings  of  clay  hills  are 
quite  frequent,  and  sub-strata  of  so-called  clay,  in  reality  a  natural 
mixture  of  clay  and  sand,  is  widely  found  at  short  depths  below  the 
surface  ready  to  be  excavated  and  placed  on  the  prevailing  sand 
bed  roads  of  that  section.  In  some  of  the  swamps  of  South  Georgia 
the  muck  contains  fine  clay  and  is  utilized  as  road  covering. 

The  writer  has  been  struck  by  the  prevalence  of  suitable  road 
soils  in  every  county  visited  and  is  convinced  that  systematic  sur- 
veys for  the  location  of  such  soils  adjacent  to  the  highways  would  be 
amply  justified  in  every  county  by  the  discoveries  made. 

This  thought  is  commended  strongly  to  the  representatives  of  the 
Fourth  American  Road  Congress.  Few  States  in  the  Union  can 
afford  to  ignore  the  substantial  economies  that  accrue  from  the  use 
of  good  local  road  soils,  on  at  least  a  part  of  their  highway  systems. 

Fourth:  The  scientific  reason  why  Georgia  is  building  top  soil 
and  sand-clay  roads  rests  on  the  fact  that  by  careful  examination 
in  field  and  laboratory,  enough  is  now  known  of  the  composition, 
road  behavior,  and  method  of  consolidating  of  these  road  soils  to 
select  them  intelligently  in  advance  of  construction  and  to  feel 
confident  of  the  results.  The  School  of  Civil  Engineering  of  the 


PROCEEDINGS 


331 


University  of  Georgia,  through  its  road  laboratory  and  field  officers, 
since  1908,  has  been  privileged  to  work  jointly  with  many  county 
road  officials  in  the  study  and  use  of  these  materials.  It  has  been 
called  upon  to  select  and  advise  concerning  suitable  soils  in  ad- 
vance of  construction  and  has  watched  the  roads  after  construction. 
Much  data  has  been  accumulated  and  digested,  many  partial  and 
complete  mechanical  analyses  have  been  made.  The  limits  of  this 
address  does  not  permit  detailed  entry  into  laboratory  methods, 
but  the  following  short  table  of  typical  soils  selected  from  roads  of 
known  efficiency  in  north,  middle  and  south  Georgia  will  serve  to 
indicate  the  character  of  separations  made: 

TYPICAL  GEORGIA  ROAD  SOILS 

BY  PROP.   8.    B.    SLACK 

Analysis  After  Separation  From  Gravel 


Gravel                                       BAND 

Silt 

Clay 

Above                       Diameters  in  Millimeters 

476 
466 
150 
10 

108 
124 
424 
120 
106 

434 
103 
113 

470 
116 

North  Georgia 

1.85 

1.85-  .86 

.S6-.24 

•24-.14 

.14-.07 

Total 

.07-.01 

-Ol-.OO 

4.0 
13.0 
3.0 

0.8 

10.4 
10.4 
10.0 

15.2 

8.0 
19.6 
8.5 
7.8 

0.8 
8.0 
2.8 
4.6 
4. 

2.4 
2.7 
2.0 

28.0 
14.3 

33.0 
44.6 
36.0 
34.3 

30.1 
22.0 
81.3 
22.0 
30.0 

9.2 
20.7 
32.0 

54.4 

16.9 

17.6 
8.0 
12.5 

9.2 

15.4 
14.7 
18.4 
14.7 
18.5 

19.7 
21.2 
20.8 

6.0 
4.8 

13.6 
6.0 
11.3 
9.0 

20.0 
15.3 
25.0 
15.3 
12.1 

27.0 
26.4 
17.4 

2.2 

4.7 

71.2 
78.2 
68.3 
60.3 

66. 
56. 
54. 
56. 
64. 

58.3 
71.0 
72.2 

90.6 
40.7 

15.0 
4.5 
12.2 
12.8 

14.1 
14.6 
12.4 
14.6 
13.6 

12.8 
14.8 
13.4 

3.4 
8.8 

14.0 

15.0 
11.0 
25.0 

18.0 
27.5 
31.0 
27.5 
20.0 

25.0 
14.2 
14.0 

6.7 
50.0 

Middle  Georgia 

South  Georgia 

Special 
Augusta  Gravel  
Pipe  Clay          

Sieve  Numbers 

10 

20 

60 

100 

200 

Unable  to  present  in  this  article  the  specific  road  histories  of  these 
and  many  other  samples  studied,  the  conclusions  tentatively  reached 
by  the  laboratory  may,  however,  be  stated  as  follows: 

First.  The  presence  of  from  60  to  80  per  cent  of  total  sand  is  necessary. 
The  best  soils  show  45  to  55  per  cent  sand  coarser  than  No.  60  sieve.  The 
sand  between  No.  100  and  No.  200  has  little  hardening  value.  See  samples 
150,  106,  10,  466,  476. 

Second.  Ten  to  15  per  cent  of  gravel  above  No.  10  sieve  and  smaller  than 
3  in.  diameter  is  very  effective  in  hardening.  See  samples  150,  10,  106,  466, 
120. 


332  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

Third.  When  the  sand  above  No.  60  is  less  than  40  per  cent  the  resulting 
surface  is  notably  softer  than  with  coarser  sand. 

Fourth.    True  clay  in  excess  of  30  per  cent  gives  a  soft  road  with  mud. 

Fifth.    The  best  clay  percentages  lie  between  10  and  20  per  cent. 

Sixth.  A  highly  colloidal  clay  in  low  percentages  probably  gives  equal 
bond  with  a  less  colloidal  clay  in  larger  percentages. 

Seventh.    The  non-plastic  silt  aids  in  reducing  expansion  of  the  true  clay. 

Eighth.  Soils  with  all  fine  sand  need  higher  percents  of  clay;  but  are  not 
so  hard  in  dry  weather  and  wash  readily  in  heavy  rains.  They  require  fre- 
quent resurfacing  with  road  drags. 

Ninth.  All  of  the  typical  road  soils  in  the  table  have  shown  ample  better- 
ment over  the  roads  they  replaced  to  justify  the  expense  of  construction. 

The  laboratory  has  reached  a  conception  of  the  way  these  soil 
mixtures  act  which  may  be  of  service  to  those  interested. 

While  the  resulting  surfaces  are  of  varying  efficiency,  the  better 
grades,  usually  carrying  coarse  sand  and  gravel,  give  surfaces  too  hard 
to  cut  with  the  heaviest  road  machines,  capable  of  supporting  the 
heaviest  loads  after  long  rains,  free  from  mud  or  excessive  dust,  and 
uninjured  by  automobile  traffic  in  both  wet  and  dry  weather.  The 
medium  grades  carrying  medium  sand  and  no  gravel  are  firm  and 
hard  but  can  be  cut  by  heavy  road  machines;  they  are  somewhat 
softened  in  long  rainy  spells  but  do  not  cut  deeply,  and  are  some- 
what more  dusty  in  dry  weather. 

The  soft  grades  carrying  chiefly  fine  sand  are  firm  and  strong 
in  dry  weather,  are  subject  to  washing  in  heavy  rains,  and  soft- 
ening, and  can  be  resurfaced  with  light  metal  or  split  log  drags. 
They  usually  show  a  lack  of  proper  balance  between  sand  and  clay 
and  mark  the  lower  limit  of  suitable  road  soils. 

The  successful  soil  must  carry  enough  hard  aggregate  to  interlock 
and  support  the  traffic  loads  and  to  resist  grinding  and  crushing 
action.  This  property  is  imparted  chiefly  by  the  sand  and  gravel 
content.  The  variations  of  these  ingredients  in  amount  and  size 
affects  most  strongly  the  hardness  and  durability  of  the  surface. 
It  is  known  that  sand  beds  when  moist  are  relatively  firm  unless  the 
sand  is  excessively  fine,  and  supersaturated  with  water.  Quick- 
sand conditions  are  then  developed.  It  is  therefore  probable  that 
in  wet  weather  the  strength  of  the  road  depends  primarily  on  the 
sand  content,  and  that  graded  mixtures  from  coarse  to  fine  are  better 
than  uniform  grain  or  small  sizes. 

Through  a  nest  of  standard  sieves  No.  20,  60,  100  and  200,  the 
sand  is  separated  into  four  grades  of  fineness,  and  so  reported  in 
the  analyses.  The  sizes  above  No.  100  are  the  effective  body  material. 
That  below  No.  100  has  some  value  in  reducing  the  total  voids  in 
the  graded  mixture. 

Naturally  the  laboratory  analyses  pay  particular  attention  to  the 
quality,  sizes,  and  total  amount  of  the  sand  in  the  mixture.  In  the 
tables  of  analyses  submitted  herewith  it  is  to  be  noted  how  large 
a  percentage  of  total  sand  and  of  coarse  sizes  is  found  in  the  more 
successful  soils.  Moreover  the  item  called  "silt"  is  in  reality  mostly 
extremely  fine  sand. 


TOP   SOIL   AND    SAND-CLAY   ROADS  333 

The  second  important  characteristic  of  a  suitable  road  soil  must 
be  that  it  shall  prove  water  resistant  in  wet  weather  and  firmly 
bound  and  smooth  in  dry  weather.  Dependence  for  these  proper- 
ties is  upon  the  clay  elements  and  the  silt. 

The  laboratory  in  its  complete  analyses  separates  and  examines 
the  quality  of  the  true  clay.  It  is  to  be  noted  how  small  an  amount 
of  true  clay  is  found  in  the  best  grades — 12  to  20  per  cent.  The 
contrast  of  clay  contents  in  poor  soils  is  shown  in  the  sample  of 
pipe  clay  included  in  the  table  with  50  per  cent  true  clay.  A  further 
contrast  in  the  other  direction  is  seen  in  the  analyses  of  the  Augusta 
gravel  with  only  6.7  per  cent  of  true  clay.  The  bond  of  this  gravel 
arises  chiefly  from  its  interlocking  strength. 

The  laboratory  defines  "true"  clay  as  that  portion  of  the  sample 
which  remain  in  suspension  after  settling  for  13  minutes  through 
water  8  centimeters  deep.  It  is  removed  by  repeated  washings, 
settling,  and  careful  siphoning  off.  Most  natural  clays  are  im- 
pure and  contain  large  percentages  of  coarser  materials  such  as 
sand,  mica,  and  silt.  They  vary  greatly  in  plasticity  and  in  the 
expansion  and  shrinkage  under  the  action  of  water.  The  true  clay 
contains  an  extremely  fine  portion  called  colloidal  clay.  The 
colloidal  clay  is  very  glutinous  or  gummy.  The  coarser  clay  has 
less  gumminess.  It  is  thought  that  the  binding  value  of  the  clay 
depends  to  a  notable  extent  on  the  amount  of  fine  colloidal  in- 
gredients. In  dry  weather,  this  gives  great  adherence,  but  un- 
fortunately in  wet  weather  the  colloidal  matter  softens  quickly. 
It  probably  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  high  expansion  of  the 
clay  when  wet.  The  argument  would  then  be  that  a  clay  too  rich 
in  colloidal  matter  when  used  in  a  sand  clay  mixture  is  apt  to  soften 
too  readily  and  by  swelling  tends  to  break  the  interlocking  strength 
of  the  sand  grain.  The  larger  the  total  clay  the  greater  the  ex- 
pansion. The  desirable  kind  of  clay  would  be  that  which  has  a 
rather  low  colloidal  percentage  to  meet  wet  conditions  but  yet 
enough  to  bind  firmly  the  sand  grains  in  dry  weather.  It  also  ap- 
pears desirable  that  the  total  real  .clay  should  be  as  low  as  possible 
consistent  with  adhesive  strength  in  olry  weather  to  avoid  expansion 
effects.  This  also  points  to  the  value  of  a  closely  graded  sand 
mixture  with  a  minimum  of  voids  and  thus  requiring  a  minimum 
of  clay. 

It  is  evident  that  the  small  percentages  of  clay  in  the  best  road 
soils  is  not  enough  to  fill  the  usual  30  to  35  per  cent  voids  that 
exist  even  in  a  well  graded  sand.  But  the  silt  material  together 
with  the  true  clay  do  furnish  enougji  to  fill  these  voids.  The  silt 
as  separated  in  the  laboratory  analysis  is  itself  largely  composed 
of  silica  or  sand  which  passes  a  No.  200  standard  sieve,  and  other 
equally  fine  material  of  partly  reduced  soil  minerals  such  as  feld- 
spar, mica,  etc.  It  shows  little  plasticity  or  adhesive  value  unless 
iron  salts  are  present,  but  is  useful  in  filling  voids.  It  may  be  said 
that  the  true  clay,  the  silt,  and,  when  needed,  some  of  the  fine  sand 


334  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

(between  No.  100  and  No.  200  sieves)  really  compose  the  "binder" 
which  unites  the  coarser  sand  particles,  and  fills  the  voids.  For  or- 
dinary cases  of  soil  examination  the  separation  of  the  binder  from 
the  coarser  sand  by  washing  and  rapid  decantation  is  sufficient  to 
give  a  fair  basis  of  judgment  regarding  its  suitability  for  road 
building.  The  more  complete  analyses  aid  in  forming  a  sound  con- 
ception of  just  what  goes  on  in  the  consolidation  and  road  be- 
havior of  the  material. 

In  all  of  these  materials  efficiency  requires  a  uniform  and  inti- 
mate mixture  of  the  sand  and  the  binder. 

The  consolidation  is  effected  by  the  construction  teams  and  the 
regular  traffic.  A  bed  of  the  loose  material  10  inches  thick  and  16 
to  20  feet  wide  is  deposited  in  one  layer.  The  traffic  gradually 
packs  it.  A  period  of  wet  weather  is  desirable  for  a  green  road  as 
the  wheels  and  hoofs  then  puddle  and  pack  the  mass  from  the  bottom 
upward,  aiding  also  the  uniform  mixing.  During  the  consolidation 
process  the  surface  is  kept  in  shape  by  the  frequent  use  of  the  road 
machine  until  the  final  surface  with  a  crown  of  one-half  inch  per  foot 
is  firm  and  smooth.  The  semi-gravels  are  top  soils  carrying  10  to 
15  per  cent  of  hard  quartz  gravel.  All  material  coarser  than  a 
No.  10  sieve  is  classed  as  gravel.  Rocks  above  3  inches  in  diameter 
are  objectionable  and  should  be  removed  while  loading,  or  dressed 
to  the  bottom  of  the  10-inch  soil  layer  as  the  work  goes  on.  The 
gravel  if  hard  and  non-crushing  is  a  distinct  advantage  to  the  road 
soil  playing  the  part  of  the  broken  stone  in  a  cement  concrete  mix- 
ture and  giving  it  greater  hardness  and  stronger  supporting  power 
in  wet  weather.  But  soft  gravel  of  feldspar  hardpan,  or  mica  schist 
is  undesirable.  In  some  counties  an  iron-silica  gravel  mixed  with  the 
soil  is  found  which  gives  admirable  roads. 

The  packed  top  soil  surface  from  the  best  soils  is  surprisingly 
hard  and  surprisingly  water  resistant.  It  requires  a  rock  plow  or 
a  heavy  macadam  type  of  scraper  drawn  by  a  traction  engine  to 
break  up  the  bed  when  once  thoroughly  packed.  The  laboratory 
has  taken  up  solid  blocks,  20  x  20  inches  and  6  inches  thick,  after 
weeks  of  rainy  weather,  from  these  roads. 

Although  very  dense,  the  blocks  taken  from  the  road  are  dis- 
tinctly porous  in  character.  Why  then  does  not  the  rain  saturate 
the  bed  and  loosen  the  bond  between  the  sand  and  clay?  The  fol- 
lowing explanation  is  suggested:  The  rain  soaks  into  the  pores 
of  the  dry  road,  at  first  carrying  fine  particles  of  dust  to  seal  up 
the  capillary  tubes  and  pores.  The  first  moisture  absorbed  by  the 
clay  expands  it  and  also  tends  to  close  the  capillary  tube  and  pores. 
Hence  the  further  ingress  of  water  is  prevented,  the  main  slab 
is  not  softened,  and  the  only  mud  is  a  thin  coat  on  top  where  the 
wheels  have  loosened  the  surface  by  grinding  and  slight  cutting, 
When  rain  ceases  the  skim  coat  of  softened  material  will  pack  and 
rebind  with  the  slab  below.  Excess  of  clay  in  the  mixture  by 
swelling  with  water  loosens  the  interlocking  of  the  sand  structure, 


PROCEEDINGS  335 

is  too  soft  to  withstand  the  cutting  by  the  traffic,  and  permits  water 
to  work  and  puddle  downward  layer  by  layer  until  deep  mud  re- 
sults. Excess  sand  works  inversely.  Not  being  sufficiently  cemented 
in  dry  weather,  the  clay  binder  is  broken,  pulverized,  and  blown  or 
washed  away  leaving  a  loose  sand  layer  which  finally  becomes 
objectionable.  The  well-balanced  sand  and  clay  mixture  avoids 
both  of  these  weaknesses.  The  surface  mud  is  thin  and  remains 
underlaid  by  firm  material.  Hence  the  traffic  is  supported.  It 
does  not  stick  to  the  wheels.  Hence  unlike  the  usual  earth  road, 
the  top  soil  roads  are  not  easily  cut  into  deep  holes  by  the  constant 
churning  and  withdrawal  of  material  by  the  wheels.  Dry  weather 
in  fact  is  more  like  to  break  them  down  than  rain — particularly 
if  the  sand  clay  ingredients  are  not  uniformly  mixed.  A  good  crown 
is  necessary  to  prevent  long  saturation  by  standing  water. 

It  is  a  serious  structural  mistake  to  use  too  thin  a  layer  of  these 
surfacings.  A  depth  of  6  inches  loose  packing  to  4  inches  on  sand 
and  loam  road  beds  and  10  inches  loose  packing  to  6  inches  on  clay 
road  beds  is  essential.  On  fresh  embankments  and  on  rotten  mica 
foundation  a  thickness  of  12  to  14  inches  loose  will  give  adequate 
beam  strength  to  offset  the  weakness  of  the  water-soaked  foun- 
dation. 

The  chief  hurtful  impurities  encountered  in  road  soils  are  mica 
and  feldspar.  Their  presence  is  readily  detected  by  examination 
of  the  separated  sand  contents.  The  feldspar  either  as  gravel  or 
sand  is  friable,  easily  crushed,  and  weathers  rapidly  into  clay. 
Any  large  amount  is  distinctly  destructive  of  good  service  by  the 
soil.  Mica  in  abundance  is  similarly  undesirable  above  2  or  3  per 
cent.  The  flat  scales  destroy  the  interlocking  value  of  the  sand 
and  furnish  slippery  surfaces  along  which  water  penetrates  and 
rapid  softening  ensues. 

The  influence  of  organic  matter  is  distinctly  helpful  in  binding 
these  soils,  but  is  rapidly  lost  by  decay  and  weather  action. 

The  writer  believes  that  the  possibilities  of  road  surfaces  made 
from  natural  soils  are  far  greater  than  is  now  realized. 

More  careful  attention  to  the  exact  mixtures,  intimate  stirring  and 
mixing,  the  use  of  sprinklers  to  secure  proper  moisture,  and  finally 
the  positive  consolidation  of  a  definite  thickness  by  the  use  of  tamp- 
ing rollers,  while  possibly  nearing  the  cost  to  $1200  per  mile,  could 
result  in  surfaces  permanently  serviceable  to  the  heaviest  rural  traffic. 

Moreover,  where  the  expenditures  for  rock  covered  roads  are 
now  nearing  from  $5000  to  $10,000  per  mile,  the  $1200  soil  road 
would  leave  ample  funds  for  constant  road  policing  and  imme- 
diate repair,  thus  solving  that  really  unsolved  yet  vital  road  problem, 
to  wit,  proper  maintenance. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Is  there  anyone  who  wishes  to  discuss  briefly 
any  of  the  points  in  Professor  Strahan's  paper?  If  not,  we  are 
<roing  to  adjourn  the  meeting.  Governor  Harris  is  anxious  to  go 


336  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

through  the  exhibits  and  no  doubt  there  are  quite  a  few  of  our 
Georgia  commissioners  present  this  morning,  who  just  arrived  in 
the  city  last  night  and  this  morning  and  are  also  anxious  to  visit  the 
exhibits.  We  will  adjourn  the  meeting  until  2  o'clock  this  afternoon. 

Friday  Afternoon,  November  12,  2  P.M. 
W.  TOM  WINN,  PRESIDING 

The  principal  address  at  this  session  was  an  illustrated  lecture  by 
Dr.  S.  W.  McCallie,  State  Geologist  of  Georgia,  on  the  "Road 
Material  of  Georgia."  In  order  to  secure  proper  equipment,  this 
lecture  was  delivered  in  the  moving  picture  room. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  McCalhVs  lecture,  President  Fletcher, 
in  a  few  well  chosen  remarks,  expressed  his  great  pleasure  at  the 
unqualified  success  of  the  Congress,  and  thanked  the  officers  for  the 
valuable  assistance  which  they  had  given  him. 

No  further  business  appearing,  President  Fletcher  declared  the 
Congress  adjourned  sine  die. 


WOMEN'S  CONFERENCE  ON  ROADS 

Ansley  Hotel,  November  10,  10  A.M. 

Under  auspices  of  the  Woman's  Department  of  the  American 
Highway  Association. 
Mrs.  Robert  Baker  in  the  Chair. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  The  Conference  will  please  come  to  order.  It  is 
very  fitting  that  this  new  movement  among  women  should  be 
launched  in  the  State  which  first  offered  to  American  women  the 
equipment  by  which  to  make  herself  useful  in  civic  life.  Georgia's 
example  has  been  followed  until  now  there  is  a  great  army  of  highly 
educated  and  intelligent  women  eager  to  help  their  brothers  make 
this  country  a  model  for  all  the  world.  No  activity  in  which  they 
can  engage  will  have  a  more  beneficent  and  far  reaching  effect  than 
this,  to  remove  the  check  upon  our  social  development  and  our 
material  prosperity  caused  by  our  disgraceful  roads. 

Great  oaks  from  little  acorns  grow!  It  is  with  the  hope,  with 
the  assurance,  of  great  things  to  come,  that  I  greet  you  here  today 
and  introduce  to  you  as  the  first  speaker,  at  the  first  women's  con- 
ference on  roads,  the  wife  of  your  governor,  Mrs.  John  M.  Slaton. 

MRS.  SLATON:  Ladies  of  the  Good  Roads  Congress:  I  am  glad  to 
welcome  you  to  a  State  that  has  exalted  woman  by  establishing  the 
first  female  college  in  the  world — in  Macon,  Georgia.  The  devotion 
of  our  splendid  men  speedily  expressed  itself  by  affording  a  widened 
horizon  through  the  instrumentality  of  education,  and  with  this 
greater  power  is  imposed  the  greater  responsibility  of  service. 

Our  sex  is  being  called  upon  to  a  greater  extent  than  ever  before 
to  aid  in  the  practical  activities  of  life,  and  especially  in  those  which 
affect  the  home.  Feminine  sympathy  is  ever  alert  when  the  happi- 
ness of  the  fireside  and  the  interest  of  childhood  are  involved.  A 
large  proportion  of  our  citizens  live  in  the  country,  and  accessibility 
to  church  and  school  house,  the  receipt  of  daily  mail,  the  extension 
of  the  limits  in  which  local  papers  can  be  circulated  on  the  day  of 
publication,  the  use  of  parcels  post,  are  dependent  upon  our  high- 
ways and  necessarily  affect  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  our  sex. 

Good  roads  mean  more  land  cultivated,  and  more  profitable  crops, 
and  a  decrease  in  the  cost  of  hauling  them  to  market. 

The  purpose  of  the  Woman's  Department  of  the  American  High- 
way Association  is  to  create  through  the  educational  work  of  women, 
a  demand  for  an  efficient  State  Highway  Department,  and  also  for 
the  constant  and  adequate  maintenance  of  roads  built  with  the 
public  money. 

A  wise  administration  lowers  the  cost  of  materials  since  they  are 
bought  in  the  largest  quantities.  It  prevents  the  unnecessary 

337 


338  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

duplication  of  road  machinery — it  reduces  the  number  of  road 
officials.  For  instance,  under  the  administration  which  gener- 
ally prevails  in  the  United  States  and  which  is  based  on  the  theory 
of  extreme  localization  of  authority  in  road  management,  there  are 
nearly  140,000  road  officials.  The  road  laws  in  most  places  do  not 
require  of  these  men  any  technical  knowledge  of  road  construction 
or  repair.  Reforms  which  would  substitute  a  comparatively  small 
body  of  trained  men,  giving  all  their  time  to  road  work,  would  save 
the  country  more  than  $50,000,000  every  year. 

A  joint  committee,  composed  of  a  special  committee  of  the  Ameri- 
can Bar  Association,  a  committee  of  the  American  Highway  Asso- 
ciation and  a  group  of  the  foremost  road  engineers  of  the  country 
are  engaged  in  the  compilation  of  a  code  of  laws  for  the  State  admin- 
istration of  highways.  When  that  code  is  published  the  Woman's 
Department  will  work  in  each  State  for  such  parts  of  the  code  as  are 
applicable  to  climatic  and  other  local  conditions. 

This  code  of  laws  will  provide  for  a  State  engineer,  his  assistant 
engineers  in  charge  of  sections  of  the  State,  then  county  assistants 
in  charge  of  the  road  supervisors,  etc.,  section  bosses  and  the  neces- 
sary laborers.  These  men,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  should 
be  appointed  solely  for  their  competency,  and  should  be  retained  in 
office  as  long  as  their  work  is  what  it  should  be. 

Good  roads  mean  an  increase  in  our  rural  population,  and  a  con- 
sequent decrease  in  the  crowding  of  our  cities,  and  thus  a  lowering 
of  the  cost  of  living.  More  prompt  and  less  expensive  medical 
attention — far  larger  school  and  church  attendance  and  above  all 
new  life  for  the  farmers'  wives  and  daughters. 

Personally,  and  for  the  women  of  Georgia,  I  welcome  you — our 
homes  are  open  to  you,  and  I  trust  that  you  will  take  with  you  on 
your  return  the  memory  of  a  sympathetic  and  kindly  people  who 
have  been  glad  to  have  you  as  their  guests. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  As  at  the  Road  Congress  the  men  are  welcomed 
by  the  Governor  of  the  State  and  the  Mayor  of  the  city  so  are  we 
welcomed  by  the  women  who  represent  the  State  and  the  city.  Our 
second  speaker  is  the  President  of  the  Atlanta  Federation  of  VVomen's 
Clubs.  She  is  the  leader  of  8000  energetic,  altruistic  women,  all 
busy  about  many  good  things.  I  have  the  honor  to  introduce  Mrs. 
Samuel  Lumpkin. 

WHAT  ORGANIZATION  MEANS  TO  WOMEN 

MRS.  LUMPKIN 
President  Atlanta  City  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

I  am  quite  sure  each  and  every  one  of  us  here  understand  the 
importance  of  federation  and  cooperation,  the  importance  of  co- 
operative effort  and  unity,  not  only  among  ourselves,  but  with  men, 
in  every  undertaking  that  is  worth  while.  We  all  understand  that  we 


WOMEN'S  CONFERENCE  339 

must  work  in  unity  and  that  no  one  individual  can  accomplish  any- 
thing no  matter  how  great  their  ability  or  efforts,  unless  they  co- 
operate with  others  and  make  the  effort  worth  while.  I  think  we 
all  understand  that,  and  we  all  know  that  organization  is  the  greatest 
thing  of  the  present  age  for  accomplishing  things  and  I  think  in  this 
civic  evolution  in  which  women  are  becoming  more  and  more  inter- 
ested, it  is  not  because  of  their  wish  to  rule  or  show  their  authority 
over  men,  but  simply  because  it  is  their  aim  and  wish  to  be  of  help. 
And  I  think  this  meeting  and  all  other  meetings  of  women  are  simply 
for  the  purpose  of  cooperating  with  the  men  by  forming  organiza- 
tions among  themselves  to  aid  the  very  best  and  to  be  of  the  most 
service  and  the  most  help  to  the  men — we  want  to  do  things  to  help 
other  persons,  and  I  believe  we  are  coming  more  and  more  into  public 
life  ourselves,  because  the  world  is  so  now  that  we  must  do  it. 

This  Road  Congress,  I  think,  is  a  magnificent  thing,  especially 
for  the  country  woman.  We  cannot  say  too  much  for  the  country 
woman.  I  know  what  she  has  to  contend  with  and  to  suffer.  For 
years,  my  husband  was  a  circuit  judge  over  a  large  number  of  small 
villages,  and  I  myself  have  gone  over  all  those  country  roads,  and  I 
know  what  it  is  to  be  in  the  country.  Many  times  we  had  to  go 
through  creeks,  without  bridges,  when  I  would  have  to  draw  my  feet 
up  on  top  of  the  seat.  I  know  the  hardships  the  country  woman 
has  to  undergo. 

We  cannot  say  too  much  for  the  country  woman — she  has  the 
dignity  and  sweetness  and  unselfishness,  which  is  the  most  appealing 
thing  in  the  world.  We  cannot  say  too  much  for  good  roads.  We 
must  all  bow  down  in  reverence  to  the  country  woman — therefore, 
everything  that  pertains  to  her  comfort  and  health,  we  want  to  have 
a  hand  in  accomplishing. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Mrs.  Logan  Pitts  of  Calhoun,  Georgia,  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Civics,  Georgia  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs,  will  now  tell  us  what  the  club  women  have  already  tried  to 
do  for  the  Georgia  roads.  Mrs.  Pitts. 

WHAT  WOMEN  ARE  DOING  FOR  ROADS  NOW 

MRS.  LOGAN  PITTS 
Chairman  on  Civics,  Georgia  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

"Good  Roads" — this  subject  of  good  roads  which  we  are  here  to 
discuss  today,  is  one  that  is  dear  to  my  heart.  Since  this  movement 
was  endorsed  by  the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  about 
three  years  ago,  the  study  of  this  subject  is  being  engaged  in  by 
club  women  throughout  the  country.  As  Chairman  of  Civics  for  the 
Georgia  Federated  Clubs,  it  has  been  my  policy  to  urge  the  im- 
portance of  this  need  as  being  essential  to  the  development  of  the 
best  intelligence,  happiness  and  prosperity  of  our  people  and  the  clubs 
through  their  civic  committees  and  their  county  papers  have  done 
much  in  the  promulgation  of  this  principle  of  good  roads, 


340  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

The  activity  of  the  club  women,  the  constant  agitation  of  the 
subject  by  chambers  of  commerce,  and  other  agencies,  through  the 
columns  of  leading  magazines  and  the  daily  press  have  resulted  in  the 
creation  of  a  public  sentiment,  favorable  to  the  good  roads  movement. 

When  Mr.  Roosevelt  asked  the  people  of  rural  America  what 
would  contribute  most  to  their  happiness,  nine-tenths  of  their  answers 
were,  "Good  Roads."  Mr.  Page  says:  A  mighty  wave  of  sentiment 
for  good  roads  is  sweeping  over  the  entire  country,  and  already 
the  American  people  have  entered  upon  a  road  building  era  which 
has  no  parallel  in  the  history,  not  even  the  splendid  era  when  Rome 
knit  together  with  massive  military  roads  the  far  fleeing  outposts 
of  her  empire,  nor  the  century  of  constructive  work  begun  by  Na- 
poleon, which  has  given  to  France  most  superb  systems  of  highways 
in  the  world. 

Nearly  all  the  States  have  established  departments  of  highways 
and  have  provided  for  State  participation  in  the  building  and  care 
of  the  highways. 

The  rapid  introduction  of  the  automobile  into  every  section  of 
the  country  has  revolutionized  traffic  conditions — it  has  brought 
people  close  together,  the  concentration  of  population  in  manu- 
facturing and  traffic  centers  has  made  necessary  the  transportation 
of  immense  quantities  of  food  from  the  producer  to  the  consumer 
and  the  transportation  of  immense  quantities  of  manufactured  prod- 
ucts back  to  the  farm  dwellers  from  the  city  factories.  The  vaca- 
tion-loving American  has  made  possible  the  opening  up  of  summer 
and  winter  resorts  and  has  made  accessible  the  splendid  scenery  of 
our  country. 

The  cumulative  results  of  all  these  individual  forces  has  been  the 
weaving  of  a  web  of  interdependence  which  reaches  every  city, 
every  town  and  every  farm  house.  The  public  highway  is  no  longer 
a  mere  local  utility,  it  is  a  national  asset,  a  national  responsibility, 
and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  come  to  a  realization  of 
this  fact  to  such  an  extent  that  the  day  of  Federal  aid  to  road  con- 
struction is  at  hand. 

The  need  for  good  roads  is  apparent — the  demand  for  them  is 
becoming  universal,  the  question  now  is,  how  are  we  to  secure  them 
and  maintain  them  so  as  to  give  the  most  efficient  service  to  all  the 
people  at  the  least  possible  cost. 

This  subject  is  being  studied  from  a  scientific  and  business-like 
standpoint  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country.  Let 
us  hope  that  the  deliberations  of  this  Good  Roads  Congress  may 
result  in  some  plan  for  highway  improvement  that  will  meet  with 
the  approval  not  only  of  the  State  and  Federal  road  officials,  but 
also  the  people  at  large.  The  interest  of  our  Georgia  club  women 
in  this  subject  as  I  have  said  before,  has  been  expressed,  so  far, 
mainly  in  the  agitation  of  the  subject  with  a  view  to  arousing  a 
public  sentiment  favorable  to  this  movement,  while  our  efforts 
have  been  directed  principally  to  the  elemental  principles  of  civic 


WOMEN'S  CONFERENCE  341 

betterment.  That  clubs  have  outlived  their  period  of  amateur 
effort  and  are  already  taking  a  broader  perspective  of  the  work,  was 
shown  by  their  ready  response  when  just  one  year  ago  it  was  an- 
nounced that  the  department  of  civics  had  enlisted  the  interest  of 
railroad  officials  in  a  cooperative  scheme  of  promoting  a  State-wide 
improvement  of  station  grounds  and  rights-of-way.  Immediately, 
numbers  of  them  took  the  matter  up  with  their  railroad  officials, 
and  already  much  has  been  done/ 

We  believe  the  work  accomplished  at  those  places  to  be  a  fore- 
runner of  those  larger  achievements  of  civic  betterment,  which  we 
await  with  faith  and  strivings,  and  which  will  include  not  only  a  State- 
wide improvement  of  station  grounds,  but  also,  a  system  of  good 
roads,  generous  enough  in  its  layout  to  provide  for  a  scheme  of 
beautification  similar  to  that  of  the  proposed  Lincoln  Highway, 
which  is  to  be  built  from  New  York  across  the  continent  to  San 
Francisco.  Interest  in  this  highway  is  general  and  has  given  impetus 
to  the  good  roads  movement  throughout  the  country.  Affiliations 
with  the  Lincoln  Highway  Commission  is  a  Lincoln  Way  Tree  Com- 
mittee, composed  largely  of  club  women,  which  is  working  out  a 
plan  for  its  beautification  and  it  has  been  proposed  that  each  State 
adopt  a  distinct  style  of  its  own  by  planting  trees,  shrubs,  and 
flowers  that  are  indigenous  to  the  State  through  which  it  passes. 
For  instance — New  Jersey  will  plant  fruit  trees  for  their  bloom  in 
the  spring  and  their  fruitage  for  travelers  in  the  fall.  Michigan 
women  will  plant  a  car  load  of  walnuts.  The  women  of  Utah  have 
a  wonderfully  interesting  idea — the  pines  of  their  mountains,  the 
tiger  lily,  their  State  flower,  the  roots  of  which  provided  nourishing 
and  delicious  food  for  their  pioneers  when  all  other  food  failed  them, 
the  cactus  and  the  sage  brush  of  their  deserts  and  emblematic  figures 
of  salt  where  no  vegetation  will  grow. 

In  California,  the  pepper  tree  will  be  used,  and  the  children  of 
Oakland  have  been  gathering  golden  poppy  seeds,  and  will  sow  them 
after  the  fall  rains  with  the  blue  lupin  to  border  them,  so  that  motor- 
ists may  drive  through  many  miles  of  blue  and  gold  bordered  high- 
ways, when  they  attend  the  fair  in  San  Francisco. 

What  a  beautiful  idea  it  would  be  for  the  children  of  all  the  States 
to  assist  in  beautifying  the  highways. 

Italy  has  her  Appian  way,  England  her  magnificent  roads  with 
their  famous  hawthorn  hedges,  France  her  superb  system  of  highways, 
the  finest  in  the  world,  bordered  with  shoulders  of  green.  America 
will  have  her  Lincoln  way — Georgia  must  join  hands  with  her  sister 
States  in  making  this  road  as  splendid,  as  extensive,  and  as  beauti- 
ful as  any  of  those  which  the  old  world  boasts. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :     The  determining  cause  of  this  women's  meet- 
ing has  just  appeared  in  our  midst  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Page, 
am  sure  you  will  wish  to  hear  him  speak  although  unfortunately 
the  exigencies  of  a  very  full  program  will  not  permit  more  than 


342  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

three  minutes  even  to  the  road  man  of  the  country.  It  gives  me 
great  pleasure  to  introduce  Mr.  Logan  Waller  Page,  Director  of  the 
United  States  Office  of  Public  Roads  and  President  of  the  American 
Highway  Association. 

MR.  PAGE  :  Chairman  and  Ladies:  Mrs.  Baker  told  me  she  would 
allow  me  three  minutes  to  talk  to  you  and  I  am  going  to  try  and  make 
my  remarks  as  brief  and  practical  as  possible.  I  have  watched  the 
work  that  women  have  done  in  bettering  our  rural  educational  con- 
ditions and  as  President  of  the  American  Highway  Association,  last 
spring,  I  asked  our  Board  of  Directors  to  allow  me  to  start  a  Woman's 
Department  of  that  Association,  for  I  believe  that  women  could 
accomplish  more  in  better  county  road  management  than  men  could. 
For  20-odd  years,  I  have  gotten  up  county  and  district  organizations 
for  the  betterment  of  road  management,  but  they  never  met  with 
success.  A  man  will  get  up  in  his  county  and  say,  "everything  is 
all  wrong  here,  we  are  not  spending  our  money  properly,  we  are  not 
getting  any  results,"  but  the  men  will  wink  at  each  other  and  say, 
"he  is  going  to  run  for  the  legislature  next  year."  Now,  that's 
not  the  case  with  women. 

To  try  and  bring  this  fact  home  to  you,  I  will  give  you  an  illus- 
tration. For  the  past  six  years,  I  have  offered  each  county  in  the 
United  States  a  first-class  highway  engineer,  free  of  charge,  if  they 
would  let  that  engineer  direct  the  expenditures  of  the  road  fund 
in  that  county  and  to  superintend  such  work  and  do  as  he  thought 
best,  etc.  I  have  never  succeeded  in  getting  but  two  counties  to 
accept  that  offer.  Now  the  principal  reason  is  that  our  road  work, 
our  county  road  work,  is  superintended  by  the  vast  army  of  some 
140,000  road  officials,  which  this  lady  has  just  told  you  about.  That 
system  was  started  in  England  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
Oliver  Cromwell  did  away  with  it  in  England,  but  we  have  stuck 
to  it  here.  Now  as  a  rule  those  road  supervisors  are  selected,  not 
because  they  have  any  knowledge  of  road  construction  but  for  po- 
litical reasons — their  compensation  is  too  small  and  their  term  of 
office  is  too  short  to  make  it  worth  their  while  to  qualify  themselves, 
so  the  result  is  they  are  part  of  a  great  political  machine,  that's  all. 
You  will  find  a  little  account  keeping  of  money  on  roads  will  show 
that  work  in  this  direction  is  not  usually  done  on  the  most  important 
road,  but  on  the  road  on  which  the  most  important  man  in  the  county 
lives.  I  succeeded  in  getting  a  very  rural  county  in  Vermont,  three 
years  ago,  to  accept  the  services  of  a  highway  engineer.  We  agreed 
at  that  time  that  our  engineer  should  report  for  duty  and  remain 
there  a  year  from  the  first  of  May.  He  reported  there  on  the  first 
day  of  May  and  wired  me  that  80  per  cent  of  the  year's  appropriation 
had  already  been  spent.  I  wired  him  in  return  to  remain  and  to  go 
to  their  commissioner,  ask  him  how  much  money  he  had  received 
for  road  work  and  to  show  what  work  he  had  done.  I  told  him  to 
make  an  estimate  of  what  he  thought  of  the  work  and  what  it  was 


WOMEN'S  CONFERENCE  343 

worth.  He  found  that  $800  or  $1000  had  been  paid  to  one  man, 
where  the  work  could  have  been  done  for  $50  or  $60.  We  then  held 
a  mass  meeting  in  the  county.  The  people  got  our  engineer  to 
agree  to  stay  there  and  take  the  remaining  20  per  cent  of  the  fund  and 
see  what  could  be  done  with  it,  with  the  result  that  never  in  the 
history  of  the  country  had  so  much  good  work  been  accomplished 
and  the  roads  were  never  in  as  good  condition.  They  finally  asked 
me  to  let  the  engineer  stay  another  year  and  they  would  let  him 
direct  and  superintend  the  expenditures  on  road  work.  I  let  him 
remain  another  year.  That  county  is  one  of  the  best  good  road 
counties  in  the  United  States  today. 

The  work  that  can  be  done  by  women  in  our  road  work  should 
begin  in  the  counties.  Now,  very  few  of  us  are  really  familiar  with 
real  country  conditions.  I  have  called  on  Mrs.  Baker  to  organize 
this  work,  to  spread  it  out  into  the  country  and  get  the  real  country 
women  to  cooperate.  We  have  got  to  help  raise  the  country  out 
of  the  rut.  I  am  going  to  count  on  the  women  in  this  first  meet- 
ing, where  this  subject  has  first  been  discussed,  and  I  believe  the 
women  will  accomplish  the  result  we  want. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  Governor  of  Missouri  has  sent  as  a  delegate 
a  woman  who  has  done  practical  work  on  roads.  She  has  "bossed 
road  gangs"  and  superintended  the  work  on  the  roads  near  her 
farm.  Though  affiliated  with  many  useful  movements  in  her  State, 
she  tells  me  she  cares  most  for  her  title  of  President  of  the  Women 
Farmers 'Club.  I  know  we  will  enjoy  hearing  a  little  account  of  her 
activities  as  a  "highway  man"  and  a  woman  farmer.  With  these 
titles  I  have  the  honor  to  present  Miss  Frances  Pearl  Mitchell,  of 
Rocheport,  Missouri. 

PRACTICAL  ROAD  WORK  BY  WOMEN 

Miss  FRANCES  PEARL  MITCHELL 
President  of  the  Women  Farmers  Club,  Rocheport,  Missouri 

You  have  listened  this  morning  to  the  aesthetic  side  of  "Good 
Roads" — the  humane  side  has  also  been  presented.  Now  I  am  to  tell 
you  something  of  the  practical  work  done  by  the  women  of  Missouri. 

As  far  back  as  1909  the  D.  A.  R.'s  began  working  for  the  selection 
of  historic  roads  as  State  and  national  highways.  The  result  was 
the  passage  of  an  "Old  Trails  Road  Bill"  in  Congress  and  the  or- 
ganization of  a  "National  Old  Trails  Road  Association"  to  which 
were  eligible  any  one  interested  in  historic  roads.  The  Missouri 
branch  of  the  National  Old  Trails  Road  has  secured  the  dedication  of  a 
State  highway  across  the  Missouri  running  from  Kansas  City  to 
New  Franklin  over  the  Old  Santa  Fe  Trail — one  of  the  early  com- 
mercial trails  to  the  unknown  West.  From  New  Franklin  to  St. 
Charles,  the  highway  follows  the  Boone's  Lick  Road — a  path  made 
by  the  pioneer  Daniel  Boone  and  his  sons  when  they  made  their 


344  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

annual  trip  to  a  famous  salt  spring  near  the  starting  point  of  New 
Santa  Fe  Trail.  All  along  this  highway  of  over  300  miles,  historic 
points  have  been  marked  by  red  granite  monuments,  and  in  old 
taverns  repairs  have  been  made  and  relics  collected. 

The  Missouri  Women  Farmers'  Club,  composed  of  women  who 
personally  superintend  and  manage  their  own  farms,  realizes  the  im- 
portance of  good  roads,  as  a  means  of  reaching  the  markets,  and  of 
keeping  in  touch  with  community  interests.  They  are  earnest  advo- 
cators  of  road  improvement  and  have  given  much  assistance  to  the 
work.  Some  have  been  interested  in  the  "Good  Road's  for  Child 
Welfare"  association  and  have  organized  bands  of  "Boy  Road  Scouts" 
who  drag  the  roads,  cut  weeds,  etc.,  thus  inculcating  the  interest 
in  good  roads  in  the  embryo  man.  One  woman  farmer,  after  failing 
to  interest  her  men  neighbors  in  the  split  log  drag,  gave  herself  a 
practical  illustration  of  its  use  on  the  roads  about  her  land,  which 
resulted  in  the  community  following  her  example. 

When  the  Governor  of  Missouri  issued  a  call  for  two  days'  road 
volunteer  work,  and  in  overalls  and  straw  hat  managed  a  road 
grader  himself,  these  women  farmers  sent  their  teams  and  men,  fur- 
nished lunches  for  the  workers  and  in  every  way  assisted  in  the 
movement.  The  president  of  the  Women  Farmers'  Club,  a  "  bachelor 
maid"  found  herself  one  of  the  official  superintendents.  The  "Bach- 
elor Club"  of  the  town,  volunteered  to  work  under  her  instruction, 
and  a  dozen  weary,  sadder,  but  wiser,  men,  before  the  day  ended, 
realized  what  it  was  to  be  "bossed"  by  a  woman! 

A  country  school  teacher  in  one  of  the  remote  counties  has  proved 
what  can  be  done  with  the  primitive  one-room  school  house  by 
converting  it  into  a  furnace  heated,  well-lighted  building,  with  a 
basement  equipped  with  appliances  for  teaching  domestic  science. 
The  yard  is  an  agricultural  and  horticultural  experiment  field  and 
the  boys  and  girls  are  organized  into  squads  of  road  Scouts.  She 
interested  her  patrons  in  road  work  and  she  and  the  farm  women 
served  dinners  at  the  school  house,  which  has  become  the  community 
center — so  much  road  improvement  has  been  made  that  a  community 
wagon  gathers  the  pupils  from  the  farms  and  conveys  them  to  and 
from  school. 

There  should  be  good  roads  committees  in  all  our  Women's 
Clubs  which  have  any  touch  with  social,  civic,  industrial  or  do- 
mestic conditions,  for  whatever  women  undertake  with  earnestness 
or  zeal  is  usually  achieved. 

Bad  roads  are  a  travesty  on  good  government.  All  nations  as 
they  advanced  in  civilization  became  road  builders.  Many  of  the 
fine  highways  of  Europe  are  yet  monuments  of  the  greatness  of  the 
French  Empire  under  Napoleon's  reign.  In  the  Holy  Land  the 
tourist  and  the  pilgrim  ride  their  jaded  beasts  over  the  broken 
stony  road  which  the  conquering  Romans  built  for  their  war  chariots, 
over  two  thousand  years  ago. 

Our  own  nation  has  been  too  busy  making  history  and  amassing 


345 

fortunes,  to  build  roads,  but  there  is  a  wonderful  wave  of  road  in- 
terest enveloping  the  United  States  now.  The  horseless  carriage 
has  had  much  to  do  with  it,  for  the  city  and  town  have  common 
cause,  when  on  pleasure  bent.  The  high  cost  of  living  has  been 
another  awakener,  both  consumer  and  producer  realizing  that  good 
roads  must  reduce  the  cost  of  food  when  transportation  to  market 
is  made  easier. 

Women  can  do  much  by  their  enthusiasm  toward  getting  the 
right  kind  of  road  legislations  and  by  their  demand  for  the  wise  and 
honest  expenditure  of  road  funds  in  their  respective  States  and 
counties. 

Good  roads  means  the  uniting  of  North  and  South,  the  East  and  West 
into  combined  effort  toward  progress  and  advancement  of  the  Nation! 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Our  next  speaker  is  from  Knoxville,  Tennessee. 
She  is  Chairman  of  the  Conservation  Commission  and  personal 
representative  of  the  President  of  the  Tennessee  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs.  I  have  long  anticipated  the  pleasure  of  hearing 
her  speak.  With  great  pleasure  I  introduce  Mrs.  M.  B.  Arnstein. 

CONSERVATION  AND  THE  ROAD 

MRS.  M.  B.  ARNSTEIN  OF  KNOXVILLE 
Chairman  of  Conservation  Tennessee  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 

The  greatest  fact  which  strikes  us  when  we  compare  the  present 
day,  with  the  years  that  have  preceded  it,  is  the  enormous  growth 
of  human  power.  In  this  present  age,  we  grapple  with  everything 
that  pertains  to  the  material  prosperity  of  our  country.  We  know 
that  in  facing  the  various  problems  of  life,  that  we  must  consider 
the  forces  of  nature  in  all  her  aspect,  moral,  economic  and  social, 
and  in  order  to  cope  with  this  organization  of  life,  we  must  conserve 
these  forces. 

Conservation  is  the  powerful  factor  in  human  exploitation.  The 
conservation  of  our  forests,  our  soil,  our  water,  our  minerals,  are 
all  of  inestimable  value.  They  mean  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  the 
prosperity  of  the  people,  the  heritage  of  the  State.  With  all  this 
wealth  at  our  door;  nature's  resources  overflowing  in  our  lap,  as  it 
were,  the  great  question  is,  how  to  make  them  available  to  the 
world  at  large? 

We  must  conserve  them,  but  we  should  do  more.  We  should 
find  a  practical  outlet  for  them.  How?  This  problem  is  best 
solved  by  a  system  of  highways  and  good  roads.  We  may  weave 
garlands  of  sentiment  in  our  work  but  in  the  building  of  good  roads, 
we  are  undertaking  the  practical,  which  interests  and  benefits  the 
people  socially,  educationally,  economically. 

People  everywhere  are  waking  up  to  the  fact  that  good  roads 
are  the  prime  factor  in  commercial,  social,  economical  and  indus- 
trial conditions.  The  nation  is  alive  to  the  question  and  rural 
life  is  absolutely  dependent  upon  it. 


346  AMERICAN   ROAD   CONGRESS 

Good  roads  have  brought  a  complete  change  in  the  whole  mental 
attitude  of  our  fellowmen  who  conserve  the  soil.  He  looks  upon 
life  and  the  world  in  altered  aspect.  He  too  can  now  conserve, 
conserve  his  energy,  for  he  sees  before  him  a  long  vista  of  good  roads, 
which  means  a  vista  of  peace  and  contentment.  No  longer  must 
he  labor  and  reap,  work  and  toil  against  great  disadvantages.  Dis- 
tribution can  be  made  easier  and  cheaper.  His  products,  his  indus- 
tries, can  now  be  readily  transported,  for  his  roads  are  passable  at 
all  times  of  the  year.  He  can  haul  nearly  twice  as  much  on  a  con- 
crete road  as  he  can  on  a  dirt  surface  and  make  the  trip  to  town  and 
back  in  about  half  the  time.  All  his  perishable  products  of  farm, 
garden  and  orchard  can  quickly  be  gotten  to  the  market  before  they 
spoil.  The  results  are  inestimable.  The  quick  and  cheap  govern- 
ment service,  the  Agricultural  Parcels  Post,  expand  his  field  enor- 
mously. Then,  he  too,  can  reckon  on  the  increased  value  of  his 
land,  because  of  these  improvements.  Good  roads  are  indeed  a 
potent  factor  in  conservation,  they  are  an  economic  necessity;  for 
our  agricultural  communities,  our  forest  industries,  our  mineral 
resources  are  all  dependent  upon  them  in  an  inconceivable  measure. 

They  also  mean  a  conservation  of  human  life  and  human  intelli- 
gence. They  mean  conservation  in  an  educational  way  for  the 
farmer  li ving  in  some  remote  section  of  the  country,  hemmed  in  by 
muddy  roads,  cannot  educate  his  family,  but  against  great,  trying 
conditions.  The  school  house  surrounded  by  inaccessible  walks, 
is  more  a  hindrance,  than  a  boon  to  child  life.  We  must,  through 
good  roads,  lift  these  future  men  and  women  of  our  rural  and  urban 
districts,  from  the  miry  depths  of  ignorance  into  the  sunlight  of 
knowledge,  for  no  matter  how  much  the  State  and  counties  appro- 
priate for  educational  purposes,  this  cannot  be  accomplished  unless 
the  children  and  teachers  have  good  roads. 

With  good  roads,  circulating  libraries  can  easily  be  transported. 
The  people  will  have  their  social  centers.  They  can  keep  in  touch 
with  the  daily  Me  of  the  nation,  and  national  opinion  will  not  be 
restricted. 

There  is  nothing  so  vital  to  rural  life  as  good  roads,  nothing  so 
vital  to  the  welfare  of  the  State  and  nation,  nothing  so  productive 
to  the  development  of  the  country. 

The  South  is  a  great  manufacturing  section.  Quantities  of 
southern  made  goods  are  shipped  to  all  parts  of  the  country,  our  by- 
products of  the  mills,  our  pure  foods,  our  machinery,  our  imple- 
ments are  all  dependent  on  good  roads.  It  is  the  one  big  question 
of  the  day  in  all  lines  of  industrial  endeavor.  They  will  aid  not  only 
the  rapid  transportation  of  our  timber,  but  will  add  to  the  economic 
utilization  of  wood  and  other  forest  products,  and  helps  us  to  main- 
tain supremacy  of  our  great  mineral  production. 

Think  what  they  will  mean  to  your  marble  industries,  here  in 
Georgia,  to  our  marble  in  Tennessee,  our  coal,  our  wealth  of  iron. 
They  mean  the  upbuilding  of  the  South;  the  upbuilding  of  the 
nation. 


WOMEN'S  CONFERENCE  347 

Take  our  forest  reserves  for  instance.  We  are  all  in  favor  of 
Federal  control  of  our  national  forests — for  our  national  forests  are 
our  greatest  asset.  The  government,  as  you  know,  has  an  option 
on  a  tract  of  6,000,000  acres  in  the  Southern  Appalachian  region, 
in  which  purchases  are  to  be  made,  and  from  which  it  will  conduct 
its  operation  by  building  roads  and  driveways.  What  will  be  the 
result?  This  will  mean  forest  institutes  and  the  like,  with  a  system 
of  highways  and  good  roads  running  through  these  national  forests. 
The  States  and  counties  will  construct  links  in  between,  thereby 
making  a  great  highway,  extending  from  near  the  National  Capitol 
along  these  mountains  to  the  southern  end  of  the  national  forests 
in  Georgia  and  Alabama. 

This  is  coming  right  home  to  you  my  friends.  With  this  system 
of  roads  and  trails  leading  down  to  the  streams,  all  of  which  we  are 
conserving,  with  hotels,  cottages,  etc.,  there  would  be  made  easily 
accessible  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  picturesque  mountain  re- 
gions in  the  world. 

The  country  is  the  nation's  great  recruiting  grounds.  What  is 
it  that  has  made  the  mountains  of  Europe  the  playgrounds  of 
America?  Why  do  our  tourist  spend  months  yearly  in  the  Alps? 
Why  is  it  they  spend  time  and  money  in  these  foreign  counties 
instead  of  in  their  own?  Because  those  people  have  been  far- 
sighted  enough  to  enhance  their  natural  beauties  and  to  make 
them  accessible  by  good  roads.  All  over  the  Continent,  will  you 
find  highways  that  make  us  blush  with  shame  in  comparison,  public 
highways,  that  surpass  our  private  roads  and  are  as  beautifully 
embellished  as  our  city  parks. 

Good  roads  are  a  public  health  utility.  They  mean  a  conservation 
of  life  as  well  as  of  products,  for  rural  isolation  due  to  bad  roads  is  a 
serious  factor  in  inflicting  disorder  of  the  mind  on  women.  They 
will  mean  a  diminution  of  tenement  life,  for  people  will  realize  with 
good  road  facilities  for  transportation,  the  health  giving  life  of  the 
country. 

They  mean  the  reduction  of  the  high  cost  of  living;  for  our  cities 
are  dependent  on  the  country  for  their  products.  They  mean  new 
life,  new  hopes,  new  ambitions. 

There  is  no  road  so  expensive  as  a  bad  road,  and  every  county 
should  build  good  roads;  for  much  money  is  practically  wasted 
in  the  process  of  road  building,  through  inexperience,  poor  material 
and  poorer  labor.  There  should  be  greater  efficiency  in  the  distri- 
bution of  funds  for  public  road  building,  greater  efficiency  in  the 
supervision.  Remember  the  best  is  always  the  cheapest  in  the  end 
and  they  who  build  the  best  roads,  build  a  road  of  lasting  prosperity. 
Build  a  good  county  highway  and  every  village  will  have  its  main 
streets  paved  and  good  roads  connecting  with  it.  Pull  the  suburbs 
out  of  its  muddy  tracks  and  you  will  pull  them  into  enlightenment. 
Give  the  people  good  roads  and  you  will  not  only  give  them  ideals, 
inculcate  a  love  of  home,  a  pride  in  their  surroundings,  but  you  will 
conserve  the  best  interests  of  the  people  and  lay  an  economic  foun- 
dation that  will  benefit  the  country,  the  State  and  the  nation. 


348  AMERICAN    ROAD    CONGRESS 

I  was  asked  "  What  have  women  to  do  with  Highways  Associations 
and  the  building  of  roads?"  I  replied,  "Women  have  to  do  with 
everything  that  concerns  the  home  and  the  future  American  citi- 
zens, and  the  question  of  good  roads  is  of  paramount  importance 
to  home  life,  to  education  and  to  health. 

We  should  make  for  posterity  a  better  abiding  place,  "Thy  God 
bringeth  thee  into  a  good  land,  a  land  of  rivers,  of  fountains,  of 
depths  that  spring  out  of  mountains  and  hills."  Let  us  supple- 
ment this  with  a  land  of  good  roads,  for  conservation  and  good 
roads  are  the  most  urgent  questions  before  the  country  today.  They 
go  hand  in  hand  and  will  show  how  human  efficiency  may  be  effect- 
ively utilized  and  how  many  things,  that  now  go  to  waste,  may 
be  converted  into  sources  of  revenue. 

They  mean  a  new  era  of  prosperity  to  this  country,  where  poor 
roads  have  long  been  the  greatest  drawback. 

May  good  roads,  foreordained  by  the  wise  action  of  today,  be 
a  practical  consummation  of  a  glorious  tomorrow. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  "The  Social  Side  of  the  Highway"  is  the  sub- 
ject of  this  next  paper.  Mrs.  Haden  was  the  former  President 
of  the  Atlanta  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  is  now  chairman  of 
the  Commission  on  Education  of  the  Georgia  Federation  and  is 
concerned  in  much  of  the  good  work  being  done  in  Atlanta.  Mrs. 
Charles  J.  Haden. 

THE  SOCIAL  SIDE  OF  THE  HIGHWAY 

MRS.  CHARLES  J.  HADEN 

Chairman  Committee  of  Social  Service,  Georgia  Federation  of  Women's 

Clubs 

The  road  as  a  social  factor  may  be  of  greater  ultimate  value  than 
as  a  commercial  quantity.  The  church,  the  school  and  the  neighbor 
are  the  first  formative  influences  in  the  building  of  the  child  after 
it  leaves  the  nursery.  The  extent  to  which  these  may  be  made 
effective,  very  largely  depends  on  the  conditions  of  the  roads. 

The  character  of  the  highway  itself  is  an  object  lesson  which 
leaves  a  lasting  impress  upon  childhood.  Just  as  monuments  and 
houses  appeal  to  the  childish  imagination  and  suggest  standards 
of  life,  so  does  the  roadway.  Is  it  well  built,  well  kept,  with  appro- 
priate bridges  and  sign-boards? — if  so,  it  speaks  thrift  and  stability, 
and  a  deep  respect  for  the  home-land.  There  is  more  than  a  sur- 
face meaning  in  the  familiar  lines  "dear  to  my  heart  are  the  scenes 
of  my  childhood."  A  line  of  great  oaks,  or  elms,  that  border  the 
roadway  imprints  a  subtle  imagery  upon  the  boy  or  girl  that  years 
do  not  efface.  In  the  upbuilding  of  rural  life,  those  things  which 
charm  and  cheer  the  youth  have  a  solid  value  which  is  too  often 
overlooked.  The  houses,  the  roads,  the  fields  and  other  early  en- 
vironment, become  unconsciously  the  standards  by  which  we  measure 


349 

by  comparison  like  things  ever  afterwards,  whether  they  be  better  or 
worse,  at  home  or  abroad.  They  enter  into  and  become  a  part  of  us 
to  an  extent  that  we  do  not  realize  until  when  in  mature  years  we 
detect  how  they  influence  our  conduct. 

The  modern  roadway  lures  the  city  dweller  to  the  country,  creat- 
ing a  counter-current  against  the  call  of  the  foot-lights  and  the 
white  way.  Carried  out  by  motor  cars,  the  educative  forces  of  the 
city  reach  the  hundreds  of  homes  which  were  marooned  by  the 
old  time  mud-obstructed  roadway.  The  book,  the  magazine,  the 
newspaper,  the  fashion,  the  miscellaneous  emanation  which  gives 
sparkle  to  city  life,  transforms  the  one-time  monotony  of  the  farm. 
The  drudgery  which  in  former  times  made  dull  and  drear  the  farm 
and  drove  away  from  it  too  many  of  its  boys  and  girls,  is  changed  by 
the  incoming  of  labor-saving  devices.  Through  these  the  earning 
capacity  of  the  farm  is  multiplied  and  the  hours  of  rest  increased. 
Less  drudgery  and  more  leisure  develops  the  finer  qualities  of  a 
people  and  enriches  their  social  life.  These  follow  the  construction 
of  good  roads  as  day  follows  night. 

The  rural  home-maker  finding  that  city  tourists  are  passing  her 
gateway  every  hour,  naturally  yields  to  the  woman's  instinct  to 
beautify  her  surroundings.  The  custom  is  both  universal  and  whole- 
some to  add  attractive  touches  when  company  comes.  This  initial 
step  of  home-pride  is  followed  by  other  steps  of  domestic  and  social 
advancement.  The  girl  and  the  boy  of  the  road-side  home  meeting 
every  day  the  passing  tourists,  absorbs  elements  of  a  practical 
education  which  otherwise  would  be  lost  to  them. 

A  rural  movement  fast  becoming  nation-wide,  is  the  organization 
of  community  clubs.  These  meet  once  each  month  at  a  home  of  one 
of  the  members,  so  that  during  the  year,  each  member  has  been  host 
at  least  once,  to  the  club.  A  study  of  public  questions,  of  agri- 
culture, of  cooperative  buying  and  selling,  of  fraternal  interest, 
has  made  these  organizations  of  immeasurable  benefit  to  country 
life.  These  clubs  are  made  possible  through  the  winter  by  good 
roads;  and  it  may  be  added  that,  in  hundreds  of  instances,  good  roads 
have  been  made  possible  only  through  the  influence  of  these  clubs. 
These  rural  clubs,  cooperating  with  each  other  and  with  schools 
of  agriculture,  have  studied  the  secrets  of  the  soil  iacreasing  the 
earnings  of  the  farmer,  and  broadening  the  social  opportunities 
of  his  family.  It  has  been  long  recognized  that  the  deep-laid  foun- 
dations of  England's  national  life  are  its  country  homes.  The 
Englishman  lives  by  the  highway,  he  merely  sojourns  by  the  street 
side.  Away  from  the  turmoil  of  the  city  and  surrounded  by  the 
meadows,  the  Englishman  reaches  the  fullness  of  his  stature  in  his 
Thorny  Croft,  or  his  Locksley  Hall.  Under  such  environment  love 
of  the  country,  is  love  for  one's  country. 

Without  the  passable  roadway  we  lose  our  greatest  birthright — 
pure  air  and  abundant  sunshine.  In  the  construction  of  sleeping 
cars  there  is  a  certain  scientific  minimum  of  breathing  space  for 


350  AMERICAN  ROAD   CONGRESS 

the  protection  of  health;  it  is  equally  well  recognized  that  the  best 
protection  against  social  ills  are  the  larger  breathing  places  along 
the  country  highways.  All  deplore  the  overgrowth  of  the  cities, 
but  this  trend  of  our  times  seems  without  remedy.  Now,  as  in 
the  past,  the  city  is  reinforced  by  recruits  from  the  country.  The 
wise  thing  is  to  raise  the  standard  from  whence  these  recruits  come, 
not  only  to  better  equip  those  who  leave,  but  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  remain.  This  is  the  undertaking  for  each  sepa- 
rate country  home  and  may  be  best  accomplished  when  country 
homes,  one  with  another,  are  close  knit  into  a  social  fabric.  The 
telephone  along  the  roadside,  the  metal  reservoir  conveying  water 
by  gravity  through  every  room,  electric  or  acetylene  lights,  the 
daily  rural  mail  delivery,  the  small  automobile;  these  can  lighten 
the  one-time  burden  of  the  farm  and  brighten  its  one-time  dullness 
and  transform  a  whole  country  into  a  neighborhood.  They  follow 
and  depend  upon  the  improved  highway.  It  is  not  that  we  need  to 
meet  people  every  hour — indeed  it  is  better  that  we  do  not  meet  them 
every  hour — but  that  we  can  meet  them  when  we  should  and  meet 
them  with  comfort,  that  develops  social  life  at  its  best.  Keeping 
busy  at  something  both  useful  and  agreeable  is  a  later  accomplish- 
ment of  the  city  woman.  This  has  been  found  to  be  the  greatest 
youth-prolonging  influence  ever  discovered.  Adopting  this  discovery 
the  women  of  the  city  have  united  in  many  organizations  for  civic 
and  social  service.  They  have  served  the  public  well,  but  in  doing 
so  have  served  themselves  better.  The  highway  with  its  accessions 
puts  at  the  command  of  the  women  of  the  country  the  same  oppor- 
tunity of  taking  the  drudgery  out,  while  they  still  keep  busy  at  some- 
thing both  useful  and  agreeable.  One  is  work  with  the  sparkle 
out,  the  other  is  work  with  the  sparkle  in. 

The  railway  train  is  of  the  town  and  for  the  town.  It  steams 
across  the  cour.try  along  its  narrow  right  of  way  with  hardly  more  of 
human  fellowship  than  an  aeroplane  or  a  meteor.  But  the  improved 
roadway  establishes  a  social  level.  The  humblest  cottager  feels  in  it 
a  sense  of  partnership — that  it  leads  him  somewhere,  and  brings  him 
something.  The  school  boy  with  his  books,  the  woman  at  the  well, 
and  the  man  with  the  hoe  give  and  receive  the  salute  as  the  motor 
car  whirls  along.  The  country  store  and  the  wayside  inn,  give  and 
take  the  glad  hand  with  the  tourist.  Between  the  driver  on  the 
hay-wagon  and  the  millionaire  in  his  touring  car  the  pure  democ- 
racy of  the  pioneer  republic  for  the  passing  moment  lives  again. 
In  touring  across  New  England  during  the  past  summer,  the  cot- 
tage woman  who  kept  the  toll-bridge  which  spans  the  Connecticut 
River  where  it  divides  the  mountains  of  Vermont  and  those  of 
New  Hampshire,  told  us  that  within  two  hours  that  day  she  had 
talked  with  tourists  from  Canada,  New  York,  Texas  and  Georgia. 
With  two  small  children  clinging  to  her  skirts  she  said  to  us,  with  a 
goodbye  wave  of  the  hand,  "You  know,  we  are  all  neighbors  now." 

It  is  one  step — a  kind  of  graceful,  sliding  scale — by  which  the 


WOMEN'S  CONFERENCE  351 

tree-bordered  avenue  stretches  into  the  tree  bordered  country 
road.  The  reasons  for  the  one  are  the  reasons  for  the  other. 
Beauty,  comfort  and  relief  from  monotony.  The  cost  of  planting 
and  keeping  shade- trees  along  the  highway  is  hardly  perceptible. 
Sunshine  and  clouds  give  like  spendthrifts,  the  blossoms  of  spring 
and  the  brown  leaves  of  autumn  are  semi-annual  dividends  declared 
by  mother  nature,  and  the  added  growth  as  year  follows  year,  is  the 
ever  increasing  patrimony  which  one  generation  bequeaths  to  an- 
other. Such  will  be  the  highways  of  the  future  as  the  women  of  our 
land  become  more  and  more  concerned  in  its  outdoor  civic  wel- 
fare and  cause  our  road-builders  to  reckon  on  the  commercial  value 
of  beauty.  In  France  and  California,  the  charm  of  the  roadway 
attracts  tourists  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  tourists  who  spend 
unsparingly  of  their  money  and  their  time. 

As  a  beautiful  gown  calls  for  appropriate  accessories  until  the 
ensemble  is  complete,  so  will  the  shade  trees  of  the  highway  call 
to  their  support  the  grassy  lawn,  the  rose  garden,  the  artistic  touches 
of  house  and  out-buildings,  until  the  domestic  scene  has  been  made 
anew.  The  modern  roadway  will  lead  us  back  to  the  social  suprem- 
acy of  the  country  as  it  is  in  England  and  as  it  once  was  in  the 
old  South;  and  these  things  are  coming  as  by  the  swift  speed  of  the 
motor  car,  city  comforts  are  carried  to  the  country  home. 

In  the  pioneer  days,  the  winter  solitude  of  the  country  was  se- 
vere in  the  extreme.  The  farm  home  from  December  to  March  was 
but  little  more  of  a  social  center  than  was  the  island  of  Juan  Fer- 
nandez, with  Robinson  Crusoe  and  his  man  Friday.  Mud  put  an 
embargo  on  travel,  except  when  under  compulsion,  for  a  hundred 
days  of  the  year.  It  must  have  been  when  looking  from  a  farm 
house  window  upon  a  January  landscape  of  gloom  and  chill,  over- 
hung with  lowering  clouds,  that  the  great  author  wrote  "Now  is 
the  winter  of  our  discontent." 

It  has  been  these  "winters  of  discontent"  that  has  driven  much 
of  the  best  citizenship  of  the  country  into  the  towns,  during  the 
past  two  generations,  an  exodus  causing  a  melancholy  decline  in  many 
parts  of  American  country  life. 

The  trolley  car,  many  years  ago,  began  the  extension  of  urban 
boundaries;  then  came  the  automobile  putting  further  from  the  soot 
and  noise,  the  home  of  the  city  family.  Now,  in  the  more  thickly 
populated  States,  where  the  towns  are  near,  it  is  hard  to  tell  where 
the  city  ends  and  the  country  begins.  The  business  man  indulg- 
ing in  his  fondness  for  amateur  agriculture,  is  helping  the  fortunes 
of  the  real  farmers  on  the  adjoining  farms.  A  comradeship  has 
grown  up  among  these  new  neighbors;  the  man  of  the  city  is  ab- 
sorbing the  thoughts  and  habits  of  the  country;  and  the  man  of  the 
country  is  taking  up  the  thoughts  and  the  habits  of  his  city  friend. 
It  is  a  new  social  melting  pot,  out  of  which  we  are  moulding  a  vig- 
orous manhood.  The  tension  upon  the  man  from  the  office  is 
loosened,  and  the  man  at  the  plow  acquires  a  more  definite  aim  and 


352  AMERICAN   ROAD    CONGRESS 

precision  of  purpose.  The  drudge  worn  look  of  the  farm  house  gives 
way  to  the  shrub,  the  vine,  the  varnish  and  the  paint,  and  the  woman 
of  the  farm  house  is  refreshed  by  the  thought  that  she  is  in  touch  with 
the  world. 

The  wayside  home  is  passing  through  a  period  of  transition. 
Science  is  softening  the  hardness  of  farm  life.  The  work  remains, 
but  the  toil  is  growing  less.  By  telephone,  the  house  10  miles 
distant  is  nearer  in  wintry  weather  than  the  town  neighbor  several 
blocks  away  in  former  years.  By  the  motor  car,  5  miles  is  closer 
the  railway  station,  than  by  horse  drawn  vehicle  over  a  bad  road  1  mile. 

In  Baltimore,  within  the  last  few  years,  the  old  aristocratic  quarters 
of  the  city  have  been  practically  abandoned,  because  the  residents 
have  built  their  homes  from  5  to  15  miles  away,  mingling  country 
seats  with  farms.  The  grassy  lane  has  become  an  avenue,  and  the 
old  post  roads  widened  into  boulevards. 

History  has  placed  in  the  first  rank  the  men  who  build  cities. 
But  in  modern  times  too  much  city  has  disturbed  both  our  social 
and  economic  equilibrium.  The  man  of  the  hour — the  hero  of  the 
day — is  the  man  who  builds  a  country.  The  magician  of  our  times 
whose  miraculous  touch  restores  the  poise  between  city  and  country 
life  is  the  road-builder.  It  is  he  who  is  strengthening  the  social  ties, 
and  is  making  a  neighborhood  of  a  nation. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  It  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  introduce  Mrs. 
Sheppard  Foster.  Mrs.  Foster  is  the  former  State  regent  of  the 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  and  represents  the  National 
Old  Trails  Road  Committee  of  that  great  organization. 

NATIONAL  OLD  TRAILS  ROAD 
BY  MRS.  SHEPPARD  FOSTER 

I  appear  before  this  Good  Roads  Conference  in  behalf  of  approxi- 
mately 100,000  women,  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, and  as  the  representative  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Butler  Gentry, 
National  Chairman  of  the  Old  Trails  Road  Committee,  who  extends 
best  wishes  to  this  conference  and  regrets  exceedingly  she  cannot  be 
present.  As  her  deputy  I  take  pleasure  in  bringing  to  your  notice  our 
bill,  introduced  by  Mr.  Borland,  January  15,  1911,  known  as  the 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  Old  Trails  Act  or  H.  R.  2864. 
This  bill  provides  for  the  construction  of  a  National  Old  Trails 
Road — the  ocean  to  ocean  highway  proposed  as  a  national  memorial 
road  by  the  National  Society  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution.  We  seek  your  support  and  cooperation  for  this  measure 
for  you  know  it  has  been  stid  "  What  woman  wishes,  God  wills." 

In  1910-11  Mrs.  Robert  Oliver,  State  Regent  of  Missouri,  ap- 
pointed Miss  Elizabeth  Gentry  of  Missouri,  Chairman  of  the  State 
Old  Trails  Road  Committee,  whose  duty  it  was  to  urge  a  State 


WOMEN'S  CONFERENCE  353 

highway  across  the  State  following  two  famous  old  trails.  At 
Miss  Gentry's  request  Governor  Hadley  of  Missouri  dedicated 
this  road  and  named  it  the  Old  Trails  Road.  Miss  Gentry  is  now 
chairman  of  a  national  committee  in  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution,  1000  strong,  representing  every  State  in  the  Union, 
actively  engaged  in  creating  public  sentiment  for  this  road.  Through 
the  courtesy  of  the  Century  Company,  the  Madonna  of  the  Prairies, 
renamed  the  Madonna  of  the  Trail,  has  been  adopted  by  this  com- 
mittee as  its  symbol. 

Already  this  ideal  and  sentimental  project,  initiated  and  or- 
ganized by  the  Missouri  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  has 
been  endorsed  by  the  Trans-Mississippi  Congress,  the  Association 
for  Highway  Improvement,  the  National  Old  Trails  Road  Convention, 
the  American  Road  Congress,  and  the  United  Daughters  of  the  Con- 
federacy. The  National  Old  Trails  Road  Association  was  formed  at  a 
national  convention  at  Kansas  City,  April,  1912.  As  stated  in  its 
By-laws,  it  was  "formed  to  assist  the  National  Society  Daughters  of 
the  American  Revolution  to  carry  forward  its  purpose  of  making  the 
National  Old  Trails  Road  the  National  Highway."  This  organiza- 
tion of  men  has  over  7,000  members  and  handles  the  business  and 
practical  side  of  the  question  while  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  handle  the  historic  and  sentimental  side.  Judge  J.  M. 
Lowe,  of  Kansas  City,  is  President  of  the  Association. 

The  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  were  the  first  to  think 
of  a  national  memorial  highway,  spanning  the  continent.  In  each 
State  they  are  trying,  as  we  are  here  in  Georgia,  to  preserve  by 
means  of  good  roads,  the  local  history.  But  they  are  all  con- 
cerned together  in  the  preservation,  by  the  National  Old  Trails 
Road,  of  the  history  of  our  country.  Now  is  the  time  when  a  great 
scenic  and  historical  highway  will  do  most  for  America  for  the  reason 
that  at  present  Americans  must  stay  at  home  and  "see  America 
first."  There  are  many  road  bills  pending  in  Congress  and  we  admit 
the  necessity  for  all  of  these  diverging  highways.  Nevertheless, 
because  our  great  road  in  the  next  few  years  will  have  an  unprece- 
dented opportunity  to  teach  American  history  to  Americans  and 
because  we  claim  priority  for  the  idea  of  a  transcontinental  highway 
we  want  our  great  ocean  to  ocean  road  built  first. 

Our  organization  has  for  one  of  its  laudable  purposes  "to  aid 
in  securing  for  mankind  all  the  blessing  of  liberty."  Is  it  not  doing 
this  by  advocating  a  bill  for  a  national  highway  from  ocean  to  ocean, 
not  only  teaching  our  country's  history  to  natives  and  foreigners 
alike,  but  thereby  securing  the  betterment  of  country  life?  Our 
plan  has  a  social  and  political  as  well  as  an  economic  value,  for  our 
road  is  made  up  of  several  old  trails  that  speak  one  by  one  of  the 
advance  of  opportunity,  civilization,  religion  and  romance,  across 
our  continent. 

This  road  will  also  make  accessible  our  beautiful  American  scenery. 
It  is  estimated  that  approximately  from  $250,000,000  to  $300,000,000 


354  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

is  left  annually  in  Europe  by  Americans — no  doubt  more  than  this 
amount  was  left  this  year.  We  have  a  great  opportunity  now  to  keep 
our  people  at  home,  so  why  not  make  home  as  attractive  as  other 
countries?  The  Swiss  Alps,  with  its  picturesque  lakes,  do  not  eclipse 
the  grandeur  of  our  Wyoming  and  Colorado  scenery,  and  Yellow- 
stone Park,  with  its  phenomenal  geysers  and  other  beauties,  and  the 
Grand  Canyon  of  Arizona  have  no  rivals. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  each  State,  through  which  this  road  passes, 
to  make  it  typical  of  that  State,  not  only  by  bringing  attention 
of  the  tourists  to  the  history  of  the  State,  but  to  where  native  ani- 
mals, trees,  etc.,  may  be  seen;  to  State  museums,  where  objects 
of  local  interest  are  collected  and  preserved;  and  to  old  taverns 
of  coaching  days.  This  road  has  been  called  "Peacock  Boule- 
vard," but  along  this  boulevard  you  may  not  only  see  (may  I  say) 
beautiful  "peacocks,"  but  "you  can  delight  in  the  canvas  back 
ducks  and  oysters  of  Maryland,  the  beaten  biscuits  and  fried  chicken 
of  Virginia,  the  Missouri  apple,  the  Kansas  corn  and  the  venison  steak 
of  the  Northwest  as  well. 

The  outline  of  the  National  Old  Trails  Road  you  will  find  traced 
across  this  map.  Here  are  the  old  Washington  Road,  the  old  Na- 
tional Road  or  Cumberland  Pike,  the  Boon  Lick  Road,  the  Santa 
Fe  Trail,  Kearney's  Road  and  the  Oregon  Trail.  The  Washington 
Road  was  traversed  by  General  Washington  to  and  from  his  several 
inaugurals  as  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  Braddocks  Road 
was  traveled  by  General  Braddock  in  his  campaign  against  the 
French  and  Indians  in  1755.  The  States  crossed  by  these  pioneer 
trails  are  Virginia,  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Missouri,  Kansas,  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  California, 
Nebraska,  Wyoming,  Idaho,  Oregon  and  Washington.  The  road  is 
open  all  the  year,  and  is  even  now  ready  for  tourists  to  the  Panama 
Exposition.  There  are  hotels  and  garages  the  entire  length  of  it, 
easily  reached  during  each  day's  travel.  The  larger  portion  of  it  is 
now  a  dirt  road,  with  concrete  bridges  and  culverts.  When  the  gov- 
ernment takes  it  over  it  will  be  macadamized  or  concreted. 

Modern  travel  demands  clear  road  signs  to  mark  the  roads  and 
travel  goes  to  the  well  graded  and  well  marked  roads.  The  sign  for 
pur  Main  Road  is  composed  of  red,  white  and  blue  bands,  each  four 
inches  wide  and  eight  feet  from  the  ground.  It  is  surmounted 
with  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  Insignia  and  the 
name,  National  Old  Trails  Road. 

I  have  given  you  briefly  an  outline  of  the  proposed  National 
Highway  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  I  wish 
particularly  to  impress  upon  you  that  in  doing  so  I  am  simply  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  national  committee.  The  committee  wants  your 
support  because  this  Old  Trails  Road  is  the  most  practicable  outline 
for  an  ocean  to  ocean  road  yet  suggested,  because  its  connection 
links  are  made  up  of  old  roads  and  trails  that  are  replete  with  his- 
tory, and  because  there  cannot  be  a  route  which  would  be  of  more 
picturesque  and  historic  interest. 


WOMEN'S  CONFERENCE  355 

The  old  roads  have  been  marked  with  the  crimson  blood  of  our 
forefathers  who  through  their  heroic  deeds  and  sacrifices,  blazed 
the  pathway  of  American  civilization  and  their  history  is  filled 
with  sacred  reminiscences.  The  Daughters  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution ask  you  to  lend  your  influence  in  behalf  of  our  Old  Trails 
Road  Bill  as  a  fitting  memorial  bo  our  pioneer  patriots. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  After  such  an  interesting  paper  it  is  rather  diffi- 
cult to  explain  the  attitude  of  this  new  woman's  department  to 
these  specific  highways.  Especially  after  the  delicious  menu  offered 
by  the  National  Old  Trails  Road!  This  department,  of  course,  is 
heartily  in  sympathy  with  good  roads  everywhere  that  they  serve 
the  demands  of  present  day  traffic  and  is  deeply  sensible  of  the 
charm  of  sentiment  and  association  which  clings  about  the  old 
trails.  These  transcontinental  highways  and  all  others  ought  how- 
ever to  be  built  by  skillful  men,  under  efficient  and  economical  man- 
agement, and  all  the  various  sections  of  these  costly  roads  should  be 
permanently  maintained  after  they  are  built.  Under  our  present 
State  systems  of  road  management  from  20  to  40  per  cent  of  the 
road  funds  are  wasted.  How  much  better  to  stop  this  enormous 
leak  before  pouring  out  further  great  streams  of  money  for  the  roads. 

The  Woman's  Department  begs  the  assistance  of  all  patriotic 
women  to  make  our  road  management  as  efficient  as  the  manage- 
ment of  any  other  big  modern  business.  Then  there  will  be  money 
enough  in  State  treasuries  to  build  the  different  sections  of  these 
splendid  roads  at  the  smallest  cost  and  with  the  least  expenditure  of 
time  and  effort. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  fine  addresses  of  Mrs.  Nellie 
Peters  Black  of  Atlanta,  Mr.  Sidney  Suggs,  State  Highway  Com- 
missioner of  Oklahoma,  Mr.  Win.  R.  Roy,  State  Highway  Commis- 
sioner of  Washington,  Mr.  J.  E.  Pennybacker,  Chief  of  the  Division 
of  Road  Economics  of  the  U.  S.  Office  of  Public  Roads  and  Professor 
Agnes  Ellen  Harris  were  not  reported.  Mr.  Pennybacker,  who  offi- 
cially represented  the  Office  of  Public  Roads  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  gave  an  illustrated  address  showing  how  women  can 
best  aid  the  movement  for  better  roads.  Miss  Harris  who  is  the  leader 
of  the  Canning  and  Poultry  Club  work  of  Florida  and  professor  of 
Home  Economics  in  the  Florida  State  College  for  Women,  officially 
represented  the  farm  demonstration  work  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  at  the  Women's  Conference  on  Roads.  The  subject  of 
her  very  delightful  address  was,  "The  Road,  an  Opportunity." 


ANNUAL  MEETING  OF  THE  AMERI- 
CAN HIGHWAY  ASSOCIATION 

ATLANTA,  GEORGIA 
November  12,8  P.M. 

President  L.  W.  Page  in  the  Chair. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  the  President,  and  the  minutes 
of  the  last  meeting  read  and  approved. 

The  Secretary  presented  his  report  for  the  year,  and  also  the 
report  of  the  Treasurer,  the  latter  official  being  absent.  The  Secre- 
tary reported  that  520  new  members  had  joined  the  Association 
since  its  last  meeting;  that  a  most  important  step  had  been  taken  in 
the  establishment  of  a  Woman's  Department,  and  that  the  financial 
affairs  were  in  an  unusually  satisfactory  condition,  there  being  a  bal- 
ance on  hand  of  $6,868.26.  He  also  reported  that  the  1914  edition 
of  the  Good  Roads  Year  Book  and  the  Proceedings  of  the  Third 
American  Road  Congress  had  been  issued  during  the  year,  distributed 
to  members  of  the  Association,  and  a  large  number  sold. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  MacDonald,  duly  seconded,  the  reports  of  the 
Secretary  and  Treasurer  were  approved. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  Gentlemen,  there  is  an  amendment  to  the 
constitution  to  come  up  for  action  tonight,  of  which  due  notice  has 
been  sent  you  by  the  Secretary.  I  will  ask  Mr.  Pennybacker  to 
read  the  amendment. 

SECRETARY  PENNYBACKER:  Mr.  President,  the  purpose  of  the 
amendment  is  to  make  all  officers  except  President,  Vice-President, 
Treasurer  and  Directors,  appointive  by  the  Executive  Committee. 
The  amendment,  if  adopted,  will  read  as  follows: 

Article  V  (as  amended) 

Section  1.  The  officers  of  this  Association  shall  consist  of  a  President,  a 
Vice-President,  a  Treasurer,  and  a  Board  of  Directors,  consisting  of  the 
President  and  Vice-President  of  the  Association  and  twenty-three  additional 
members,  to  be  elected  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Association  as  herein- 
after provided,  and  such  other  executive  officers  as  may  be  appointed  by  the 
Executive  Committee. 

Section  £.  The  President,  Vice-President,  Treasurer,  and  members  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  shall  be  regular  or  sustaining  members  of  the  Associa- 
tion, and  shall  be  elected  at  the  first  regular  meeting  and  annually  thereafter, 
except  that  the  members  of  the  Board,  exclusive  of  the  officers,  shall  be 
elected  in  three  groups,  the  first  to  hold  office  for  a  period  of  three  years, 
the  second  to  hold  office  for  a  period  of  two  years,  and  the  third  to  hold 
office  for  a  period  of  one  year,  vacancies  on  the  Board  to  be  filled  annually 
thereafter. 

356 


AMERICAN    HIGHWAY   ASSOCIATION  357 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Diehl,  duly  seconded,  the  amendment  was 
adopted. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  Gentlemen,  the  next  business  before  the  meet- 
ing, is  the  election  of  officers  for  the  ensuing  year. 

MR.  J.  E.  PENNYBACKER:  Mr.  President,  I  move  that  a  nomi- 
nating committee  of  seven  be  appointed  to  consider  nominations 
and  bring  in  a  list  of  nominations  for  all  officers  and  directors  to  be 
elected  at  this  time. 

The  motion  being  duly  seconded  and  carried,  the  President  ap- 
pointed the  following  committee  on  nominations:  Messrs.  Parker, 
Diehl,  Suggs,  Beatty,  Mehren,  Pierce  and  Rader.  The  committee 
then  retired. 

THE  PRESIDENT:  While  our  Committee  is  conferring,  I  wish  to 
say  to  you  that  I  appreciate  in  the  highest  degree,  the  splendid 
support  that  you  have  all  given  to  our  work  of  the  last  four  years. 
I  think  a  great  deal  has  been  accomplished.  One  of  the  most  far 
reaching  results  which  our  meetings  have  been  instrumental  in 
bringing  about,  was  the  formation  of  an  organization  of  State  high- 
way officials.  There  are  so  many  people  throughout  the  country 
that  have  helped  in  the  work  during  my  term  of  office  that  it  would 
be  impossible  for  me  to  thank  each  by  name,  but  I  take  this  occa- 
sion to  express  my  deep  appreciation  of  this  splendid  cooperation. 
I  might  mention  another  project  of  importance  that  we  have  inau- 
gurated this  year,  and  that  is  the  formation  of  a  Woman's  Depart- 
ment of  the  Association.  We  all  know  how  deeply  the  women 
have  stirred  the  public  mind  in  their  propaganda  for  prohibition 
and  suffrage,  and  I  believe  that  an  equal  amount  of  energy  exerted 
by  women  to  bring  about  better  road  management  throughout  the 
United  States,  will  be  most  productive.  We  all  know  that  if  a  man 
begins  to  talk  reform  in  road  work  in  our  counties,  the  men  smile 
and  say  he  is  going  to  run  for  the  legislature  next  year  or  for  Con- 
gress. Now  that  is  not  the  case  when  women  take  up  the  work. 
I  have  asked  the  women  who  have  engaged  in  this  work,  in  organiz- 
ing their  respective  counties,  to  take  up  three  questions;  how  much 
money  are  we  spending  in  our  county  on  roads;  where  are  we  ex- 
pending this  money;  and,  how  are  we  expending  it?  I  think  if 
these  three  subjects  are  seriously  considered  in  our  counties,  we 
will  ultimately  accomplish  a  great  deal  in  the  way  of  results.  I 
see  Mr.  Fletcher  of  California,  President  of  the  Congress  here,  and 
I  know  we  should  all  like  to  hear  something  from  him. 

MR.  FLETCHER:  That  is  a  very  sad  joke;  I  can't  make  myself 
heard,  because  of  my  hoarseness.  You  will  have  to  excuse  me. 

MR.  BOORMAN:  I  think  we  ought  to  hear  from  our  friend  Smith 
in  regard  to  your  splendid  remarks  on  this  women's  work.  Mr. 
Smith  helped  in  inaugurating  their  first  meeting.  I  only  regret 


358  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

that  the  press  of  the  country  have  not  heard  the  magnificent  speeches 
by  those  noble  women. 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  We  would  like  very  much  to  hear  from  Mr. 
Smith. 

MR.  SMITH:  I  think  that  Mr.  Boorman  had  better  continue  the 
argument  himself.  I  said  in  my  speech  to  the  good  ladies  that  I 
thought  it  was  a  great  day  when  you  organized  that  department 
to  get  the  women  of  the  country  interested  in  road  building,  and 
eliminate  the  political  side  of  the  question.  I  am  sure  that  their 
efforts  will  bring  substantial  progress  in  road  building.  Women  are 
the  leaders  in  almost  everything  else.  They  are  taking  a  great  hand 
in  education,  they  know  how  to  do  things  in  detail  much  better 
than  men,  and  I  am  sure  you  haven't  done  anything  in  all  your 
adm'n  strati ve  actions  greater  than  the  establishment  of  this  de- 
partment, and  I  look  for  great  results,  if  maintained  and  worked 
out  along  the  lines  that  you  have  suggested.  I  wish  we  could  get 
the  benefit  of  them  in  Goergia.  I  hope  that  the  Georgia  women  will 
take  up  this  question  and  find  out,  as  you  suggest  where  we  are 
spending  this  money  and  for  what?  In  my  own  State,  I  find  that 
great  sums  are  being  wasted.  We  have  no  organization.  We  are 
all  acting  independently  of  each  Other  and  with  no  definite  system. 
We  should  have  a  Highway  Commission  whose  knowledge  would 
help  us  to  get  results.  The  State  of  Georgia  gives  us  5000  con- 
victs to  work,  but  mark  you,  we  have  not  learned  how  to  work  them 
to  the  best  advantage.  We  want  engineers  who  can  figure  out  some 
material  along  our  roadsides  that  we  can  put  into  our  roads  and 
make  a  winter  road.  I  wish,  at  your  next  Congress,  that  you  would 
devote  more  time  to  this  question  of  material.  We  are  relying  now 
on  Professor  Strahan,  from  the  State  University,  to  give  us  the 
information  and  he  has  helped  us  wonderfully. 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  Gentlemen,  this  year  we  lost  one  of  the  greatest 
men,  in  my  judgment,  who  has  ever  been  connected  with  the  road 
movement.  I  know  when  I  first  took  the  subject  up  and  we  decided 
to  form  our  organization,  I  went  to  Mr.  Alfred  Noble,  whom  I  con- 
sider one  of  the  greatest  engineers  this  country  has  ever  produced, 
talked  the  situation  over  with  him  and  he  urged  me  to  proceed  with 
the  formation  of  this  organization.  From  the  very  inception  of  the 
work  he  gave  us  valuable  advice  and  generous  financial  support. 
I  think  it  was  the  darkest  moment  of  our  existence  when  he  died. 
I  know  I  felt  his  loss  very  keenly  and  I  hope  that  one  of  you  will  move 
to  appoint  a  committee  to  draw  up  suitable  resolutions  upon  the  death 
of  Mr.  Alfred  Noble. 

MR.  BOORMAN:  I  attended  the  funeral  services  of  that  great  en- 
gineer held  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  John,  on  Morningside  Heights, 
surrounded  with  everything  that  was  beautiful,  everything  that 


AMERICAN   HIGHWAY   ASSOCIATION  359 

was  lovely,  everything  that  was  uplifting.  I  met  there  gentlemen 
like  our  distinguished  friend  the  city  engineer  of  New  York,  men 
well  advanced  in  life  came  up  to  pay  their  last  respects  to  the  mem- 
ory of  Alfred  Noble.  I  feel  that  I  can  say  and  we  can  all  say  that 
Alfred  Noble  was  called  to  his  eternal  rest  after  a  life  that  could  not 
be  more  full  of  noble  and  great  works.  To  men  like  him  we  must 
look  up  and  try,  if  we  can,  to  emulate  their  noble  acts.  It  is  most 
eminently  proper  that  a  committee  should  be  appointed  to  draw 
up  suitable  resolutions  in  memory  of  our  great  engineer,  and  I  move, 
Mr.  President,  that  a  committee  be  appointed. 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  We  have  also,  during  the  past  year,  lost  another 
member  of  our  Executive  Committee,  Mr.  W.  W.  Finley,  President 
of  the  Southern  Railway  Company.  It  was  Mr.  Finley  who  first 
urged  me  to  start  this  association,  and  to  the  day  of  his  death  was 
one  of  its  strongest  supporters.  I  hope  that  the  motion  will  include 
both  Mr.  Noble  and  Mr.  Finley. 

MR.  BATCHELDER:  Mr.  President,  I  make  a  motion  to  that 
effect. 

The  motion  was  seconded  and  adopted. 

MR.  PRESIDENT:  Gentlemen,  I  will  appoint  on  that  committee 
Messrs.  Charles  Whiting  Baker,  Wm.  D.  Sohier  and  A.  B.  Fletcher. 
I  see  right  in  front  of  me  my  old  friend  Commissioner  MacDonald 
of  Connecticut,  and  while  we  are  waiting  for  the  committee  on  nomi- 
nations I  hope  he  will  give  us  a  few  words. 

MR.  MACDONALD:  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Associa- 
tion: I  think  it  would  be  highly  proper  for  me  at  this  time  to  endorse 
the  new  auxiliary  to  our  work,  the  ladies.  I  know  that  in  the  early 
days  of  my  struggles  as  highway  commissioner  the  most  valuable 
assistance  that  I  had  in  my  town  meetings  throughout  the  State 
where  the  propaganda  had  to  take  place,  was  the  ladies.  It  was  a 
sort  of  house  party,  and  I  know  in  one  little  township  the  young 
ladies  gave  a  minstrel  performance.  They  blacked  up  and  attracted 
a  purse  of  some  $800  with  which  they  built  walks  all  through  the 
village.  The  young  men  sought  to  emulate  their  example  and  got 
up  a  show,  but  they  didn't  get  but  $400.  Now,  over  in  my  State, 
if  we  want  to  lift  a  mortgage  on  a  church,  we  appoint  a  committee 
of  ladies  and  we  worship  God  in  a  house  without  debt.  If  the 
horse  shed  leaks,  we  don't  have  any  trouble  about  getting  a  dry 
roof  when  we  appoint  a  committee  of  ladies  to  take  care  of  it.  Mrs. 
MacDonald  went  to  this  ladies  meeting  the  other  day,  and  has 
attended  some  of  the  sessions  here  that  we  have  had  this  week.  She 
said  she  wished  that  the  delegates  could  have  been  present  at  that 
meeting  of  the  ladies  and  heard  them  discuss  this  great  question  of 
highway  improvement.  The  dispatch  with  which  they  took  care 
of  the  business  of  the  hour  and  the  comprehension  that  the  ladies 
show  in  regard  to  this  great  question,  would,  she  said,  have  been  a 


360  AMERICAN  ROAD  CONGRESS 

great  lesson  to  us,  not  only  in  the  conduct  of  our  convention,  but 
also  in  the  subject  matter  discussed.  I  told  her  I  rather  thought 
that  was  a  lady's  point  of  view,  but  she  said  she  was  sorry  I  had 
not  been  there  for  I  would  have  had  the  same  opinion.  I  believe 
that  our  organizations,  throughout  the  country,  for  highway  im- 
provement would  be  materially  strengthened  if  we  had  the  ladies 
join  the  organization.  The  great  thing  that  we  will  have  to  contend 
with,  gentlemen,  in  the  future,  in  my  judgment  will  be  predatory 
interests,  commercialism  and  politics,  as  the  most  destructive  force 
in  highway  construction.  Poor  construction  will  not  begin  to  have 
the  influence  in  comparison  with  the  three  things  which  I  have 
mentioned.  This  Association  and  all  other  associations  that  have 
to  do  with  this  great  question,  need  to  be  intrenched,  organized 
deeply.  There  is  no  doubt  but  what  the  splendid  session  that  we 
had  the  other  day  on  the  merit  system  is  one  of  the  greatest  ques- 
tions of  the  hour.  We  should  have  it.  One  of  the  greatest  assets 
of  that  splendid  organization,  the  A.  A.  A.,  is  that  they  are  loyal  and 
faithful,  have  a  united  interest,  and  are  one  for  all  and  all  for  one. 
There  should  be  one  great  organization  throughout  this  country 
that  should  have  for  its  purpose  the  keeping  of  men  in  office  irre- 
spective of  politics  or  any  other  influence  that  you  might  name, 
just  so  long  as  they  are  worthy  and  well  qualified  to  fill  the  position. 
It  is  not  enough  to  have  all  the  money  that  is  necessary  with  which 
to  construct  roads,  it  is  not  enough  to  have  executive  ability  to 
organize  a  great  force,  it  is  not  enough  for  me  to  know  how,  but 
greater  and  better  than  all,  is  the  question  of  economics,  how  to 
spend  every  dollar  so  that  there  will  be  an  equivalent  for  that  dollar 
which  you  have  expended.  I  am  very  glad  to  see  this  great  organi- 
zation that  we  have  indoors  and  outdoors,  with  all  their  tools  and 
implements  and  material.  We  need  every  one  of  them,  and  I  am  very 
glad  to  notice  that  today  and  yesterday  there  was  some  attention 
paid  to  this  great  question,  the  foundation  of  road  building,  the 
dirt  road,  the  question  of  drainage,  the  question  of  grading,  the  width 
of  road,  the  cycle,  the  question  of  straightening  a  road  and  all  those 
auxiliaries,  and  this,  gentlemen,  right  here  in  Georgia  where  you 
have  82,000  miles  of  road  and  52,000  square  miles  of  territory  and 
just  4800  miles  of  improved  highways.  What  are  you  going  to  do 
with  the  rest  of  them,  the  dirt  roads?  There  is  not  enough  attention 
paid  to  the  little  details  of  road  building;  there  is  too  much  atten- 
tion paid  to  the  question  of  refinement;  what  you  want  just  now  is 
a  deeper  insight  into  the  little  things,  the  depth  of  the  road.  We 
very  wisely  saw  that  with  only  10  per  cent  of  the  highways  of  this 
country  improved  and  90  per  cent  still  lying  in  the  mud,  that  it  was 
a  great  question  how  to  take  care  of  that  vital  problem  of  starting 
with  the  earth  roads,  and  what  you  want  to  learn  is  how  to  properly 
incorporate  the  clay  and  the  sand  and  wait  until  the  day  comes  when 
you  can  take  up  the  higher  branches.  In  my  own  State  I  had  a 
thousand  dollars  which  I  had  to  divide  into  eight  parts,  and  I  remem- 


AMERICAN   HIGHWAY   ASSOCIATION  361 

ber  going  out  and  pacing  over  the  road  without  even  a  tapeline  and 
then  sitting  down  on  the  side  of  the  road  figuring  it  up  and  letting 
it  to  the  selectmen  of  the  town  to  do  it,  and  was  severely  taken 
to  task  by  some  of  the  engineers  on  the  ground  that  I  was  interfering 
with  their  business.  I  said,  "Watch  me,  boys;  they  only  had  $1000, 
in  some  places,  and  $500  in  others,  and  you  will  see  they  will  come 
into  the  movement."  The  next  year  32  of  those  townships  came 
in  for  $9000.  That  was  the  result  of  starting  with  the  little  ones. 
We  cannot  all  have  jewelry  for  our  wives  and  so  it  is  going  to  be 
all  through  this  great  country  of  ours.  The  vital  question  for  us 
all  to  take  up  is,  let  us  do  whatever  we  have  to  do  with  our  hands 
with  all  out  m'ght  and  have  an  eye  single  to  what  is  best  all  over 
the  country,  and  let  us  see  to  it  that  we  stand  together  for  honesty  of 
purpose  and  good  intelligent  management  of  everything  that  may  be 
placed  in  our  hands.  I  thank  you. 

Mr.  Fletcher  takes  the  chair. 

At  this  time  the  committee  on  nominations  submitted  the  follow- 
ing report:  for  President,  Fairfax  Harrison;  Vice-President,  Logan 
Waller  Page;  Treasurer,  Lee  McClung;  Directors  for  three  years, 
A.  G.  Batchelder,  Bryan  Lathrop,  W.  Tom  Winn,  Charles  E.  Blaney, 
William  D.  Sohier,  S.  E.  Bradt,  and  Richard  H.  Edmonds;  E.  J. 
Mehren  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  resignation  of  Jesse  Taylor 
whose  term  would  have  expired  in  1915. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Batchelder,  duly  seconded,  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee was  adopted  and  the  Secretary  directed  to  cast  a  unanimous 
ballot  for  the  election  of  the  officers  named. 

No  further  business  appearing  the  meeting  adjourned  sine  die. 


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